Skip to main content
  • dva.gov.au
  • anzaccentenary.gov.au

The Anzac Portal

Home
Home
  • Home
  • History
    • Conflicts
      • Gallipoli and the Anzacs
      • Australians on the Western Front
      • Australia and the Second World War
      • The Burma-Thailand Railway and Hellfire Pass
      • The Kokoda Track
      • Australian involvement in South-East Asian conflicts
      • The Korean War
      • Australia and the Vietnam War
    • Special features
      • Veterans' stories
      • Great War memories
      • Victoria Cross recipients
  • Education
    • Education
      • Year 9 History resources
      • Year 10 History resources
      • Anzac Day resources for primary schools
      • All education resources
    • Competitions
      • Anzac Day Schools' Awards
    • Curriculum units
    • Online activities
      • Coming Home: An investigation of the Armistice and Repatriation
      • Keeping the Peace: Investigating Australia's contribution to peacekeeping
  • Multimedia
    • Audio
    • Documents
    • Images
    • Publications
      • 1916—Fromelles and the Somme
      • 1917—Bapaume and Bullecourt
      • 1917—Ypres
      • 1918—Amiens to Hindenburg Line
      • 1918—Villers-Bretonneux to Le Hamel
      • A Bitter Fate—Australians In Malaya & Singapore
      • Ancestry—Stories of multicultural Anzacs
      • Audacity—Stories of heroic Australians in wartime
      • Australian Flying Corps
      • Australian Light Horse—Palestine 1916–1918
      • Bomber Command
      • Candour: Stories in the words of those who served 1914—18
      • Chinese Anzacs
      • Comradeship—Stories of friendship and recreation in wartime
      • Curiosity—Stories of those who report during wartime
      • Decision—Stories of Leadership in the Services
      • Devotion—Stories of Australia's Wartime Nurses
      • Forever Yours
      • Gallipoli
      • Greece and Crete
      • Home Front
      • Laden, Fevered, Starved—the POWs of Sandakan
      • Memories and Memorabilia
      • North Africa and Syria
      • North Beach Gallipoli 1915
      • Operation Jaywick
      • Resource—Stories of innovation in wartime
      • Royal Australian Navy
      • Royal Australian Navy in the Atlantic and Mediterranean
      • The sinking of the Centaur
      • United Kingdom
      • Valuing our veterans
      • World Wide Effort: Australia's Peacekeepers
    • Videos
  • Anzac Day Schools’ Awards Winners
  • Conduct an event
    • Multimedia
    • Resources
    • Sample Speeches
  • Resources
    • #1MS (1 Minute's Silence)
    • 3-nine-39 radio and video series
    • 60th Anniversary of the Korean War
    • 70th Anniversary Tobruk 1941
    • 70th Anniversary of the battles for Greece and Crete
    • 70th anniversary of the Kokoda campaign
    • 70th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin
    • 95th Anniversary of the landings on Gallipoli
    • ADSA 2019 Poster
    • Anzac Centenary School Link Program
    • Anzac Day Poster 2019
    • Anzac Day poster
    • Anzac Day poster
    • Australia and the Vietnam War
    • Australian Prisoners of War
    • Australian Service Nursing: Wartime snapshots No.25
    • Australian Women in War
    • Australians at War Film Archive
    • Australians in the Merchant Navy
    • Australians on the Western Front
    • Battle for Leyte Gulf October 1944
    • Centenary of the Flanders Offensive
    • Centenary of the Royal Australian Navy
    • Centenary of the Sinai–Palestine campaign
    • Centenary of the Somme
    • Commemorating Australian Forces in the Vietnam War
    • Commemorating Australian forces in the Korean War
    • Commemorating Australian forces in the Vietnam War 1962–1975
    • Commemorating Australian prisoners of war on the Burma–Thailand Railway
    • Commemorating the Centenary of the Gallipoli Landings
    • Commemorating the Malayan Emergency and Indonesian Confrontation
    • Commemorating the centenary of the Armistice: Wartime Snapshots No. 24
    • Commemorating the first convoy of Australian troops to the First World War
    • Commemorating the return of Australian forces from Afghanistan
    • Control
    • Discovering Anzacs Exhibition Tips and Tools (Learn Area)
    • Discovering Anzacs School and Community Toolkit (Learn Area)
    • Discovering Anzacs Video Tutorials and Timeline (Learn Area)
    • Gallipoli and the Anzacs
    • Great Debates: The Anzac Legend
    • Great Debates—Conscription
    • Here they come—A day to remember
    • INTERFET: History in Focus
    • INTERFET—International Forces for East Timor
    • Indigenous Service
    • Investigating Gallipoli
    • Kokoda: Exploring the Second World War campaign in Papua New Guinea
    • Korea—A Cold War conflict (1950–1953)
    • M is for Mates—Animals in Wartime from Ajax to Zep
    • Ode of Remembrance: Wartime Snapshots No.26
    • Reflections: Capturing Veterans' Stories
    • Remembering Them app—Education Activities
    • Remembrance Day Poster 2019
    • Remembrance Day Posters 2018
    • Remembrance day
    • Schooling, Service and the Great War (Primary Resource)
    • Schooling, Service and the Great War (Secondary Resource)
    • Symbols of Commemoration Cube Education Activities (Secondary)
    • Symbols of Commemoration Cube—Education Activities (Primary school resource)
    • The Flanders Poppy—A symbol of remembrance
    • The Nominal Roll of Australian Korean War Veterans
    • The Nominal Roll of Australian Vietnam War Veterans
    • The Nominal Roll of Australian World War 2 Veterans
    • The Sinking of HMAS Sydney
    • The War that Changed Us Education Activities
    • Their Spirit, Our History
    • Wartime snapshot #23—1918-2018: Centenary of the Final Campaigns
    • We Remember Anzac (Primary Resource)
    • We Remember Anzac (Secondary Resource)
    • We'll Meet Again
    • Women in War radio series
  • Gallipoli and the Anzacs
  • Australians on the Western Front
  • Australia and the Second World War
  • The Burma-Thailand Railway and Hellfire Pass
  • The Kokoda Track
  • Australian involvement in South-East Asian conflicts
  • The Korean War
  • Australia and the Vietnam War
  • Australians on the Western Front
  • The Australian Remembrance Trail
  • Resources
  • Australians on the Western Front
  • The Australian Remembrance Trail
    • Ieper (Ypres)—Belgium
      • What happened here?
      • A walk around Ieper
        • Cloth Hall (Lakenhalle)
        • Ypres War Memorial (Jules Coomansstraat)
        • St George's Church (Elverdingsestraat)
        • St Martin's Cathedral (Vandenpeerboomplein)
        • Lille Street Rijselestraat (Lille Gate)
        • Ramparts Cemetery (Lille Gate)
      • Nearby—The Menin Gate, Ieper
        • Names on the Menin Gate
        • 'Menin Gate at Midnight'
        • Last Post at Menin Gate
      • Nearby—Essex Farm Cemetery
        • Private Barratt
        • Lieutenant Colonel McCrae
      • Nearby—Deutscher Soldatenfreidhof
    • Tyne Cot Cemetery—Zonnebeke
      • What happened here?
      • Visiting—Tyne Cot Cemetery
        • 40th Battalion at Tyne Cot
        • Captain Hurley at Passchendaele
      • Nearby—Fifth Australian Division Memorial
        • Battle of Polygon Wood
        • Buttes New British Cemetery
        • Private Radford
      • Nearby—Menin Road
        • Hooge Crater Cemetery
    • Toronto Avenue Cemetery—Ploegsteert
      • What happened here?
      • Visiting Toronto Avenue Cemetery
      • Nearby—Island of Ireland Peace Park
        • Battle of Messines
        • Pillboxes at Messines
      • Nearby—Hill 60, Zwarte-Leen
        • Tunnels at Hill 60
        • Craters at Hill 60
    • VC Corner—Fromelles
      • What happened here?
      • Visiting Fromelles
        • The Cemetery and Memorial
        • Major McCrae
        • Private Chadwick
        • Sergeant Simon Fraser
        • The 'Nursery'
      • Fromelles (Pheasant Wood) Military Cemetery
        • Exhumation and identification
        • Exhumed objects gallery
        • Cemetery construction
        • Reburial
        • Stories of the dead
      • Nearby—Notre Dame de Lorette French Cemetery and Memorial
        • Battles of Artois 1915
      • Nearby—Canadian National Vimy Memorial
      • Nearby—Zivy Crater Cemetery
        • 'Lunar' landscapes
    • The Bullecourt Digger—France
      • What happened here?
      • Visiting Bullecourt
        • The 'Bullecourt Digger'
        • 48th Battalion at Bullecourt
        • Sergeant White, 22nd Battalion
      • Nearby—Noreuil Australian Cemetery
        • Vaulx to Noreuil
        • Noreuil, 2 April 1917
      • Nearby—Bapaume
        • Bapaume Town Hall
      • Nearby—Butte de Warlencourt
        • Butte de Warlencourt (February 1917)
        • 18th Battalion at Malt Trench
        • Warlencourt British Cemetery
        • Fight for the Loupart Bastion
    • Thiepval Memorial—France
      • What happened here?
      • Visiting Thiepval Memorial
        • Anglo–French Cemetery
      • Nearby—Ulster Tower
        • Lady Munro-Ferguson
      • Nearby—Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial
        • Memorial and surrounds
    • First Australian Division Memorial—Pozières
      • What happened here?
      • Visiting the First Australian Division Memorial
        • Capture of Pozières, 23 July 1916
        • Bombardment of Pozières, 24–26 July 1916
        • Charles Bean at Pozières
      • Nearby—Albert
        • Hénencourt Chateau
        • Albert Communal Cemetery Extension
      • Nearby—The road to Pozières
        • Tyneside Scottish and Irish Memorial
        • Lochnagar Crater
        • Gordon Dump Cemetery
        • Sunken Road Cemetery
      • Nearby—Devonshire Cemetery
        • Mametz Wood
    • The Windmill—Pozières
      • What happened here?
      • Visiting the Windmill
        • Capture of Pozières heights
        • 48th Battalion at the Windmill
      • Nearby—The road to Flers
        • Somme Winter
        • 'Les Cavées' (the caves)
        • Gueudecourt (Newfoundland) Memorial
      • Nearby—AIF Memorial
        • Mouquet Farm
        • Sacrifice at Mouquet Farm
    • Australian National Memorial—Villers-Bretonneux
      • What happened here?
      • Visiting Villers-Bretonneux
        • Second battle of Villers-Bretonneux
        • Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery
        • The town of Villers-Bretonneux
      • Nearby—Adelaide Cemetery
        • The unknown soldier
      • Nearby—Amiens Cathedral
        • Lieutenant McCartin MC
        • Château de Bertangles
        • Notre-Dame d'Amiens
    • Australian Corps Memorial—Le Hamel
      • What happened here?
      • Visiting the Australian Corps Memorial
        • Battle of Hamel
      • Nearby—Third Australian Division Memorial
        • Sailly-le-Sec (30 March 1918)
      • Nearby—Dernancourt
        • Dernancourt in 1918
        • Dernancourt Cemetery
    • Second Australian Division Memorial—Mont St Quentin
      • What happened here?
      • Visiting Mont St Quentin
        • Mont St Quentin 1918
        • Péronne
      • Nearby—Heath Cemetery
        • Advance to Morcourt Valley
        • The road to Lamotte-Warfusée
    • Fourth Australian Division Memorial—Bellenglise
      • What happened here?
      • Visiting the 4th Australian Division Memorial
        • Hindenburg Outpost Line
      • Of interest—The Forest Clearing of the Armistice
        • Compiègne Forest
        • 11 November 1918
      • Of interest—Palace of Versailles
        • Australia in Paris, 1919
      • Nearby—Calvaire Cemetery
        • The last VC in WWI
        • Captains Fletcher and Mahony
        • Tincourt British Cemetery
  • Resources
    • Audio-casts (x12)
    • Travel options

You are here

  • Home
  • History
  • Conflicts
  • Australians on the Western Front
  • The Australian Remembrance Trail
  • The Windmill—Pozières, France
  • Nearby—The road to Flers

'Les Cavées' (the caves)

The heart of the battery

A colour photo of a piece of art—depicts a war-damaged landscape with the remains of a rhombus-shaped tank on the left, the tracks of which are hanging off the rear.

On the road to Flers, January 1917, George Benson. [Watercolour and pencil on paper mounted on cardboard AWM ART00134]

At 3am on 12 November 1916, Bombardier Allan Edward Beeks, of Balmain, Sydney, and Corporal Kenneth Fairey, born in Keyneton, South Australia, both serving in the 2nd Battery, 1st Field Artillery Brigade AIF, were asleep with five other artillerymen in a dugout near Flers. A shell hit the position killing six of them, including Beeks and Fairey. Sergeant Thomas Younger attributed these deaths to lack of sufficient sand-bag protection in front of the dugout. As Younger later wrote, this loss was deeply felt in the unit:

He [Beeks] was a very fine boy and I missed him very much. He and Corporal Ferry [Corporal Kenneth Fairey] were the heart of our battery … Captain Taylor was very broken up when he heard about it and sent Sergeant Watson at once to get them out … They put up crosses for Beeks and Ferry.

Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau file, Bombardier Allan Edward Beeks, page 4

A colour photo looking across a large field of crops at the AIF cemetery, which has two small stone alcove buildings and a memorial stone. Red field spans the width of the background.

AIF Cemetery, Grass Lane, Flers [DVA]

Both Beeks and Fairey had been awarded Military Medals for bravery and outstanding service during the Battle of Pozières in July 1916. Beeks medal recommendation, in part, read:

He was constantly under heavy shell fire, setting a splendid example to the men working with him and without his devotion to duty the work of the Field Artillery on this flank would have been impossible to carry out.

Australian Red Cross Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau file, Bombardier Allan Edward Beeks, page 4

Fairey's recommendation was similarly worded and helps us to understand why Sergeant Younger saw these two young men as 'the heart of the battery'.

Marked on the French map of the landscape about a kilometre north of Flers on the D 74, is 'Les Cavées' (the caves) and it was to a burial ground at this location, that had been recently started by Australian medical units at les Cavées, that they brought 20-year-old Beeks and 21-year-old Fairey. They lie there side by side in the only cemetery on the Western Front to carry the acronym AIF—the AIF Burial Ground, Grass Lane, Flers.

A colour photo looking down the centre isle of lawn, between many rows of white headstones, to the Cross of Sacrifice.
A colour photo looking across, at an angle, over rows of white headstones—at least 15 rows. In the back is the Cross of Sacrifice. Small floral plants with purple and pink flowers sit at the base of some of the headstones.
A colour photo looking across a group of white headstones in 5 rows. Most have a flowering plant at their feet, ranging from mauve ground covers to purple irises. Some have roses.
A colour photo looking down and across 7 rows of white headstones. Most have a plant at their feet. Some are flowering—pink, mauve. Some have roses. The manicured grass between the rows, though short cut, is lush.
A colour photo of the cemetery. The wall with the engraved-stone sign is in the foreground and reads: "AIF BURIAL GROUND 1914–1918". Beyond are many rows of white headstones. The memorial stone is on a rise in the background. Green paddocks as far as seen
A colour photo of a white headstone that has the AIF rising sun emblem/badge and reads: "278 BOMBARDIER A. E. BEEKS. MM. AUST. FIELD ARTILLERY 12TH DECEMBER 1916 AGE 22 ┼ IN LOVING MEMORY SON OF MR & MRS BEEKS KILLED IN ACTION AT REST"
A colour photo of a white headstone that has the AIF rising sun emblem/badge and reads: "701 CORPORAL K. H. FAIREY MM. AUST. FIELD ARTILLERY 12 NOVEMBER 1916 AGE 21 ┼ THE DEARLY LOVED SON OF THE REV J. C. B. FAIREY & MRS FAIREY"

Beeks and Fairey were among the first to be buried in this battlefield graveyard for their headstones are in Plot 1, the original plot, in Row A, Graves 3 and 4. After the war this became a 'consolidation' cemetery and more than 4,000 British Commonwealth and French graves were brought in, mostly from the Somme area. British historian Martin Middlebrook describes the AIF Burial Ground, the fifth largest British war cemetery on the Somme, as 'hardly known to visitors, being situated up a track in a near-forgotten corner of the battlefield'.

Less known than the AIF Burial Ground is Bulls Road Cemetery on a side road leading east of out of Flers towards the village of Lesboeufs (the bulls). The cemetery has a fine view back over the fields to the village and the dates on the headstones reflect the Australian occupation of the front-line trenches north and north-east of Flers between November 1916 and February 1917.

A colour photo of a section of long grass, looking between four rows of barbed wire at metal wire stakes with three loops in the metal.
A colour photo looking through the wire of a barbed-wire fence at a Cross of Sacrifice on the distant horizon. In between is a grassy paddock.
A colour photo of the entrance to the Bulls Road Cemetery. Seven stone steps, guarded by two stone bollards, in the opening of the flint stone wall, lead into the cemetery. Either side of the opening are engraved stones, in French and English (dedication)
A colour photo looking across, at an angle, 9 rows of white headstones (stark in the sunlight). One of the side has a small building (10m sq) with an arched entrance, built in the same flint as the border stone wall, which it backs into. Red door on side.
A colour photo looking at a row of 12 white headstones that back onto the side flint wall. Small floral and bulb plants are at their base. Some are flowering (pink, white). Beyond the wall is a long-grassed paddock and residences in the background.
A colour photo looking down the flint wall to one of the corners, where there is a round tree. Three rows of white headstones to the left. Green paddocks as far as the eye can see (many kilometres).

What, one wonders, accounts for the death of Private Frank Thompson (in reality Frank Langley), 9th Battalion (Queensland), in Plot I, Row C, Grave 21, who was killed in action on Christmas Day 1916? His battalion was near the front in the period before and after Christmas 1916 and others of the unit killed at that time also lie in Plot I at Bulls Road including Private William Christensen in Plot I, Row C, Grave 22, killed in action on 28 December 1916. Chistensen's fate was probably typical enough of the fatalities during this period of the war—he was killed by a shell while on fatigue duty carrying a wooden 'duckboard'. These 'duckboards’ were long slatted wooden structures placed end–to–end to give passage across the mud.

On New Year's Day 1917, Sergeant Leslie Black, known to all as 'Les', was showing another sergeant, who was to relieve him, around his post in the front line. Black left the trench and was shot by a German sniper. He was brought unconscious back into the trench but died within minutes and was buried at what one eyewitness described as 'Bull Trench alongside Fleurs village'. Black, a railway guard, from Junee, New South Wales, lies in Plot I, Row B, Grave 30.

A colour photo of a white headstone that has the AIF rising sun emblem/badge and reads: "4299 PRIVATE F. THOMPSON 9TH BN. AUSTRALIAN INF. 25 DECEMBER 1916"
A colour photo of a white headstone that has the AIF rising sun emblem/badge and reads: "1913 SERJEANT L. M. BLACK 1ST BN. AUSTRALIAN INF. 1ST JANUARY 1917 AGE 27"
A colour photo of a white headstone that has the AIF rising sun emblem/badge and reads: "2361 PRIVATE J. FLYNN 1ST BN. AUSTRALIAN INF. 2ND JANUARY 1917 AGE 23 ┼ IN FOND MEMORY OF DEAR JACK FROM DAD & MUM"

In Grave 24, Row C, Plot I is Private John Flynn, age 42, a clerk of Woolloomooloo, Sydney, who joined up in mid-1915. Flynn, a Gallipoli veteran, was killed on 2 January 1917 and, in July 1917, Flynn's father received a package from the authorities supposedly containing his son's wallet:

… the wallet received was not the one belonging to my son … and also what has become of his watch, diary, shaving kit, knife and various other comforts he had with him … not that I place any monetary value on them but would like to have them as mementoes in memory of our dear son …

Letter, John Flynn [Snr] to Officer in Charge, Base Records, 31 July 1917, AIF Dossier, John Flynn [Jnr], page 29

There is nothing in John Flynn’s records to suggest his wallet ever turned up.

  • Home
  • History
  • Education
  • Multimedia
  • Anzac Day Schools’ Awards Winners
  • Conduct an event
  • Resources
  • Site info
  • Research tips
  • Contact
  • Copyright
  • Events
  • Accessibility
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy
  • Links
  • Bibliography
  • Anzac Centenary program

Follow us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to us on YouTube