Final honours for fallen grandfather

From Sydney Morning Herald: Final honours for fallen grandfather
JOHN Sheridan had four lines to play with when considering the epitaph that would be etched on to his grandfather's headstone. But in the end he opted to keep it simple. The inscription reads: ''Though death divides, his memory lives on.''

Mr Sheridan's grandfather, Captain Thomas Francis Sheridan, was killed 95 years ago almost to the day but it was only last year that he was buried in a single grave. Today his headstone will be unveiled at an evening dedication ceremony held in a small farming village in northern France.

Captain Sheridan was killed at the Battle of Fromelles in 1916. In April this year John Sheridan heard his grandfather's remains had been identified. One of 250 British and Australian soldiers buried by the Germans following an overnight battle, Captain Sheridan is among 110 Diggers science has been able to identify by name.

Advertisement: Story continues below Mr Sheridan has made the trip from his home in Blackburn South to the compact one-church village in northern France to attend today's ceremony.

''The reason I want to do this is because my father always wanted to know what happened to his father and he can't - but I can do it for him,'' Mr Sheridan, 67, said before he left Melbourne.

''I also want to go on behalf of my grandmother, too,'' he added. ''It's going to be quite overwhelming, I think.''

In his luggage will be some of the postcards his grandfather wrote to his wife Teresa and five-year-old son Jack - including one Army-issue card written the day before he was shot in a German trench after making it across enemy lines. By the time the postcard was franked ''July 20 1916'' at the field post office, Captain Sheridan was almost certainly dead.

Mr Sheridan said he was keen to donate some of the photographs to a new museum, being built as part of a wider project to develop the Western Front Remembrance Trail to which the Australian government will contribute $10 million over four years with local authorities.

Today marks the 95th anniversary of the Battle of Fromelles, considered the worst 24 hours in Australian military history. More then 5530 Australians were killed, wounded or missing in one overnight battle that failed to gain any territory or strategic advantage.

Of 250 soldiers found in the mass graves, 140 are unidentified - but testing will continue until 2014.

The Australian Army's Major Jason Kerr, who is in charge of reinterments for the joint Australian-British project, said several DNA test swabs were sent to London for analysis earlier this month ahead of the next identification board meeting in March. ''We'll keep going with it,'' he said.

Major Kerr said anyone who believes they may be related to an Australian soldier buried at Fromelles should visit www.army.gov.au/fromelles or call 1800 019 090.