Welcome to the Montmorency Eltham RSL!

Montmorency Eltham RSL

2 days ago

Over 38 days, we will honour each of the 38 men whose names are inscribed on the cenotaph at the Eltham War Memorial.

This evening, we remember 929 Trooper Geoffrey Treacher Grant, a young man from our community who fell during the Gallipoli campaign.

Geoffrey Grant was born in Napier, New Zealand, and later lived with his parents, William and Emilie Grant, on Main Road in Eltham, Victoria. Before the war, he worked as a clerk. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 23 December 1914 and joined the 8th Light Horse Regiment, embarking from Melbourne aboard HMAT Palermo in May 1915.

The Charge of the Nek, launched at about 4:30 am on 7 August 1915, formed part of the August Offensive aimed at capturing key high ground and breaking the stalemate at Gallipoli. The attack was carried out by around 600 men. The 8th Light Horse Regiment led the assault, advancing in successive waves under intense Ottoman machine-gun and rifle fire from well-prepared positions.

Despite extraordinary courage and discipline, the regiment suffered devastating losses, including Trooper Grant, within minutes, with most men killed or wounded before reaching the enemy trenches. The attack failed to gain ground and stands as one of the most tragic and costly actions in Australian military history. Trooper Grant has no known grave.

Today, we honour the service and sacrifice of Trooper Geoffrey Treacher Grant, remembering a life cut short in the opening year of the war, and a young man who lies far from home, but forever held in the memory of his community.

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Montmorency Eltham RSL

3 days ago

Over 38 days, we will honour each of the 38 men whose names are inscribed on the cenotaph at the Eltham War Memorial.

This evening, we remember 4976 Private John Charlton Bell, a farmer from the Yarra Valley whose life was lost during the great battles of Flanders.

John Charlton Bell was born at Kangaroo Ground, the eldest son of John Bell of “Violet Bank”. He later lived and worked in the Yarra Glen district as a dairy farmer. At the age of twenty-seven, older than many who enlisted, John joined the Australian Imperial Force on 1 February 1916 and was allotted to the 24th Battalion.

John embarked from Melbourne in July 1916 and served for nearly a year on the Western Front with the Australian 2nd Division. Remarkably, he sustained no recorded wounds during his time at the front. On 4 October 1917, during the assault on Broodseinde Ridge in Belgium, the 24th Battalion advanced across a broad front as part of a major Allied attack. Though the ground was taken, John Charlton Bell was killed in action that day.

He is buried at the Passchendaele New British Cemetery in Belgium.

Whilst he is honoured on the Eltham cenotaph and Memorial Tablets memorialising him in both Yarra Glen and the Kangaroo Ground Presbyterian Church parishes, to this day nobody knows why he is remembered as a Lance Corporal; this is incorrect as John was only a Private – a mystery that may never be solved.

Today, we honour the service and sacrifice of Private John Charlton Bell, a son of the Yarra Valley remembered not only for the manner of his death, but for the life he lived, the community that sent him forth, and the quiet dignity with which he served so far from home.

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Montmorency Eltham RSL

4 days ago

Over 38 days, we will honour each of the 38 men whose names are inscribed on the cenotaph at the Eltham War Memorial.

This evening, we remember 4568 Private Thomas Cameron, a local son whose life was lost during the fighting in Flanders in the First World War.

Thomas Cameron was born in Eltham, Victoria, and was educated at Eltham Primary School. Before the war, he worked as a driver. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 16 November 1915 and joined the 23rd Battalion, embarking from Melbourne aboard RMS Walwa in April 1916.

Private Cameron served on the Western Front during the brutal campaigns of 1917. During the Battle of Menin Road, he was wounded near Zonnebeke, Belgium. He was taken to the 3rd Australian Field Ambulance at Wippenhoek and later transferred to the British 10th Casualty Clearing Station at Arneke, France, where he died of his wounds on 3 October 1917.

He is buried at the Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery in Belgium.

Today, we honour the service and sacrifice of Private Thomas Cameron, remembering a young man shaped by his local community, and lost in the great battles of Flanders. His name lives on, both here at home and where he now rests among his comrades.

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Montmorency Eltham RSL

5 days ago

Over 38 days, we will honour each of the 38 men whose names are inscribed on the cenotaph at the Eltham War Memorial.

This evening, we remember 4663 Private John Leonard Brown, a husband, a brother, and a local man whose life was lost in the final months of the First World War.

John Leonard Brown was born in Vermont, Victoria, and later lived in Eltham, where he was educated at Eltham Primary School. He also lived for a time in Arthur Street, Eltham, before settling in Brunswick. Before the war, he worked as an engraver. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 9 March 1916 and served with both the 24th and 21st Battalions, embarking from Melbourne aboard HMAT Euripides in April 1916.

Private Brown served through the later, grinding years of the war on the Western Front. On 18 August 1918, during the Allied “Hundred Days Offensive”, he was killed in action near Vauvillers, France, as Australian forces pressed toward the final victory.

He is buried at Heath Cemetery, Harbonnières. At home, his name is remembered on the Kangaroo Ground Memorial Tower, the St Margaret’s Church Honour Board, the Eltham Methodist Church Honour Board, and the Eltham Primary School Honour Board. He was the husband of Jessie Martha Brown of Brunswick, and the brother of Private George Stewart Brown, who had been killed two years earlier on the Somme and whose name also appears on the Eltham cenotaph.

Today, we honour the service and sacrifice of Private John Leonard Brown, remembering a life marked by skill, family, and duty, and a family that gave two sons in the service of their country.

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