Codford Anzacs

In 1917 Phil's grandfather, Roy Phelan, was at a training camp based at Codford south of the Salisbury Plain. We know quite a bit about his time there because he wrote a lot of letters to his then fiancee (and future wife) Annie Sims. So we went to have a look at the village, the Lamb Down Chalk Badge and the Anzac cemetery.

There are a number of large stylised horse shapes cut into the chalk slopes on the Salisbury Plain and in 1917 an Australian Brigade Commander had the idea of cutting a Rising Sun into the chalk. In 1942 it was buried to prevent it becoming a bomb target and uncovered again after the war.

There are 97 ANZAC troops from Australia and New Zealand buried in this cemetery, men evacuated from the front line to the hospital in this area. This war grave cemetery is the second largest in England.