Every year the village of Harefield marks ANZAC day and remembers the Australians buried in the ANZAC cemetery.
The church of St Mary the Virgin in Church Hill is Harefield’s oldest building. Next to the churchyard is the ANZAC war cemetery. The acronym ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, whose soldiers were known as Anzacs. Soon after the outbreak of the First World War a wealthy Australian couple living in Britain, Mr and Mrs Billyard-Leake, offered their house Harefield Park and its grounds to the Australian Ministry of Defence for convalescing Australian forces casualties from Gallipoli and the Western Front. The house was converted to be able to accommodate 50 convalescing soldiers in the winter and up to 150 in the spring and summer months, becoming Australian Auxiliary No 1 Hospital. Soon after its opening in June 1915 it was receiving patients from Gallipoli and it became clear that the accommodation would have to be expanded to cater for the growing number of casualties. By 1916 it was functioning as a general hospital with 1,000 beds and nearly 50 buildings around the estate.
112 of the 50,000 patients treated at Harefield did not recover and they, with one female nurse, are buried here. A local MP, Sir Francis Newdegate, gave a plot of land next to the existing churchyard to extend the cemetery and also covered the funeral expenses for the burials. Harefield School lent their Union Jack flag to drape the coffins as they were carried from the hospital, through the village, to the church. The headstones which are of a scroll design unique amongst Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries were chosen by the staff and patients at the hospital.
After the war, in 1920, the school gave their flag to the Australian Schools’ Patriotic Fund who presented it to Adelaide High School, where it is still kept, in recognition of the work the school had done for the fund by sending relief parcels to Harefield hospital. The Schools’ Patriotic Fund later arranged for a Union Jack to be sent to Harefield School and Adeleide High School sent an Australian flag which hangs in the Breakspear Chapel of St Mary’s Church, rededicated in 1951 as the Australian Chapel.
Anzac Day is held on the 25th April every year. It was originally devised to honour the ANZACs who served in the Gallipoli Campaign. It is now a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand to commemorate all Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations and the contribution and suffering of all those who have served. Ever since 1921 the children from Harefield School (now Harefield Junior School) have put flowers on every grave in the cemetery to remember those who died so far from home and this ceremony is followed by a Commemorative Service. The 25th April is a significant event in the Harefield calendar.
Several websites have been helpful in researching the ANZAC war graves, notably
St Mary’s Church: https://stmarys-harefield.org.uk/
Commonwealth War Graves Commission: https://www.cwgc.org/
Hillingdon Archives:
https://archive.hillingdon.gov.uk/article/34073/Hospitals-Harefield-and-Uxbridge
By Carol
Hillingdon Libraries Blog 