26/07/2026
For many years, Dale Goldie OAM dreamed of standing where the World War I service personnel from our villages had fought, fallen and were laid to rest.
That dream became a reality in 2016, during the Centenary of Anzac, when Dale and his daughter, Natalie Riddle, travelled through France, Belgium and England to honour those from Kearsley, Abernethy and Elrington who had answered the call to duty.
At Fromelles, Dale paid his respects at the grave of Private Matthew Hepple, who was killed in action during the Battle of Fromelles in July 1916. Standing at the grave was a way of ensuring our community remembered Private Hepple’s sacrifice.
The warmth and generosity shown by the people of Fromelles left a lasting impression on Dale. On Remembrance Day, he laid a wreath on behalf of our Committee before joining local families for lunch in the village hall. Stories were shared, friendships were formed and Dale’s digger’s sheepskin vest became quite the conversation starter. Those friendships endured long after the journey, with Dale keeping in regular contact with Pierre and Thérèse from Fromelles, exchanging messages every Anzac Day and Christmas.
Such was the respect the locals had for Dale that the curator of the Fromelles Museum opened the museum especially for a private tour after it had closed to the public. Before he left, local residents presented him with a collection of bullets and shell casings recovered from the surrounding farmland. Dale treasured these gifts as a physical connection to the very ground where men from Kearsley, Abernethy and Elrington had made the ultimate sacrifice.
In Belgium, Dale visited Tyne Cot Cemetery, where he stood at the grave of Captain Clarence Jeffries VC, who was killed during the Battle of Passchendaele in October 1917. Another unforgettable moment came at the Menin Gate in Ypres, where Dale laid a wreath on behalf of our community during The Last Post Ceremony, an honour he never forgot.
The journey also took Dale to Polygon Wood, Pozières and London during Remembrance Day weekend.
These photographs capture what was the trip of a lifetime for Dale. It was more than a holiday. It was a pilgrimage to honour the service and sacrifice of those from our community and to ensure their stories would never be forgotten.
