A century on, song lyrics and poetry mark the graves of Fromelles' fallen

Pheasant Wood is the newest Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemetery, opened in 2010, the first for five decades. The German Army buried 250 Commonwealth soldiers killed on its side of No Man’s Land in pits after the Battle of Fromelles on July 19-20, 1916, a diversionary assault that historian Ross McMullin has called 'the worst 24 hours in Australian history.' About 2000 Australians were killed, of whom more than 1330 could not be found. A total of 181 men have been identified by DNA, and all are buried at Pheasant Wood.

The headstone inscription for Craigie reads: 'The sun's shining down/On green fields of France Warm wind blows gently/The red poppies dance.' The use of Bogle's lyrics, written 60 years after Craigie's death, contrasts with the CWGC's long-standing policy that inscriptions reflect language from the time of death. A Department of Veterans' Affairs spokesperson says that when an inscription for a newly identified Australian soldier is 'unusual or contentious in some way,' the wording must be submitted for approval to the CWGC's Policy and Commemorations Group in the UK.

Responsibility for the inscription rests with the next of kin, the oldest surviving traceable family member, not necessarily the DNA donor. Ray Martin, nephew of recently identified Private Roy Leslie Martin, said the CWGC rejected his suggestions, including one referring to the 110 years since his uncle's death. The stone now reads: 'He that was lost is found', a suggestion initially offered by the CWGC.

Other stones carry poetry by Wilfred Owen, whose works were little known to the public until the 1960s. Lance Corporal Ralph Johnson's grave bears 'Dulce et Decorum est/Pro patria mori', a phrase from Horace that appears in Owen's poem, which denounces the maxim as 'an old lie.' Private Samuel Farlow's stone says: 'Red lips are not so red/As stained stones kissed/By the English dead' from Owen's 1918 poem 'Greater Love.'

Stuart Barr, a Canberra-based public servant, said a grave had been attributed to his great-uncle Percy Barr, though there was some doubt about the identification. Percy's remains were not correctly recognised until 2024. The original inscription, 'He fought, he died/Not for his own/But for England's unsullied name', was retained on the new stone after the CWGC recommended leaving it unchanged.

Geoffrey Benn, president of the Fromelles Association of Australia, described the hunt for next of kin: 'Sometimes it comes down to a family tree being put up on Ancestry as a public listing.' Some contacted relatives decline cooperation. 'We were trying to track down a vicar in the UK,' Benn said. 'The poor vicar's wife said, "We will not be involving ourselves in this. You can just f--- off!"'

In the immediate post-war years, families were charged 3½ pence per letter and word space for inscriptions, a charge the president of the Melbourne branch of the Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League called 'the most paltry and contemptible thing I have heard of.' The Australian government eventually covered unpaid costs, but the decision was not made public, and many of the poorest families' children passed without even an epitaph.

Now, 110 years on, the men of Fromelles are reburied with full military honours in a bilingual ceremony. Lambis Englezos, the retired art teacher whose efforts and energy largely led to the discovery of the burial site, said: 'I'm not the hard bastard I look.' He noted the symbolism of his own son Anthony's service in Afghanistan while he stood among 410 unidentified Australians at V.C. Corner Cemetery.

Ray Martin's granddaughter Ariana unveiled Private Roy Leslie Martin's headstone at a ceremony attended by an Australian Army lieutenant colonel, the Mayor of Fromelles, and a coachload of battlefield tourists. The inscription echoes a theme repeated across the cemetery.