Australians Commemorated in Digswell

The Tablet in Memory

Robert Gill

Memorial to the Australian Officers

Robert Gill

Names on the Memory Tablet

Robert Gill

Digswell House and adjacent St John's Church (1928)

Digswell House

Australian officers and nurses at Digswell House

Campus West Library

Australian flag presented to St John's Church by Gen. Sir W Birdwood

Robert Gill

Commemorative plaque

Robert Gill

During World War One, many Australian officers who were injured in France were brought to Digswell House which was in use as a hospital. Following their recovery and a period of convalescence, they were sent back to the front, some 73 of whom were subsequently killed.    Their names are commemorated on a marble tablet inside St John’s Church, Digswell. Digswell House and St John’s Church, Digswell are to the north of present day Welwyn Garden City.

The names on the Memory Tablet:

From The Argus (an Australian newspaper), October 15, 1921

 Memorial to Australians.

LONDON, Oct. 14.

Major-General Sir H-B. Walker, who served with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force; from 1914 to 1918, and with the British Expeditionary Force in France, un-veiled yesterday a marble tablet erected by Australians in the parish church of Digswell, Hertfordshire, to the memory of 73 Australian officers who were patients in hospital there, and who afterwards died on active service.

St John’s Church has an Australian Flag which was presented by General Sir W Birdwood. A Plaque commemorates this event.