Miretin, Czechoslovakia. September 1945. Band members, one with a kangaroo badge in his cap, play ...

Miretin, Czechoslovakia. September 1945. Band members, one with a kangaroo badge in his cap, play at the commemoration ceremony and unveiling of the memorial erected to honour Private Lawrence Phillip Saywell, 17th Brigade Company. Private Saywell was murdered - shot in the head by a German SS Patrol on 8 May 1945 (VE Day). He is buried in the Evangelical Cemetery in Miretin. Five months later a memorial to honour Private Saywell was erected by the "grateful inhabitants of the village of Miretin. The villagers of Miretin sheltered Private Saywell, 26403 Private Sydney O. C. (Mac) Kerkham of New Zealand and two Russians after they escaped from Kommando E7010 (a prison camp in Bohemia). In return Saywell, Kerkham and the Russians offered to assist the Czech partisans in their sabotage operations. In November 1945 the President of the Czechoslovak Republic awarded Private Saywell the Czechoslovak Military Cross for his "brave and eminent services to our State in the battle for liberation".