RAA Liaison Letter 2024 - 2025 Edition

RAA L I A I SON L ETTER 2024 – 2025 E D I T I ON C ANNON BALL S UP PLEMENT 154 The bronzes on the 1971 Memorial do not carry the artist’s name nor the captions. Below is the image of the new bronze on the Memorial, photographed circa 2019 (Courtesy of Major Terry Brennan). Conclusions The Regiment’s ‘Bringing Up The Guns’ plaster relief is of heritage value to more than the RAA; it is an icon. It is stored at the School of Artillery. It is notable that Brigadier Barker who was a model for the relief and was given the relief by the artist, regarded it as a permanent reminder of his Army life, and gifted it to the School of Artillery. Barker is also recognised by the RAAHC amongst a select few ‘Gunners of Renown’. The provenance of the plaster relief is strongly assured due to Barker’s involvement. Is it a coincidence that the relief is associated with 8 August 1918 and the relief was positioned so Gunners would pass by it on their way to be seated for annual Gunner Dinners at North Head? We may never know. Whether or not there was a conscious understanding of the link between the origin of the date for celebrating Gunner Dinners, the date the relief depicts artistically, and its positioning at the Mess entrance is immaterial. In the end it makes for a good story. The ‘Bringing Up The Guns’ plaster relief is almost certainly an original and an important piece of war art; it deserves to be cared for and recognised as part of the Regiment’s heritage. . Recommendations: Display - Learning Centre or School of Artillery. It is recommended that the plaster relief be prominently displayed at the School of Artillery or considered for inclusion in the (to be built) ‘Learning Centre’. It could be linked to and highlight the significance of the massive fire- plan of 8 August 1918, an event that stands out in the history of Australian Artillery and is the origin of annual August Gunner Dinners. FIRST WORLD WAR GUNNERS IN ART ‘BRINGING UP THE GUNS, MONT ST QUENTIN AUGUST 8, 1918’ is a rare and significant item of war art from 1923-25. It is the artist’s pattern for the creation of a bronze relief panel, which with its memorial was destroyed by the Germans in World War 2. The Australian War Memorial, in recognition of the significance of the bronze had a copy recast in 1996, displaying it in Canberra. In 1923 the Australian war artist May Butler-George created two bronze reliefs for what became the infamous 2nd Australian Division Memorial at Mont St Quentin in France. Infamous and provocative because on the memorial was a larger-than-life Australian digger bayoneting a German eagle as a symbol of victory. The Memorial was dedicated in 1925, destroyed in by German soldiers in 1940, and rebuilt in 1971. The graphic May Butler-George plaster relief depicts an 18 pounder Gun Detachment straining while bringing their gun into action in battle while a damaged aircraft plummets to earth. A Gunner who modelled for May Butler- George was given the plaster relief. Brigadier L.E.S. Barker CBE DSO MC subsequently gifted the relief to the Regiment in his retirement. The largest fireplan by the Australian Imperial Force in WW1 was on 8 August 1918. Since the 1920’s, Gunner Dinners have occurred in August to commemorate the 1918 action.