Western Front, Belgium and France (Part 4)

Our last visit to the Western Front was to Bellenglise. The nearby towns of St Quention and Bullecourt are well-known but the 4th Australian Division memorial is at Bellenglise because that was the point reached by the division before it withdrew for rest just before peace was declared.

We couldn't find the memorial and finally asked a local who hopped into his little van and led us down a rough track to the site. We would never have driven down the track! And there was only one small sign tucked away on a side street. It's not even marked on Google maps.

4th Australian Division memorial, Bellenglise

4th Australian Division memorial, Bellenglise

4th Australian Division memorial, Bellenglise

We were particularly interested in the Bellenglise battle site because Phil's grandfather, Roy Phelan, was badly injured there late in 1918 (he was hit on his head with shrapnel but recovered fully despite losing a large piece of his skull). I've read his unit's diary and as far as I can work out Roy was near the present village of Pontruet at the time.

Swede harvest in fields at Pontruet near Bellenglise.

Castletown

Grandpa Phelan's grandfather, Daniel Phelan, left his new wife Jane in Ireland and went to Melbourne where he started work immediately as a warden at Melbourne Gaol. Daniel's home town was Castletown in Queens County (now called County Laois and pronounced something like 'lowsh'). Jane came from somewhere in Donegal and joined Daniel nearly two years later.

We drove into the village and the first thing we saw was Phelan's Newsagent! So we went in and bought a local paper. There's very little left of the old village left, but we were surprised to see how wide the main street was - I don't think it was ever a market town requiring the extra width. And we've been through a lot of Irish villages where the narrow main road twists and turns. We've also met a few Phelans around Kilkenny and Waterford - it's a common name around here. And when we booked into a B & B by phone today we didn't even have to spell the name.