St John's Cathedral, Brisbane and the Anzac Legend

During the First World War, Australian soldiers did not fight on the Western Front until 1916. The burden of the war effort against Germany in France and Belgium was initially shouldered by the French and British armies. The latter, known as the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), was a highly-trained professional army, proficient in rapid and accurate rifle fire. The BEF left England for Belgium in August 1914. However, it was a small force, much smaller than Germany’s or that of France. It was also deficient in shell power and in the next four months, fighting in horrific conditions, the BEF was almost totally wiped out in the Battles of Mons, Le Cateau, Marne and Aisne and the ferocious battle of First Ypres. Some regiments lost almost 90 per cent of their original strength. Despite this, the BEF, with their French allies, remained undefeated, maintaining the front line against the Imperial German Army, inflicting high casualities on the enemy and destroying their expectation of a quick victory. The BEF held out until the British and French contingents in Europe were eventually reinforced by volunteer British troops, and by soldiers from British Empire units including, from 1916, the Australians and New Zealanders. When the war broke out in 1914 the German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, allegedly issued orders to his generals to exterminate the treacherous English and march over General French’s contemptible little army. The Kaiser was referring to the BEF under the English commander Field Marshal Sir John French. Over time the name “contemptible” stuck and the survivors of the BEF wore it as a badge of honour, forming an Association after the war known as the ‘Old Contemptibles’. Some of the survivors of the BEF migrated to Queensland, forming a Queensland branch of the Old Contemptibles which regularly took part in Anzac Day marches alongside Australian ex-service men and

women until the last surviving members of the Association passed away. But before the Queensland Association dissolved, its members erected a stained-glass window in St John’s Cathedral commemorating their BEF colleagues who had fought and died on the Western Front. The window shows two BEF soldiers in battledress kneeling in front of an altar, receiving a blessing from a priest before going off to war. Four battle honours, “Mons”, “Marne”, “Aisne” and “Ypres”, are inscribed on the window at the bottom. The window was designed by William Bustard (1894-1973), one of Queensland’s foremost painters, stained-glass artists and book illustrators, who had also fought in the British Army during the war.

Opposite page: Window in the Cathedral showing two members of the British Expeditionary Force of 1914 (the ‘Old Contemptibles’) receiving a priestly blessing before heading to the Western Front.

Ken Lilley / St John’s Cathedral

A sketch of the ‘Old Contemptibles’ (the British Expeditionary Force) disembarking in France in 1914 en route to war with Germany. The smiles on these soldiers’ faces were soon to fade in the horrific fighting which followed.

World War One Photos

The Cathedral has many stained- glass windows by him in addition to a beautiful altar backdrop in the Cathedral’s Lady Chapel. Paintings by Bustard are also held by the Queensland Art Gallery, the Australian War Memorial and by private collectors. The Old Contemptibles Association had 178 branches in Britain and 14 branches overseas. They held their very last parade at Aldershot in England on 4 August 1974, taking tea with the Queen. As Robin Neillands writes, “That done, they folded their standards and passed into history.”

Following pages: Queensland members of the Old Contemptibles Association march on Anzac Day in Brisbane c. 1954.

State Library of Queensland

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