Anzacs in Belgium, 1918

By Marg Powell, Specialist Library Technician, Metadata Services | 15 February 2016

When the 4th Australian Machine Gun Battalion was billeted in Anseremme in 1918, the community would have been justified in being wary of foreign troops occupying their home town. Yet by the time the troops departed, the villagers felt such gratitude, they farewelled them with great ceremony.

OM79-02/35 24th Company of the 4th Machine Gun Battalion Testimonial 1919

Anseremme, in the Belgian province of Namur, is sited on a reach of the beautiful River Meusse. In August 1914 Anseremme and Dinant suffered horribly at the hands of German troops who invaded and occupied their town. Two thirds of the houses of Dinant were destroyed, 674 inhabitants executed and 400 men were imprisoned in German labour camps. This massacre was later known as The Rape of Belgium.

Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial, Accession E05058

Australian soldiers in 1919, viewing a tablet on a wall which records and marks the spot where over one hundred Belgian citizens were shot on 23 August 1914 by a German firing squad. Image courtesy of the Australian War Memorial, Accession E05058

Tschoffen Wall Monument, a bronze monument in memory of the 674 civil victims in Dinant, on August 23, 1914, a German army war crime [wikimedia commons]

Today there are several significant memorials to those who lost their lives in August 1914. The one above, known as the Tschoffen Wall Monument, this plaque replaces the tablet shown in the 1919 photograph. The most recent memorial, unveiled by the Belgian King, shown below, was installed in August 2014 on the 100th anniversary of the atrocities.Australian units were on garrison duty after the Armistice in November 1918, with spare time on their hands many offered their assistance to the local community, and that assistance forged strong bonds that would stay with them for many years.

Dinant Memorial, 2014, On August 23, His Majesty the King of the Belgians inaugurated the monument in tribute to the 674 civilian victims of atrocities committed by the German army in Dinant, Belgium. A century after the events, this monument, designed and built by Kascen.

Australian units were on garrison duty after the Armistice in November 1918, with spare time on their hands many offered their assistance to the local community, and that assistance forged strong bonds that would stay with them for many years.

"The Battalion evacuated the DINANT area, after a pleasant sojourn of nearly three months in the beautiful and healthy valley of the Meuse. At 10 am in column of threes ... the Battalion marched out of ANSEREMME farewelled by the populace which lined the streets as the Australians marched along."

River Meuse, Anseremme. Image: Marc Ryckaert, Wikimedia

Portrait of Captain Tom Robin Jack, published in The Queenslander Pictorial, 20 March 1915

The State Library of Queensland was presented with a copy of the farewell address, dated 6 March 1919. It is signed by local dignitaries, and was donated by an officer who served with the 4th Australian Machine Gun Company, Captain Tom Robin JACK.

Captain Tom Robin JACK Initially assigned to reinforce the 2nd Light Horse Regiment, Tom Jack served at Gallipoli. He was wounded in action 1 October 1915, transferred to 4th Division Machine Gun Company, and then served with distinction in France and Belgium. He was awarded Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty, and rose to the rank of Honorary Captain in 1919.

His brother Sergeant Reginald Hunter JACK #659 26th Infantry Battalion also served on Gallipoli at the same time as his brother, he was discharged medically unfit in 1916, after being blinded in one eye after a shell explosion.

At the end of the war Owen Donlen, 49th Infantry Battalion of Mareeba, was in Belgium, where on 22 December 1918 he fell from a footbridge and drowned in the River Meuse. He is buried in the Dinant Communal Cemetery.

Anzacs in Belgium, 1918

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