Pte Leslie Clark Dunn

The following is another tribute done by our Honorary Member in France Pierre Seillier. Pierre reports on the identification of another 31st Battalion man Pte Leslie Clark Dunn:

Hello all. If I read well the Facebook page “Fromelles Descendant Database” compiled by our friend Tim Lycett, Carolyn Gardner wrote “My husbands grandfather Pte Leslie Dunn has just been identified by DNA. He also fell in Pheasant Wood. His headstone commemoration is to be held on 19/7/19 which happens to be his granddaughters birthday. Sadly my husband died several weeks previous to receiving the long awaited news.”
I have done research and I assume that the soldier is 641 Private Leslie Clark DUNN 31st Bn He is the only Leslie Dunn KIA during WW1 at Fromelles. Once again a man of our beloved 31st Bn, also listed as KIA on 21st July… Commemorated over many years at Villers Bretonneux, now at VC Corner and soon at Pheasant Wood, when I know more about the graves location, I will let you know
Cheers
Pierre.

LCpl Ralph Johnson Identified

For some time now we have been receiving emails from our resident Honorary Member in France, Pierre Seillier.

Pierre has done a wonderful job in honoring the memory of soldiers of the 31st Battalion who served and died in France during WW1. He has, in the past arranged plaques for a number of fallen soldiers just as he has arranged the one on this page for LCpl Johnson. The hunt to identify as many of the soldiers found in the mass grave on the site of the Fromelles battlefield is an amazing and ongoing story. He has just sent this latest breaking news:

22 March 2019

Breaking News!!! Tim Lycett wrote me a message today. The descendants of 715 Lance Corporal Ralph Johnson, 31st Bn have announced he has been identified. Family told that we can share the information so I don’t see any requirement to wait for the official announcement…
You can read his story in Tim Lycett’s book “Fromelles the final chapter”. A German soldier named Fischer, wrote to Johnson’s father after the war and returned his belongings. Fischer also said he’d had Ralph buried in a military cemetery at Beaucamps ( Beaucamps Communal Cemetery, German Extension) but he was never found after war, when allied graves were removed from Beaucamp German Cemetery and transfered to Pont-de-Hem Military Cemetery, La Corque, France. A special memorial headstone was erected for him. Now we know he was in Pheasant Wood mass graves, and is identified and buried in Fromelles Pheasant Wood Military Cemetery.

Lest We Forget.

Regards

Pierre.

LCpl Angelo Barbouttis

This is a story of the action in which LCPL Angelo Barbouttis was KIA. It appeared in the Townsville Bulletin on Wed 1st May 1946. He was in the 31st Battalion, The Kennedy Regiment, prior to the war and joined the 31st Bn AMF which subsequently became the 31st/51st Bn AMF

Below is a photo of a Street in Belgian Gardens named after him and an adjacent plaque describing the significance . Above is a photo of Angelo from Bob Burla’s book “Crossed Boomerangs”

THE LATE CORPORAL ANGELO BARBOUTTIS
Corporal Angelo Barbouttis, who enlisted from Townsville,
displayed great heroism during a clash with a Japanese patrol
in Dutch New Guinea in December, 1943.

He was a member of a small reconnaissance patrol that set out in a small diesel-drlven trawler to explore the inland waterways of the swamps of southern Dutch New Guinea, then held by the Japanese. The patrol kept away from all known Japanese locations, but fate finally led them to pick one channel which led them headlong into a Japanese
patrol.

The trawler rounded a bend and came face to face, about 4 o’clock in the afternoon, with two barges of Japanese. Both parties scrambled for their guns. Barbouttis, well over six feet, was standing up in the bow jerking and spitting death from a heavy machine gun at the Japanese. Every one was pouring lead at the Japs, and they were firing back. The engine room men were trying desperately to turn the boat.

The Japs shot the machine gun out of Barbouttis’ hands. He was not dismayed, but snatched up a Bren gun and carried on the fight. Then the Bren jammed, and he was seen to throw it away and grab a bag of hand grenades, and hurl them into the Jap’s barges.

By this time the trawler had been turned and was heading down stream. The battle was over, one barge was on fire and sinking, the other stranded on the bank. Some of the Japs
had scrambled ashore and began sniping, and it was then that the brave Barbouttis was shot through the head and fell dead.

The boat was riddled from end to end and there were only three sound members of the party. They headed out to sea but the dead Barbouttis had been their sole navigator. Not knowing when help would come or when they would reach their base, it was decided to bury their hero at sea. He was consigned to a watery grave with the greatness of a great simplicity by the members of the trawler.

The clash will no doubt be among the many incidents recorded in the official history of the war.

Barbouttis was awarded a Mention In Despatches (MID).

Major George Roberts the 31st Battalion 2IC after WW2) advocated over many years to have Angelo’s award upgraded to a Victoria Cross.

An Inquiry into unresolved recognition of past acts of valour in 2011 pointed out that when a serviceman dies in the action in which he is nominated for an award, he can only be awarded an MID or a VC. They pointed out that had the person lived he may well have received a MM, MC or DCM.

The Inquiry determined that Angelo’s MID should remain unchanged.

Major Roberts was also Deputy Mayor of Townsville and was involved in the naming of a Street in Belgian Gardens in honour of this brave soldier (see photos)

LEST WE FORGET