Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Harold Arthur Esam was born in Warrnambool, Victoria on the 20th of April 1894. He was the 10th of 12 children born to parents Samuel Shuttleworth Esam and Catherine Beresford. The Esam family were long time residents of Warrnambool and its surrounding area. They arrived in the district in 1860 and continued to live, work, and develop their families throughout the following decades.
Harold would have spent his childhood in Warrnambool, with many brothers and sisters and relations in the town. He was known to his siblings as 'Arl' or 'Arlie' and was employed at Kennedy and Co's chemist in Timor St for seven years. He was described as a solid man known for enjoying the company of family. Legend has it that he was the most handsome of the family and that his favorite sibling was his younger sister 'Sis' whom he would playfully tease.
He enlisted in the A.I.F. on the 7th of July, 1915 and became a soldier of the 31st Battalion, B Company. After training his unit departed Australia for North Africa in December, 1915, and then spent six months at Alexandria, in Egypt, before disembarking at Marseilles, France on 23rd of June, 1916. Sadly within one month Harold's life would be lost in battle.
Engraved into Normandy grey marble in a field in Northern France the inscription 'Esam H.' was the only reminder of a young man who died serving his country close to a century ago. Like nearly 60,000 of his generation, Harold enlisted in the A.I.F., served, fought and died serving his country on foreign soil.
His body, along with so many others slain during a disastrous attack in July 1916 near the town of Fromelles, lay forgotten, shoved into a mass grave with hundreds of others. His relatives pressed authorities to find out where the 22 year old was buried. Four years later his mother wrote an impassioned letter to the Australian Army's records office in 1920 searching for more information about the final resting place of her son and her need for a war pension. But no one knew his final resting place. Until some 90 years later.
In 2009 Private Esam's descendants Stan Griffin and Kathy McGillivray, along with other relatives supplied their DNA to be matched with that taken from remains found in a mass grave near Fromelles. Early in March of 2010, archaeologists, scientists and historians working at the site known as Pheasant Wood came back with a result. They had found Harold Esam after 93 years.
The young Warrnambool labourer was among 75 Australians identified from a possible 250 soldiers, in a project to help give the missing Diggers a proper burial. We can thank Australian, Lambis Englezos, who was instrumental in locating these men and placing pressure on the Australian Government to act.
Mr Griffin said his mother, Private Esam's sister would have been overjoyed by the news of her brother's identification. He said the family had always assumed that Harold Esam was buried at nearby V.C. Corner, where his name had been engraved into a memorial to those who were never found or could be identified. But this belief was never rock solid and Mr Griffin thought it was prudent to further investigate the final resting place of his long-lost uncle.
Mr Griffin said. "Our mother (May Griffin, nee Esam) was very proud of Harold. She had his portrait hanging in her living room, Mr Griffin's sister said she understood her mother, and her uncle, were quite close before they parted when Private Esam was sent to Egypt for training. Private Esam served only three weeks on the Western Front before being killed in the Australian's first significant engagement there. "I think it was something which probably quite annoyed her, having her brother taken away from her when he still had so much life left. It's such a short period of time before he was killed. He was only in France a couple of weeks but in some ways he has been there a long time too, given that he's been buried there."

Taken from Warrnambool Standard articles written by Alex Sinnott, Peter Collins, Mary Alexander, & Jenny McLaren.

Article below was published in the Warrnambool Standard on Friday 22 March 1918.

Pte J. V. Collings, 6th Company, 31st Battalion, Australian prisoner of war, Kriegsgefangenenhager, Hammelburg, Baviere, Germany, writes to Mrs. S. S. Esam, Banyan St, Warrnambool.
"Perhaps you will be surprised to get a letter from me. As this address of your son was given to me by a German the time I was taken prisoner on the 19th July, 1916. I was often going to write, but thinking perhaps, he had no mother and that was just the address he was working at, I never gave it much thought. But I often thought since, that perhaps he had a mother at home like myself, worrying herself to death. I knew Harold Esam, he was in my Company and in the charge on the evening of the 19th July 1916. He was hit beside me and I think, killed as he never uttered a word. Just after, I, myself, was wounded in fire. I crawled into a shell hole and did not see Harold again, but the following morning when I was taken prisoner a German gave me a piece of paper with his address on. So if you have not heard from him, he has gone to that great place where there are no wars. Of course I do not know if there is a Mrs Esam, but perhaps this letter will get to some of his brothers or sisters. If this letter gives you any relief, please drop me a line, as this is written from one who has a mother at home and who has a brother also, who has gone to that great beyond."
(Private Harold Esam was killed in action on July 19th, 1916 in the charge mentioned by Pte. Collings)

2010 Anzac Luncheon given by the Premier John Brumby.

“On this Anzac Day many Australians will join those families in remembering the Lost Diggers of Fromelles. And they will reflect on the unimaginable sacrifice of Australian soldiers across the Western front between July 1916 and October 1918.
In all, around 50,000 diggers lost their lives. But it was in Fromelles, at the beginning of that campaign, that our nation suffered a terrible blow. Over 1900 Australians lost their lives in a single day and the casualty toll exceeded 5500. It was carnage on a massive scale. In fact, so horrific were the losses and so disastrous was the military campaign at Fromelles, that the events of July 19, 1916 were covered up for generations and effectively airbrushed from Australia's wartime history. But things are changing now. The unveiling of the Cobbers statue at the Shrine of Remembrance in 2008 was a significant moment for our nation. It marked redemption and recognition for the thousands of Australians who lost their lives so far from home in the service of their country. And it marked redemption for their families, their children, their grandchildren and their great grandchildren and for all those they left behind.”