Stephen Featherstone, from the Central Coast of NSW, was on a Mat McLachlan Battlefield Tour of the Western Front when he met Johnson Beharry VC at the historic Menin Gate in the medieval Belgium town of Ypres, where the Last Post service is performed every evening at 8pm.
Who is Johnson Beharry VC?
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration for gallantry in the British and Commonwealth armed forces, awarded only for the most extreme acts of bravery in the face of the enemy. It is exceptionally rare — fewer than 1,400 have ever been awarded since the medal’s creation in 1856.
In 2004, Johnson Beharry, then a young private with the 1st Battalion, Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, performed two separate acts of heroism while serving in Al-Amarah, Iraq, which would see him awarded his Victoria Cross. On 1 May 2004, Beharry drove his badly damaged Warrior armoured vehicle through an ambush, exposing himself to enemy fire, to lead his crew and five other vehicles to safety. Weeks later, on 11 June, his vehicle was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade that exploded just centimetres from his head. Despite catastrophic head injuries, he retained enough consciousness to reverse the vehicle out of the kill zone, saving the lives of his crew, before collapsing.
Johnson Beharry’s Victoria Cross was announced on 18 March 2005 and presented to him by Queen Elizabeth II that April. He became the first living soldier since 1969 — when Australians Keith Payne and Rayene Stewart Simpson were honoured for actions in Vietnam — to receive the award and remains one of only a handful of living VC recipients in the world today.
The Menin Gate’s 99th anniversary: a place of eternal remembrance
Mat McLachlan Battlefield Tours travellers met Johnson Beharry VC at one of the most significant memorials on the Western Front – The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing was unveiled on 24 July 1927 and bears the names of more than 54,000 Commonwealth soldiers who died in the Ypres Salient during the First World War and have no known grave. Every evening at 8pm, without fail since 1928 (save for the German occupation years of WWII), buglers sound the Last Post beneath the memorial’s arches — a ceremony that has now been performed tens of thousands of times.
Next year, July 2027, marks the Centenary of the Menin Gate, and Mat McLachlan Battlefield Tours will run a special 5-day Western Front Explorer tour timed to coincide with the milestone.
110th Anniversaries of Anzac on the Western Front – the Battle of Fromelles: a lost Anzac finally laid to rest, Pozieres archaeological dig
The Mat McLachlan Battlefield Tour also coincided with the 110th anniversary of the Battle of Fromelles, fought on 19–20 July 1916 — the first major battle undertaken by Australian troops on the Western Front, and one that claimed around 5,500 Australian casualties in a single night, making it Australia’s worst 24 hours of the entire war.
Travellers attended a special commemoration service marking the anniversary, which included a poignant rededication ceremony for a newly identified Anzac soldier – Private Roy Leslie Martin, a 20-year-old from Cobar, NSW, who was killed at Fromelles and lay in a mass grave at Pheasant Wood for a century. 110 years on, Private Roy Leslie Martin has been identified by DNA analysis and historical research — allowing him to be laid to rest under his named headstone.
Adding to the significance of the trip, the group travelled with Lambis Englezos — the Melbourne man whose research led to the 2008 discovery of the “Lost Diggers of Fromelles,” the mass grave near Pheasant Wood, Fromelles containing the remains of 250 Commonwealth soldiers, including Private Martin. Lambis Englezos’ discovery is credited as one of the most significant war-grave discoveries in Australian history.
And, the group visited the archaeological dig currently underway in Pozieres – a 6 week dig being undertaken by Flinders University and Project Warhorse – to uncover communication trenches, map tactical layouts, and potentially locate a missing German 5.9-inch howitzer gun.
Exploring The Western Front
All Mat McLachlan Battlefield Tours are led by expert Historians who bring the history to life. 2026 and 2027 mark the 110th anniversaries of many of the significant Australian battles fought on the Western Front, and Mat McLachlan Battlefield Tours’ 4-day Western Front Explorer tours — with weekly departures from Paris — are timed to coincide with these milestone commemorations and make it possible to visit the Western Front on any Europe trip. Bookings for 2026 4-day Western Front Explorers are still available, and 2027 is open. A special 5-day Western Front Explorer will also mark the Centenary of the Menin Gate in July 2027. Anzac Day 2027 tours are open to book, and pre-registration is available for the 2027 Anniversary of Fromelles tour with Lambis Englezos.
Next year, the new range of Mat McLachlan History Cruises will also align with key WWI and WWII anniversaries, including Anzac Day and D-Day in Normandy, as well as offering travellers the chance to explore Waterloo, where Napoleon met his final defeat. The Mat McLachlan Signature Cruise coincides with the 110th anniversary of the Battle of Menin Road near Ypres in Belgium, and the 83rd anniversary of the largest airborne assault in history — WWII’s Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands.
