Ernie Corby’s Story ‘In Flanders fields the poppies blow between the crosses row on row’ go the lines from McCrae’s famous WW1 poem, excepting Ernie Corby, 3rd Battalion 1st Australian Division had no final known resting place. He had perished on the morning of the 14th of April 1918 in defence of Hazebrouck between the approaches of Merris and Strazeele – but no one knew exactly where he fell. To deal with death is bad enough but to deal with knowing that the whereabouts of your child’s remains are unknown has to be worse. Ernie’s mother, Kate, until her dying day in 1947 had no closure, no peace about her beloved son’s final resting place. However, in 2003 Emerald Hill resident Maxine McDonald, Ernie Corby’s Great Niece, explained to me ‘we received miraculous news’. A farmer, ploughing some of his land, turned up the bodies of four Australian soldiers which had lain in the ground, undisturbed, since 1918. It took time, but one of those soldiers was found, through DNA testing, to be that of Maxine’s Great Uncle Ernie; and on the 22nd April 2005 along with the three other soldiers, Ernie was laid to rest with full military honours at Outtersteene in France – with family from Australia in attendance. The next line of McCrae’s In Flanders Field poem says ... ‘that mark our place’ and that is a fitting end to a remarkable story – because Ernie Corby finally got the marked grave that had eluded him ninety years beforehand. Photos include Ernies grave, the honoured and measured out site where Ernies remains were found and a very proud Maxine McDonald who shared the story with me.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 02:04:37 +0000
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