Ballarat Heritage Weekend will be launched this year with the unveiling of a commemorative bronze statue of ‘Pompey’ Elliott in Sturt Street Boulevard Gardens by Ballarat Mayor Craig Fletcher and General Peter Cosgrove, AC, MC.
The unveiling will take place on Saturday 7 May at 9.30am in the Sturt Street Gardens (between Doveton Street and Dawson Street).
The statue by Louis Laumen was commissioned to mark Pompey Elliott’s incredible contribution to Australia’s military history and local connections.
Laumen worked from photographs, including those held by the Australian War Memorial Canberra to create the finely detailed statue. The sculptor spent at least two weeks perfecting the fine detail on the bronze, including the texture of Elliott’s military decorations and the buttons on his tunic.
Harold ‘Pompey’ Elliott went to Ballarat College in 1895. His final year was distinguished by his being named Dux.
Following school, he served with distinction with the 4th Imperial Contingent in the Boer War in South Africa, joined the militia on return and by the start of the Great War was a militia battalion commander.
Elliott raised the 7th Battalion AIF and fought at Gallipoli. In 1916 he became the Commander of the 15th Brigade, a position he held for the rest of the war. Post war, Elliott returned to his legal practice and became a Senator for Victoria.
Ballarat Mayor Craig Fletcher said Pompey Elliott gave much to his country and it is only fitting that we as a community, and as a nation remember men like him.
“Major General Harold Edward (Pompey) Elliott is one of Ballarat’s most distinguished sons”.
“There is no doubt that the quality of life that we enjoy in this country today was built on the bravery, strength and determination of men like Pompey Elliott.”
For further information on Ballarat Heritage Weekend 2011 visit www.ballaratheritageweekend.com or contact 1800 44 66 33.
Lecture and Exhibition on Pompey Elliott
Conducted by Ross McMullin, author of the Pompey Elliott Biography
Ballarat Clarendon College, 1425 Sturt Street, Ballarat
Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 May, 2pm
Background information:
Major General Harold Edward (Pompey) Elliott - (1878 - 1931)
Born on 19 June 1878, West Charlton, Victoria
Death: 23 March 1931, (suicide) Melbourne
Occupation: army officer, barrister, colonial militia (Australia), liberal/conservative politician, Member of the Senate, solicitor.
Elliot was educated at Ballarat College and at Ormond College, University of Melbourne where he won many scholarships and prizes; he was also a champion athlete.
He had a distinguished military career which saw him serve at some of the most famous engagements of the war including: Gallipoli where he was wounded on the day of landing; Lone Pine; Villers-Bretonneux, Fromelles and on the Western Front. He was wounded several times; mentioned in dispatches and awarded medals for valour.
Elliott served with distinction in South Africa in 1900-02; awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal; congratulated by Lord Kitchener and mentioned in dispatches.
He was called to the Bar of Victoria and the Commonwealth; he also set up a firm of solicitors, H. E. Elliott & Co.
He returned to the army in 1904.
His massive frame, his energy, strength of character and explosive temper quickly established him as one of the characters of the force. His men called him 'Pompey'. Hard training and stern discipline were the foundations on which he built the 7th at Broadmeadows and in Egypt.
On the day of the Gallipoli landing, 25 April 1915, Elliott was wounded and evacuated, returning in June. He soon won a reputation for cool courage.
At Lone Pine he relieved part of the 1st Brigade and in the next twenty-four hours repulsed the Turkish counter-attacks by furious close-quarter fighting and bombing. Of the seven Victoria Crosses awarded for Lone Pine, four went to Elliott's battalion but his own work was not recognized.
In March 1916 he was promoted to brigadier general; in July Elliott began his service on the Western Front where he fought in most of the great battles of the A.I.F.
He trained his brigade to become 'a magnificently effective instrument', but sustained appalling losses in battles such as Fromelles, their first action, when his two assaulting battalions suffered 1452 casualties in less than twenty-four hours.
Elliott had protested about the hopelessness of the task; he was in the front line at zero hour and visited his troops before they were withdrawn - 'no one who was present will ever forget the picture of him, the tears streaming down his face, as he shook hands with the returning survivors'.
He also fought in the battle of Polygon Wood in September 1917, where his brother Captain G. S. Elliott, a Military Cross winner, was killed, and a letter from home revealed the collapse of Elliott’s legal firm leaving him with a debt of £5000.
He was also involved in the famous counter-attack at Villers-Bretonneux
He was wounded again in August 1918 but remained on duty.
Since 1915 he had been appointed C.B. and C.M.G. and had been awarded the Distinguished Service Order, the Russian Order of St Anne and the French Croix de Guerre. He was mentioned in dispatches seven times and in a special order of the day by the commander of the French 31st Corps.
When he returned to Melbourne in June 1919 Elliott began to rebuild his firm but by September he was back in the militia as commander of the 15th Brigade.
Elected to the senate in 1919 as a Nationalist and topped the Victorian poll; he was re-elected in 1925. During his career he spoke on a wide range of topics especially on the Federal capital and defence.
He was involved in the affairs of returned soldiers and was chiefly responsible for redrafting the constitution of the Returned Sailors' and Soldiers' Imperial League of Australia.
In 1926, Elliott again commanded the 15th Brigade and next year the 3rd Division. He was promoted major general in August 1927.
His later life was coloured by his disappointments at not receiving the promotions he believed he was due. He admitted: 'The injustice of the position as I conceive it has actually coloured all my post war life'.
Elliott's deep and abiding sense of injustice combined with the strain of his war service and his ceaseless activity to undermine his health.
Early in 1931 he was found with a wound in the arm and was rushed to hospital where he died on 23 March.
An inquest returned a verdict of suicide.
'Pompey' Elliott was buried with full military honours in Burwood cemetery. His wife and children survived him.
The Ballarat Foundation
The Ballarat Foundation has helped facilitate the project by being the organisation which has applied for funding and permits to allow the project to proceed.
The Ballarat Foundation is Ballarat and region’s Community Foundation, an independent community-owned organisation dedicated to enhancing the quality of life of the people of Ballarat and surrounding communities.
Ballarat Foundation does this by attracting and investing endowment resources, using income from investments to make relevant grants to help meet community needs.
Louis Laumen - Sculptor
Began work on the Pompey Elliott commission in October 2010.
He has worked from photographs, including those held by the Australian War Memorial Canberra to bring the 1 and ¼ size bronze to life.
His work has been painstaking – he spent two weeks perfecting the fine detail on the bronze, including the texture of Elliott’s military decorations and the buttons on his tunic.
Louis Laumen specialises in portraiture with a long list of commissions at venues such at the MCG; the Marleybone Cricket Club, London; the Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne; Parliament Gardens, Melbourne; NSW Parliament.
Two other Laumen statues are located in Ballarat: Sir Albert Coates, Sturt St; Sir Henry Bolte, Gold Museum.