General News
7 October, 2026
Wimmera connections to the Western Front
Dimboola’s Pam Cupper has recently returned from leading a tour group to the Western Front and Gallipoli, with a strong representation of Wimmera and Mallee people attending the tour. Ms Cupper, alongside her husband Phil Taylor, co-authored the first modern guidebook to Gallipoli, titled Gallipoli: A Battlefield Guide, published in 1989.
Dimboola’s Pam Cupper has recently returned from leading a tour group to the Western Front and Gallipoli, with a strong representation of Wimmera and Mallee people attending the tour.
Ms Cupper, alongside her husband Phil Taylor, co-authored the first modern guidebook to Gallipoli, titled Gallipoli: A Battlefield Guide, published in 1989.
She has travelled multiple times to Gallipoli and the Western Front and, in recent years, has begun leading tours.
In 2017, she led members of the Horsham Historical Society and others on a tour of the Western Front after the Historical Society had researched for Strewth! An Insight into Local Involvement in World War One.
Eager to share her historical knowledge of battlefields, she led another tour in 2019, and again in September this year, which extended to include Gallipoli.
Ms Cupper reached out to Wimmera Mallee News following an article published in TheWimmera Mail-Times and The Warracknabeal Herald on Friday, October 2, 2026, titled 'Australia's last action: The Battle of Montbrehain.'
“Our Battlefields Tour to Gallipoli and the Western Front (during September this year) included a number of western Victorians, some with family connections to the action at Montbrehain on October 5, 1918,” Ms Cupper said.
“Geoff Stratford, now of Stawell, had accompanied our tour in 2019 and again this year.
“Geoff's grandfather, Lance Corporal Albert Stratford, from Nhill, served with the 2nd Pioneer Battalion, AIF, and was awarded the Military Medal for his actions at Montbrehain on October 5, 1918.”
The citation from his award includes the description that his platoon 'came under heavy fire from the left flank where an enemy machine gun and some infantry had taken up a position.
L.Cpl Stratford went forward with a Lewis Gun and eventually succeeded in silencing fire from that quarter... He also covered the retirement of another platoon ... About five minutes later another party of enemy infantry accompanied by a machine gun attacked from the front.
This N.C.O immediately engaged them, stopped their advance, and kept up a heavy counter-fire till he was seriously wounded.'
L.Cpl Stratford survived the war and worked as a woodworking machinist.
Many Australians did not survive Australia's last battle of the war, as the great military historian Charles Bean wrote of the capture of Montbrehain, 'some astonishing deeds were done, but many splendid leaders killed.’
The village of Montbrehain was the most easterly point reached by the AIF on the Western Front, shattering Germany’s last major military barrier before the Armistice was declared the following month.
“Among those killed were some who had landed at Gallipoli in 1915 and served, often with distinction, for the following three years,” Ms Cupper said.
“One of those was (as referred to in the article published on Friday, October 2, 2026), Lindsay Ranson, an Ararat bank clerk who had served at Gallipoli, and his grave is in Calvaire Cemetery in Montbrehain.”
“Another man with western Victorian connections was Driver Keith McRae, grandfather of Don McRae, former Horsham resident.
“McRae served with the 22nd Infantry Battalion, AIF, landed at Gallipoli in September 1915 and served on the Western Front.
“On November 6, 1918, just five days before the Armistice, the battalion was warned to prepare again to take their place on the front line.
“On November 11, the battalion formed up on the Parade Ground at St Vaast, France, behind the front line.
“They carried out their training schedule until, at 10.30am, news of the Armistice reached battalion headquarters: a runner was sent to carry the good news to the parade ground.
“The battalion marched through the village playing national anthems and hoisted French and Australian flags.”