THE niece of an Anzac soldier based in Weymouth during the First World War is helping to set up a website in honour of the troops.
Anne McCosker-Buckley’s uncle Frederick Martin was among the thousands of troops from Australia and New Zealand who spent time in military camps in Weymouth while waiting to be taken back home or return to fighting.
An Anzac (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) memorial stands on the Esplanade to commemorate the soldiers.
Today is Anzac Day and it will be marked with a service at 10.30am at the seafront memorial, organised by Weymouth and Portland Borough Council.
Mrs McCosker-Buckley, an author and poet who grew up in Queensland, Australia, only discovered her uncle’s connection with Weymouth after moving to the town in 2006. She had lived in other parts of England for 40 years with husband Richard Buckley before moving to Radipole Lane.
Mrs McCosker-Buckley, 68, said: “It wasn’t until after I got here that I started reading my uncle’s letters that I have never been able to open because the memories were too painful. I then realised why I wanted to come here for so long.”
Mrs McCosker-Buckley can even see from her bedroom window Westham Camp, where her uncle, a lieutenant in the Australian Imperial Forces, stayed for seven months in 1916, after getting injured at Gallipoli in Turkey.
She said: “It was the longest time he spent anywhere after he left Australia, before he was killed in September 1917 at Polygon Wood.”
She is now helping Weymouth and Portland Residents’ Association chairman Les Ames, and member and historian Alvin Hopper to set up a website called Anzacs in Weymouth.
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