KNOWN UNTO GOD 1
THE STORY OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER
Contributed by MHSA(Q) Vice President Allan Fuary2
| The Tomb of An Unknown Australian Soldier Killed in the War of 1914 – 19183 The Australian War Memorial |
We do not know this Australians name and we never will. We do not know his rank or battalion. We do not know where he was born, or precisely how and when he died. We do not know where in Australia he had made his home or when he left it for the battlefields of Europe. We do not know his age or his circumstances, whether he was from the city or the bush, what occupation he left to become a soldier, what religion, if he had a religion, if he was married or single. We do not know who loved him or whom he loved. If he had children we do not know who they are. His family is lost to us as he was lost to them. We will never know who this Australian was.
Yet he has always been among those we have honoured. We know that he was one of the 45,000 Australians who died on the Western Front. One of the 416,000 Australians who volunteered for service in the First World War. One of the 324,000 Australians who served overseas in that war, and one of the 60,000 Australians who died on foreign soil. One of the 100,000 Australians who have died in wars this century.
He is all of them. And he is one of us…..MORE
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