Among her earliest childhood memories of her grandparents’ Framlingham home, Fiona Clarke clearly recalls a framed photograph of a uniformed young soldier, prominently displayed.
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Then, in 1973, Ms Clarke and her cousin Roslyn were pictured on the front page of The Standard, little girls marching proudly in the Warrnambool Anzac Day parade, war medals of that same young soldier pinned to their chests.
His name was William Reginald Rawlings, a World War 1 Military Medal recipient and one of 30 indigenous men to enlist in Victoria, 15 of them from the Western District.
He was killed on French soil just months before war’s end.
Although too young then to understand war and all its horrors, Ms Clarke always felt a connection to the great-uncle she knew as Uncle Reg.
When she learned of his fate, buried so far from home, she vowed to one day pay her respects in person.
True to her word, almost a century after the distinguished soldier died valiantly on August 9, 1918 in the battle to capture the French town of Vauvillers, the Warrnambool-based artist last month made an emotional journey to his final resting place on the other side of the world.
The first member of her Western District family to visit her great-uncle’s grave in the British war cemetery of Heath at Harbonnieres, it was an unforgettable experience for Ms Clarke.
“To be there at his grave was a miracle for me, to be there as the first person in my family,” she said, tearfully reliving the moment this week.
Flanked by local residents and representatives from the French National Office of War Veterans, her husband Ken McKean by her side, Ms Clarke laid a wreath on behalf of her family for her Uncle Reg.
“It was something I’ll never forget. I’m very proud of him”
At a small reception later in a nearby hall, among various World War I artifacts, Ms Clarke was shown a bayonet thought to belong to her great uncle, retrieved close to where he died.
“They said they ran out of bullets and had to fight with bayonets,” she said.
Private Rawlings was her grandmother Isabella Couzens’ brother.
Born in Purnim in 1890, he was the only son of respected Framlingham Aboriginal community members William and Elizabeth Rawlings.
The 25-year-old horse-breaker enlisted in 1916 in the 29th Battalion AIF.
He received his Military Medal for “rare bravery” as a first bayonet man in a bombing team at Morlancourt Ridge just weeks before his death.