Subject

St. Ignatius Loyola St. Camillus de Lellis

Text

St. Ignatius St. Camillus

Inscription

Erected by the soldiers in memory of their fallen comrades Frank Ward Frank Dodemaide Thomas Murphy William Buckley Albert Buckley James Johansen Thos. Telford Thos. O'Leary

Description & History

Rev. Father P. Gleeson at St. Bernard's Bacchus Marsh had begun commissioning a series of windows from stained glass artist William Montgomery in 1916. Each window depicted a bust of a saint, set against a quarry background with an Art Nouveau decorative canopy and base. New orders for the pre-determined cycle of saints weremade as funds became available, a process that continued afterFather Gleesonleft the parish. It was Father Ellis who saw the installation of the memorial to the eight young servicemen and was invoiced for £77 on 23 December 1919. As this was a sum that exceeds the usual price for a memorial of this size and scope, it presumably included other windows for the church. Unlike so many of the windows in other denominations that were paid for by subscriptions from the congregationor by families, this was the result of soldiers' themselves electing to honour fallen comrades. St. Bernard's is one of the small number of Catholic Churches in Victoria to install windows to soldiers of the First World War.

The eight men from the Bacchus Marsh district served in the AIF: two are summarised here. Francis Daniel Ward was born in Bacchus Marsh and enlisted on 17 February 1916. Ward joined the 14 Battalion in France in October 1916 and was severely wounded in the hip in April 1917 and shipped back to England for treatment at various hospitals. Rejoining his unit about one year later, he was toreceive a minor shell wound to the back of his head, arm and shoulder. Similar wounds only ten days later were more severe and he died in 47 Casualty Clearing Station on 15 July 1918, aged 23. Private Ward was buried at Crouy British Cemetery, France. James Johansen was born in Bacchus Marsh and enlisted on 26 June 1915, when he curiously cited 'Presbyterian' as his religious affiliation. He was admitted to hospital with kidney trouble at Heliopolis in Egypt only to return to hospital with mumps the following March. In France with 6 Battalion from April 1916 he was wounded several times and also received a shell concussion and frostbite, only to be rehabilitated and returned to the front. In February 1918 he contracted meningitis; he died in hospital at Etaples and was buried in the Etaples Military Cemetery.

References & Acknowledgements

AWM Roll of Honour; NAA: B2455, Johansen James; Letterbooks 1/938, 1/977 NGA Research Collection, Canberra ACT; Letter from Father Ellis 27 October 1919, 23 February 1920; Folio 137, Montgomery ledger William Montgomery Collection, State Library of Victoria.