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Shire of Balmoral War Memorial

Its a unassuming pyramid next to a roundabout I spotted on the way back from the supermarket. It was well worth stopping as reading the plaque revealed that it used to have a First World War Gattling Gun on it. It apparently disappeared in the the 1950's. 

The plaque has a WW1 poem on it but they have changed the words from Take up the quarrel with the foe to 'work for[?] as we go.

The plaque reads:

Shire of Balmoral

This machine gun captured by the 9th Battalion A.I.F. during operations near Merris, Flanders, in June 1918

"In Flanders Fields"

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses row on row;

They mark our place and in the sky

The larks still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amin the guns below. 

We are the dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow.

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields

Take up our work for[?] as we go

To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Colonel McCrae

 

 

 

Submitted by @IanThorp

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