PEOPLE of the Logan area are being asked to help solve a 100-year-old mystery of a fallen hero.
At a conference last year, members of the Logan River Family History Society were given a photo which had been in storage for some time.
The photo was of William Zornig who died while fighting in France during the first World War.
While it’s known who the man is, it’s not known whether any relatives remain in his home town of Beenleigh.
“He gave it to us in the hope that we could find someone from his family who would like to have it,” history society president Robert Thomson said.
“We are hoping to restore the portrait to William’s present-day family but, at the time of writing, no one has contacted us.”
Mr Zornig was born in Ipswich on 26 February 1896. His grandfather had taken up farming in Dugandan after immigrating to Queensland in 1863.
His parents were Herman Frederick and Elizabeth Kate Zornig. However, William’s father must have moved his family to the Beenleigh area as William and three of his siblings are recorded as pupils of Beenleigh School in 1907 and 1908.
When William enlisted in the AIF on September 5, 1916, he was 20 years old and working as a night officer with the Railways.
He embarked on the A74 Marathon and disembarked in Plymouth. He celebrated his 21st Birthday with friends in England before proceeding to France in March 1917.
In May 1918 William went into no-man’s land to assist a downed pilot and was wounded by machine gun fire.
Sergeants Gerald Fitzgerald and W D Dickson went out under a white flag and brought them both back. However, before William got to the dressing station, he died when a shell exploded near him.
The two men who went out to bring William and the pilot back received military medals.
“Surely William should have received one as well but did not,” Mr Thomson said.
He was buried in the Adelaide Cemetery, Villiers Bretonneux. His headstone bears the inscription ‘GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN’.
His loving family inserted a Memorium notice in the Brisbane Courier on May 16, 1919.
Only a grave of a hero
Only a mound of earth
Far from the land of wattle
The place that gave him birth
Somewhere in France he’s lying
He answered his country’s call
And died an Australian hero
Fighting to save us all.
The photo is currently on the wall of the research rooms at Logan River Family History Society.
