Ascot resident Sue Hall with a scrapbook full of her family’s history.
Camera IconAscot resident Sue Hall with a scrapbook full of her family’s history. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Ascot resident to travel to France to honour centenary of great uncle’s death in WWI

Aaron CorlettSouthern Gazette

ASCOT resident Sue Hall will travel to France to honour her great uncle during an emotional Anzac Day service.

He enlisted as Fred Anderson, although his legal name was Fritz Bechtel, and died on April 25, 1918 after serving with the Australian Imperial Forces on the Western Front.

He was buried at Bonnay Communal Cemetery, not far from the modern day Australian National Memorial at Villers Bretonneux.

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“I previously went over in 2009 and my husband brought some soil over from here and put it on his grave,” Mrs Hall said.

A photo of Fred Bechtel/Fred Anderson.
Camera IconA photo of Fred Bechtel/Fred Anderson. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

“I’m expecting it to be emotional, especially the Anzac Day service.

“I’ll be going over with my husband and a few family members.”

Bechtel spent part of childhood at a house in Rivervale, which was called Tanunda at the time but is now known as Hill 60.

He was wounded on April 24 at Villers Bretonneaux, when he sustained a gunshot wound to the abdomen, and was taken to a nearby hospital where he died the next day.

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