THE remains of Private George Richard Storey have finally been put to rest in Belgium.
Bridgetown’s Geoffrey Storey (73) and his brother, David (78) are the nephews of Private Storey who was a proud member of the 51st Infantry Battalion (Western Australia) and perished during the Battle of Polygon Wood, 91 years ago, on Sunday, September 30, 1917
Geoffrey and David’s father, Jack, and their uncle, George, arrived in Australia from England in1911, and both enlisted in the AIF in 1916. They were sent to France and Belgium.
George was wounded in June 1917and hospitalised.
Jack was badly wounded in the thigh and sent to convalesce in England, then in 1918, was sent home to Australia.
“My dad died of his wounds in 1940 when my brother and I were about 5 and 9 years old,” Geoffrey Storey said.
After returning to the trenches following the battle of Polygon Wood, on Sunday September 30, 1927, George Storey was talking to some of his mates just outside the dugout, sharing a smoke before they got ready to move out.
“He was killed outright by a heavy shell which came into the dugout a few yards from where I was,” Private G Bryant wrote in a report, “It killed four of the seven men who were sheltering there but, as we moved out a few hours later, I don’t know where they were buried.”
His mate, Private F. Fewson, said in a report that he had written to George Storey’s mother.
“Storey was a cobber of mine,” he said,
“He was killed outright just outside a dugout at Polygon Wood by a shell. He was buried a little way from the dugout. We put a stick there to mark the grave with his name on it. He was killed on the morning of the day we were moving out.”
Private C G Priddle said George Storey was about 19 when he was killed.
“He had just given me a cigarette, then he went away to get shaved ready for moving out,” Private Priddle said. “There was an explosion, and one of my mates told me Storey had been killed.”
After the end of the war in 1918, attempts were made to find the graves of the thousands of Australian and other soldiers who had lost their lives in the horrendous battles. Many were found but many thousands were not.
As a show of respect and remembrance, the missing soldiers’ names were engraved on the Menin Gate where they remain today. The Last Post is sounded every evening at 8 pm at the Gate, to show that although the soldiers have not been found, they are not forgotten.
From October 1914 British and Commonwealth troops had began to march through the Meenenpoorte gateway from the city of Ypres onto The Menin Road and into the battlefields of the Ypres Salient.
For the next four years soldiers from practically every British and Commonwealth regiment passed through this gateway. Many thousands of soldiers in the British and Commonwealth armies lost their lives fighting in the Ypres Salient. The remains of over 90,000 of them have never been found or identified.
The site of the Meenenpoorte, known to the British Army as The Menin Gate, was considered to be a fitting location to place a memorial to the missing British and Commonwealth soldiers.
Several years ago, during road works, workmen found the remains of five Australian soldiers beneath the surface of a road which had been in place for well over 70 years.
The remains were identified as Australian by the rising sun hat badges buried with them and, until they were identified, they were known as the Zonnebeke Five.
By the location of the remains the authorities were reasonably sure who they were, but proof had to be found.
Two of them were identified from relatives using DNA techniques, with samples from a female descendant, but there was no female descendant to work from in the case of Private George Storey.
Recently, however, new DNA techniques were developed in Belgium and enabled samples to be taken from David Storey and a positive identification was established.
At a small official ceremony in Belgium, on the anniversary of his death, September 30, Private George Richard Storey was laid to rest next to his comrades in arms and a head stone placed over his grave to mark it.
Geoffrey Storey said his brother had been researching the family history for over 25 years.
“He found out so much about George that we feel as if we have known him personally,” he said.
“The news that he has been found and identified allows me to finish his story,” said David.
“I met the news that the officials had finally confirmed his identity with a sense of great relief, and then excitement.
“I know that the whole family is very excited that George has now been laid to rest in a proper manner. It gives a sense of closure to the older members of our family.
“The Army history unit and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission did a tremendous job in finalising the tests and the burial,” he added.
The assistance of the Federal Government made it possible for the Storey brothers to be present at the emotional ceremony in Belgium.
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