Aust WWI cemetery near London attacked
By Julian Drape, AAP Europe Correspondent
April 25, 2015, 9:53 am
An attack on a World War I cemetery near London containing the graves of more than 100 Australians should not deter people from attending Anzac Day services, UK High Commissioner Alexander Downer says.
An Australian flagpole has been cut at Harefield churchyard while a memorial and an information panel have been peppered with blue spray paint.
Some 112 Australians are buried at the small Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Middlesex, 30km northwest of London.
"While we are not sure of the motivation of this vandalism the report is very disappointing," Mr Downer told AAP in a statement.
"(But) Australians should continue with their plans for Anzac Day.
"There are more than 45 commemorative events taking place across the UK and I encourage all those wishing to take part to do so."
Saturday's Anzac Day service at Harefield will proceed following repairs to the flagpole and cleaning works.
The 112 headstones were painstakingly restored earlier this year ahead of the centenary Anzac commemorations. The site had new plantings and turf laid too.
"The vandalism is very upsetting for the commission after all the work that has taken place over the last three months," a CWGC spokesman said in a statement.
The vandalism came as a 14-year-old British boy appeared in a central London court charged with encouraging a man in Australia to attack an Anzac event and carry out a terrorist beheading.
The teenager was remanded in youth detention.
British police have urged those attending Anzac Day commemorations and the London Marathon this weekend to "remain vigilant and alert".
Scotland Yard carried out a review of security arrangements for events on Saturday in the UK to mark the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign after the alleged Islamic State-plot to attack Melbourne services was exposed.
No specific threat against British events has been identified but police are urging the public to remain on alert.
Two Melbourne 18-year-old men have been charged with conspiring to commit a terrorist act while another 18-year-old, also from Melbourne, has been charged with weapons offences.
The story of Harefield dates back 100 years.
Three months after the outbreak of WWI, a wealthy Australian couple living in Britain offered the use of Harefield House and its grounds to Australia's defence department.
At first a convalescent home for wounded soldiers of the Australian Imperial Force, it became the 1000-bed, No.1 Australian Auxiliary Hospital after additional huts were built.
Of the 50,000 patients treated there, 112 didn't recover and died, including the only woman buried in the cemetery, Australian army nurse Ruby Dickinson.
Each Anzac Day, local villagers gather in the adjacent 12th century church to pay tribute to the diggers. Local children lay fresh spring flowers on the graves.
