Each Remembrance Day as we remember those men and women who served, The Longwarry and

District History Group choose to record the story of one local man or woman which is typical of so many who enlisted.

However it is not just these men and women who should be remembered, but also the families, the mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters who were left to worry and wonder about the danger their sons and daughters faced in faraway places, the names of which they had never heard before.

This Remembrance Day it is the story of Charles Cowan and the tragedy that came to his family that we remember.

Charles Cowan enlisted in the army on October 6^th. 1916, he was about to turn 29 years of age and after his initial training he was assigned to the 7^th. Battalion.

Along with other reinforcements for the 7^th Battalion, he left Melbourne on the 23^rd of November 1916, bound for Plymouth in England and from there to the Western Front.

Pte. Cowan probably first saw action in February 1917, at Bullecourt and then after a period of rest and further training they were sent to Ypres in September and October 1917, where they were committed to the fighting, first at Menin Road where they had 57 men killed, and then later at Broodseinde another 98 were killed.

Following another period of rest the Battalion were back in action by March 1918, and subsequently taking part in the Allied Hundred Days Offensive, which was launched near Amiens on the 8^th. of August 1918.

It was in this battle, on the 9^th of August, that Pte. Charlie Cowan was killed in action.

The unknown for Charlie Cowan’s family lasted for at least another six years before they could have at least some closure surrounding his death, with this notice from the army dated 29^th. August 1924.

“With further reference to the report of the regrettable loss of your son, the late No. 6982 Private C. Cowan 7^th. Battalion, I am now in receipt of advice that instructions have been issued by The Imperial War Graves Commission for the erection of a special collective cross in The Heath Cemetery, Harbonnieres, France, to perpetuate the memory of those members of the 7^th. Battalion who were killed in action in August 1918, but whose graves have not been identified …………..

The inscription on the Cross will be engraved with his name and will read “Buried In This Cemetery, actual grave unknown.”

The family were invited to provide a further inscription for a plaque; however, their suggestion was rejected as being too long as it was not to exceed more than 166 letters and spaces and was amended to read. “Farewell Dear Charlie, May God Grant You Eternal Rest.”

This family portrait of Charles Cowan with his family was taken in the photographic studios of H. J. Vallance in Longwarry, in November 1916, just days before he left to go overseas.

It would be the last physical reminder the family had of their son and brother.

Photograph Courtesy of the Trennery & Leviston families.