HONOUR Sun THE BRAVE The Maryborough Sun, Thursday 21st April 2022
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ANZAC Day is a time for honouring and remembering the sacrifices of thousands of Australians who served their country.
But it is not only Australians who pay their respects. One Frenchman is doing his part to keep their stories of the fallen alive. Francois Berthout, who lives in Amiens, crafts poignant tributes to Aussie diggers who served on the Somme during World War I. Recently, he made one to Lieutenant Colonel John Alexander Milne, who spent time in Maryborough in the early part of last century. “Through the silent fields of the Somme which sway in harmony under the spring sun, stand solemn thousands of white graves, the final resting places of a whole generation of men who on these sacred grounds of France shed their blood and gave their today for peace and freedom,” he said. “In the trenches and through the barbed wire, they charged without fear, bayonets forward, with determination they faced
their destinies shoulder to shoulder with in their hearts the pride of having done what was right and of having served their country until their last breath for our tomorrow and today.
based at Maryborough, and, from 1908, at Bundaberg, where he established a commission agency in 1913 and was a dealer for the International Harvester Company of Australia.
“More than a hundred years after the fury of the great war, they stand tall among the poppies that remind us that, for us, millions of young boys paid the supreme sacrifice but will never be forgotten.”
Lt Col Milne’s Australian War Memorial biography notes he was an excellent rifle-shot, and was an officer in the Wide Bay Regiment’s 1st Battalion (later the 4th Infantry Battalion) from 1908.
Lt Col Milne was born on March 23, 1872 at in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the son of labourer Alexander Milne and Jane McCombie, and attended Torphins School.
He enlisted in the 9th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, as a captain on August 20,1914 and sailed on the first troopship to leave Queensland.
He arrived in Brisbane as a free immigrant on the Dorunda in August 1890. He initially worked as a labourer on farms in the Wide Bay, as a miner and engine driver in the Gympie goldfields and as a farmer at Kilkivan Junction from 1903 to 1906. On October 6, 1898, in a Primitive Methodist ceremony, Milne had married Mary Elise May Bull who, with their three sons, survived him. He then became a commercial traveler for hardware firms,
After treatment in hospital, he returned to Gallipoli but on November 11, two days after his promotion to major, he was evacuated because of fever and in January 1916 was invalided to Australia. After enthusiastic civic welcomes in Maryborough
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On April 25, 1915 Milne took “E” Company ashore at Gallipoli; although wounded five times he continued encouraging his men until he collapsed and was dragged down to the beach where it was realised he was still alive.
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