Perth Voice Interactive

A COMMUNITY group, formed by a local teen, will commemorate a previously forgotten Western Australian WWI unit in a 15-hour long memorial service next Saturday.

Luca Muir-Anderson, 19, is the director of the 44th Australian Infantry Battalion Memorial.

He formed the group after a passion for military history led him to discover the 44th no longer had a memorial organisation dedicated to it.

Memorial

“During the ‘90s or early 2000s, all the veterans had died, so the organisation was actually wound up,” Mr Muir-Anderson says.

“This one is the only battalion that no longer exists… and it doesn’t have its own full memorial. It was also the last battalion to go from WA… so it’s somewhat been a bit forgotten.”

The 44th Australian Infantry Battalion was formed midway through the Great War at Claremont Showgrounds in January 1916.

Made up of mostly older men in their 30s, and young men in their late teens, the Battalion trained for six months at the Showgrounds before leaving for England, and then on to the frontline in northern France.

“There was quite a process raising it… all the 20-year-olds had already joined one of the earlier battalions and [had been] decimated at Gallipoli,” Mr Muir-Anderson says.

“A total of around 2,800 served with the Battalion. There were so many casualties that they had to continually get reinforcements. 

“They suffered 482 killed; that’s about a 20 per cent chance of dying, and they suffered roughly 1200-1300 wounded.”

Mr Muir-Anderson’s work began back in April, when he decided the forgotten Battalion’s banner should be marched at the Anzac Day ceremony, now that no one else was left alive to do it.

At that point though, he was in basic training with the Australian Army.

“You’re allowed maybe 10 minutes of phone call time a week, and I just rang up one of my mates and said you need to get this done, because Anzac Day is only a month and a bit away!

“Christchurch Grammar School made the banner; it was a complete redo of the original banner, 108 years to the day, because the original banner was made in 1916 in March.”

After the success of the march, Mr Muir-Anderson decided he would continue the Battalion’s story, creating a website that lists each soldier’s history, and forming the Memorial group with friends.

“The end goal is to create a physical memorial for the Battalion,” he says.

“You see names on a wall, and maybe you see stories about some soldiers, but you never really see the stories of the average soldier. 

“You don’t get to know their full life story, and that’s something that’s really lacking.”

The 44th Australian Infantry Battalion Memorial now has around 20 members, and three dozen volunteers.

They spend hours combing through local libraries to record the histories of these forgotten soldiers.

“So far, we’ve done about 100 soldiers. We do their full life story, every battle they’ve fought in, how many days did they spend in the trenches, what did they earn – so that each soldier can be remembered,” he says.

Mr Muir-Anderson says next Saturday’s dawn till dusk ceremony is the first organised by the group, and the first ceremony celebrating the Battalion in more than 20 years.

“Instead of doing the one-hour ceremony that gets done and dusted, we decided to just go all out.”

Poems

Held at Perth War Cemetery in Nedlands, the 15-hour long proceedings will include the performance of battle stories, poems and songs about the Battalion, as well as wreath laying.

The main ceremony at 11am will be attended by local schools, cadets, and officials including WA governor Chris Dawson.

Mr Muir-Anderson says it’s been “quite chaotic” organising a 15-hour long ceremony, but despite the stress he encourages other young people to continue to take up the task of remembering Australia’s military history.

“All these historical associations, they’re all made up of really old members, and in the next decade or two they’re going to be gone. 

“So, there’s going to be no one who’s actually continuing on those stories, and it’s going to get completely forgotten unless younger generations really rise to the task.”

by MACEY TURNER