Australian Governor-General Commemorates Centenary of Battle of Polygon Wood

Australian Governor-General Peter Cosgrove paid tribute to soldiers killed in the Battle of Polygon Wood in a cemetery in Ieper, Belgium, on September 25, a day ahead of the 100th anniversary of the war.

At least 5,770 Anzacs were killed during the campaign in fending off German forces in Belgium.

Sir Peter paid particular interest to the grave of 20-year-old Private Patrick Joseph Bugden, a hotelier from Lismore, who was killed during the opening days of the battle. The Australian War Memorial had a description of Bugden: “On two occasions, when held up by intense fire from machine-guns, he led small parties to silence the enemy posts. Five times he rescued wounded men trapped by intense shelling and machine-gun fire. Once, seeing that an Australian corporal had been taken prisoner, he single-handedly rushed to his comrade’s aid, shooting and bayoneting the enemy. He kept fighting until he was killed.”

“Young Bugden, he stands for all. And today and every day we should be thinking that our nation rests upon the shoulders of the men and women who gave their all for their nation, in the First World War… and many other conflicts thereafter. So, lest we forget,” Sir Peter says in this video. Credit: Governor-General of Australia via Storyful