Brothers in arms: the John Hunter story

The village of Villers-Bretonneux in France for instance where the local school (which was rebuilt from donations from Australia after the Great War) has a museum attached which is full of information on how the Australian soldiers saved them in WW1. The Federal government has recently spent a few million upgrading it. The school yard has a permanent sign still one hundred years later stating, "Don't Forget Australia" and the Aussie flag is in every classroom.

We visited many of the memorial graveyards across that vast area and walked over the fields that they had given their lives 100 years ago. Near the Menin Gates in Belgium we despaired at the numbers who died there from all countries involved in the battle of Pozieres in the fields of Flanders but for such a young country as Australia that had only gained Federation 13 years before it was devastating.

My brother in particular was overcome by the number of 49th battalion soldiers who were buried there (as he is an ex-army Major and once served in that battalion) and the tens of thousands of names on the Menin Gate walls for the ones who were never found.

Whilst touring the area our guide asked us if we wanted to see some old film of the Aussies in the area and took us to the Polygon Woods pub where we met a Belgian gentleman by the name of Johan Vandewalle who worked there but was also responsible for the exhuming of any remains of soldiers who were found fairly consistently in the area. He is an expert in the local battles as he has lived in the area all his life and is devoted to the history of it.

He told us of the story of Jim and John Hunter and how in 2005, some 89 years after John was buried, a backhoe digging for a new pipeline whilst widening a road unearthed his body and those of some of his comrades.

Johan Vandewalle was called to the site known as Zonnebeke and on arriving started to dig out the soldiers remains- all five of them to be known as the Zonnebeke five. One of the bodies was very well preserved and he had found the body of John Hunter still wrapped in his groundsheet with the body outline clearly visible.

As he slowly dug away the surrounding dirt covering the site he was confronted with John's body which was still intact, and he commented on the tallness of the soldier and his square jaw which made him so life like. He became very moved by this soldier and his background and started to unravel his history.

The soldiers were reburied with full military honours in 2007 as Jim would have wanted for his brother all those years ago.

On the 11th of November at 11am, let's remember their sacrifice - Lest We Forget.