Mont Huon Military Cemetery, France - Reunification Ceremony.

A ceremony was held on Friday 20th July 2018 at Mont Huon Military Cemetery, France to inter the partial remains of an Australian First World War soldier.

 

Private Thomas Hurdis was wounded in action during the Battle of Polygon Wood, Belgium on the 26 September 1917. Despite medical treatment he died of his wounds in a military hospital at Le Treport on 3 October 1917. His partial remains were retained for pathological study purposes, while he was substantively buried in a formal cemetery.

 

The re-unification service was attended by family, the Australian Ambassador to France, local officials and Commission staff.

 

An American medical museum has agreed to hand over to Australian authorities for burial the skull of a world war one Anzac servicemen who died of horrendous facial wounds a century ago.

 

The Mütter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia confirmed in a statement it would hand over the skull, which has been independently established to be that of Private Thomas Hurdis of the 59th Battalion Australian Imperial Force who died on 3 October 1917.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/oct/04/us-museum-to-hand-over-skull-of-australian-soldier

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/23/australian-soldiers-skull-taken-from-us-museum-and-buried-with-remains-in-france