After touring the World War 1 battlefields last year, we are now fund-raising to help ensure soldiers still being found in Flanders fields are given a proper burial.

We were moved by stories told to us by a Belgian man, Johan Vandewalle, who has made it his life’s work to recover the bodies of fallen soldiers. Johan told us how he had exhumed the bodies of hundreds of men, of all nationalities, but many more still needed to be recovered and given a dignified burial.

Johan’s research revealed that one of the bodies was that of John Hunter who died in the arms of his younger brother Jim and was buried by him in a temporary cemetery.

When Jim returned in 1918 to take the remains of his brother back to Australia the terrain was so badly destroyed by artillery shelling that he couldn’t find the grave. Jim died in 1975 long before his brother was found.

The story made Johan determined to build a memorial to all brothers lost in World War 1 and he has been fund-raising to complete it with a bronze statue of John and Jim Hunter.

Please give whatever you can to help Johan finish his project and help preserve the memory of all those lost in World War 1, Lest We Forget.