Inauguration of the Brothers in Arms Memorial on Sunday 25th September 2022.

Extract from: Brothers in Arms - Dire Straits

There's so many different worlds

So many different suns

And we have just one world

But we live in different ones

But it's written in the starlight

And every line in your palm

We're fools to make war

On our brothers in arms

During road works to lay a new gas pipe line in the hamlet of Westhoek in 2006, Tom Heyman, operating the machine, suddenly stopped digging and called Johan Vandewalle, an amateur archaeologist. Tom was convinced that he had found human remains just beside the road, and immediately linked them to the battlefield that Westhoek once was.

After clearing the first grave, they noticed another grave just next to the first one. And then another, and another, and another. In total 5 Australian soldiers were exhumed. The last Australian body, however, was to make an everlasting impression on all who were involved. This fifth body was that of Australian private John Hunter. In all, three of the five soldiers would be identified by DNA research.

The body of John Hunter was not thrown in the grave like the other four bodies. Clearly this man had not been buried like the others, someone had taken great care in laying John Hunter to rest. Research led to the family in Australia, who confirmed that the story in the family was that John – or Jack as he was known in the family – had been buried by his younger brother Jim.