The man who wants to identify the unmarked graves of veterans in Lutwyche Cemetery
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A Brisbane man is on a mission to identify the unmarked graves of soldiers who fought in the Great War to give their families closure and respect.
Lutwyche Cemetery in Brisbane's north opened in 1878 and is home to numerous unmarked graves of soldiers from World Wars I and II.
Bribie Island RSL sub-branch vice-president Robert Hazelwood wants to help descendants of soldiers whose families struggled at the time to pay for headstones for their loved ones.
"These people need to be recognised as they are our national treasures," he said.
Mr Hazelwood recently worked with the McCormack family to get a headstone installed for their descendant Warrant Officer Class One Robert McCormack.
McCormack was killed in a freak accident at the age of 50 after having served in both World Wars.
"He served in Egypt, the Middle East and then went to New Guinea," Mr Hazelwood said.
"In World War I he was gassed and it knocked his lungs around and he had to go to England twice when he had pneumonia, but he got through two World Wars unscathed."
Mr Hazelwood helped the family by researching McCormack's history and burial details to locate his burial plot.
"The family arrived with a lot of information about his service and they knew he was at Lutwyche Cemetery but had no idea which grave was his as there was no identification," he said.
"We did some research and found exactly where it was."
Connecting to the past
Mr Hazelwood said that seeing the McCormack family when they recently held a service for their relative made him realise how important it was to get all the graves identified.
"It was a very emotional day for his family and to have his descendants here was moving," Mr Hazelwood said.
"We had the grave set up with the Australian flag and the 303 with a tin hat on top as a mark of respect for those people in World War I and it was such a wonderful day for them."
Mr Hazelwood wants more families with veteran descendants who may be buried at the cemetery to come forward to help identify the graves.
"I can do research into their background and help with details and many of the families could be eligible for Australian war grave financial assistance."
Topics: history, world-war-1, world-war-2, unrest-conflict-and-war, human-interest, kedron-4031, brisbane-4000
