Prince Charles to honour indigenous WW1 hero Maitland Madge
PRINCE Charles, the future King of Australia, will pay his respects and honour the memory of indigenous war hero Maitland Madge.
PRINCE Charles — the future King of Australia — will honour the memory of indigenous war hero Maitland Madge on Wednesday at the Australian War Memorial.
The Prince of Wales and his wife Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall will commemorate Remembrance Day at the national shrine where they will place a poppy on the bronze Roll of Honour next to the names of Private Madge and Corporal Charles Orme.
Maitland Madge was born in Cooktown in 1894, the son of English migrant Richard Madge and an Aboriginal woman called Ella.
He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) at Brisbane in August 1915 and became the first indigenous soldier awarded the Military Medal (MM), for courage under fire at Pozieres on the Western Front in August 1916 where he served as a messenger with the 15th Battalion.
Private Madge was twice wounded in action in 1916 and 1918, but survived the carnage of the Somme and returned home to Queensland.
The citation for his Military Medal reads in part; “These men were continually moving to and from Company and Battalion Headquarters under intense H.E. (high explosive) artillery barrage….They showed an utter disregard of their own safety, and an admirable contempt for danger, and it was entirely owing to their self-sacrifice that the operations were so well supported by our own artillery and that Battalion and Brigade Headquarters were so closely in touch with progress of operations.”
When World War II broke out, the 45-year-old Mr Madge enlisted and in August 1941 he landed in Singapore with the 2/26 Battalion of the 8th Division.
He was captured by the Japanese in February 1942 and survived two years in the hell that was Changi prison camp where he died on June 7, 1944. He is buried at the Kranji War Cemetery near Singapore.
Corporal Orme also died during fighting in Singapore where he was posted with the 2/19th Battalion of the 22nd Brigade.
He was wounded in action in Malaya and died during the month-long Battle of Singapore just before the outpost fell.
His body was never recovered and his sacrifice is commemorated on a panel of the Singapore Memorial at Kranji.
The royal couple will meet with Corporal Orme’s grandson and former commander of Australian forces in the Middle East Major General Craig Orme, at the Memorial today.
Continuing the Remembrance Day indigenous theme at the War Memorial, the Western Courtyard Gallery will be renamed the Captain Reg Saunders Gallery in honour of the first indigenous officer in the Australian Army.
Captain Saunders MBE, from Western Victoria, served in WWII with the 2/7th Battalion in Greece and Crete and New Guinea and was commissioned in 1944.
The son of a Great War veteran also served in Korea with the 3rd Battalion and fought at the crucial battles of Kapyong and Maryang San. He died in 1990.
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