12 memorial, open both to British subjects residing in Australia and any Australian citizens who were residing overseas. A total of 83 entries were submitted, and in December 1923 the design offered by two Melbourne architects (and war veterans), Phillip Hudson and James Wardrop, was announced as the winner.
�A ray of light hits the Stone of Remembrance in the Sanctuary, at 11am on November 11. The design of the Shrine is based on the ancient Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and the Parthenon in Athens. It is a structure of square plan roofed by a stepped pyramid and entered on the north and south through classical porticos, each of eight fluted Doric columns supporting a pediment containing sculpture in high relief. The porticos are approached by wide flights of steps which rise in stages to the podium on which the Shrines sits. The east and west facing fronts are marked at the corners by four groups of statuary by Paul Raphael Montford, representing Peace, Justice, Patriotism and Sacrifice. The Art Deco style and motifs draw on Greek and Assyrian sculpture. The symbolism is Neo-Classical. Around the outer stone balustrade that marks the Shrines external boundary are the "battle honours" disks, 16 stone discs. These represent the battle honours granted by King George V and commemorate Australia's contributions to the following battles: Landing at Anzac, (that is, Gallipoli), Sari Bair, Rumani, Gaza-Beersheba, the North Sea, the Cocos Islands, Megiddo, Damascus, Villers Bretonneux, Amiens, Mont St Quentin, the Hindenburg Line, Ypres, Messines, Pozieres and Bullecourt.
Larrikin's tale finally told
(The finale to our article in October newsletter)
News Limited Newspapers | November 01, 2010 12.01am
HE'S a faded face from Australia's military past, dubbed the Accordion Man, and for many years he has been without a name. However, when military historian Lynette Silver and fellow researcher Di Elliott took an interest in his identity following an appeal by the Australian War Memorial last month, it didn't take them long to track down. They believe this man, photographed in a Japanese-run prisoner-of-war camp during World War II, is Tasmanian infantryman Harold Clyde Conley. His story is that of a rogue soldier who was keen to serve his country in fact, possibly faking his way into the military but whose love of a drink and tendency to go absent without leave littered his service history. But with the luck of the devil, he also survived more than three years in a POW camp in Java, Indonesia where this photo was taken in September 1945. Mrs Silver, of Wahroonga, and Mrs Elliott began their investigation into the identity of the soldier in September after the Australian War Memorial made a public appeal to help identify the Digger. Mrs Silver said they tracked down the Accordion Man's identity with the help of an old newspaper clipping chronicling Conley's return to Hobart. A photograph showed him to be the same man in the POW photo. But, chasing down his war records, they discovered a curious anomaly he bore only a slight resemblance to the man in his official army photograph. They believe that, because Conley had a serious heart condition that precluded him from serving in World War II, he may have arranged for a substitute to take his medical exam.