Guest Speaker: Lambis Englezos
Tutor/Leader: Leigh Martin
Topic: Australia’s Greatest Military Disaster
Location: Sunbury Sports Community Club, Behind Clarke Oval Riddell Rd
SUNBURY 3429
Delivery: face- to- face interaction
Day: Thursday 12 May 2022
Time: 9:45am – 11:45am
Lambis is an amateur historian and teacher who was responsible for discovering mass graves from World War 1 near Fromelles in France. In a battle deemed to be Australia’s greatest military disaster, new recruits and veterans of Gallipoli were sent to the Fromelles as a ruse to keep the Germans away from the major battle in the Somme. However in spite of their bravery in holding the Germans back there was a counter attack resulting in hundreds of soldiers killed and left missing in enemy territory. After talking with survivors of the battle he went to France 2002 and after searching military records and grave sites he realized that a lot of soldiers from that battle were totally missing.
With determination and persistence in spite of Government discouragement, he found other interested researchers who through aerial photography and analysis of war records were able to locate an area where 400 bodies were discovered. In 2009 he returned, and through official DNA processes the men’s bodies were in identified and reburied in a new Commonwealth Military Cemetery in Fromelles. Come and listen to Lambis’s important story spurred on through his need to give our soldiers dignity and recognition.
***Note this event is only open to those members who have been fully vaccinated as this is a requirement of not only U3A Sunbury but also The Sunbury Social Club where the event will be taking place.