There has been a lot of news lately about the discovery of Australian soldiers mass burial site in Fromelle in France. The search for our missing WWII soldiers has been talked about for years and when they started digging up the field and found things like a button or a military badge, everyone got excited.
The talk since then has been whether or not they should try and Identify more than 5000 men and exhume the bodies to return home. I've come to the conclusion that since these men fought together and died together and have been sleeping there now for such a long time, they should remain there and a special monument built.
Tolouse sent me a photo of the Cobbers Memorial in Fromelle in France, after we had been talking about it. I was keen to paint it. Now I've finally finished it as a tribute to our soldiers, and to Tolouse who has an ailing soldiers body but a heart as big as a lion's, and whose generosity at times has made me cry.
The sculpture "Cobbers" is by Peter Corlett of Melbourne. The sculpture is based on 3101 Sergeant Simon Fraser of 57th Battalion, a 40 year old Victorian farmer turned soldier who rescued many men from the battlefield, carrying a man of 60th Battalion. Later, Fraser, as a Lieutenant of 58th Battalion, was Mentioned in Despatches before being killed at Bullecourt on 12 May 1917. His name is recorded on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux.
This painting was done in oils. All hand painted, no autopainting at all.
"Lest We Forget"