Tree 1706, Private Everett Mark Rickard, The Avenue of Honour, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.

The Ballarat Avenue of Honour is significant as the earliest known memorial avenue to have been planted in Victoria, Australia. The trees were planted in order of the soldiers enlistment ( from Ballarat and surrounds) , and stretched some 22km along the Western Highway, consisting of 3,771 trees.? On 3 June 1917, the first 1,000 trees in the Avenue were planted by staff from the local textile mill E. Lucas & Co. Just over two years later the final planting took place on 16 August 1919, with a total of 3,771 trees.

Private Everett Mark Rickard 5906
22nd Battalion A.I.F.

Enlisted: Aged 19 years and 5 months: 15th May 1916 (Wd. & Missing. May 03/2017)
“I know that No. 5906 Pte Rickard R.M. was very badly wounded on the
5.5.17. I last saw him in a shell hole and I don’t think the stretcher
bearers ever reached him. It was impossible for me to carry him out as he offered agonizing pains when moved about. I feel certain that he could not live.”
Statement made by No. 5565 Pte Carroll E. 22nd Btn. Dated at Perham Downs this 1st day of September 1917
“I left Pte. Rickard (22 D) dying in No Man’s Land on May 3rd at
Bullecourt. He begged me not to leave him. I feel certain he is dead”

Eye Witness: - He saw him badly wounded. Description:- Small, short, stout, young, more like a girl. Informant:- Pte. Edward Carroll, 5585 22 Australians, D.Coy. XIV Pltn. 3rd Southern Gen Hosp. Cowley Section, Oxford, 20.7.1917

“In regard to Pte S. Rickard I am very sorry that I cannot give you a definite answer about him, but this is what I know about him. On the eve of May 3rd I came across him lying wounded. I carried him back to the barbed wire, thinking the stretcher bearers might pick him up. He was badly wounded- one through the shoulder, the other through the hips from the back. He seemed to be paralysed in the legs. He could not walk, and he screamed when I was carrying him. He was shot by Machine gun bullets. There is no chance of him being taken prisoner, as the Germans never got back where he was lying, and the Stretcher Bearers did not
get out to where he was left for five days I am sorry to say, but I think
Sammy must have died where I left him. There was a barrage put up just as we left there and he may have been blown to pieces. I have written to his people in Australia telling them what I know of him.”

Letter from Pte F. Hedley, D.Coy. L.G.S. 22nd Battn. 19.8.17

“On 3.5.17 I was in the advance at Bullecourt and on reaching the second objective I received a wound on the abdomen. As I was crawling back to our own lines I found my friend Pte. Rickard, who was badly wounded in the back laying in the barbed wire in No Man’s Land. He could not move and looked to be sinking fast. He did not know me when I spoke to him although I have know him for nearly two years. As we had many counter attacks with artillery preparation I do not think that he would live through it.”

Statement made by No. 5954 Pte Milne H.A. 22nd Btn. Dated this 10th day of August
Statement made by No. 5954 Pte Milne H.A. 22nd Btn. Dated this 10th da
1917 (Sgd) H.A.Milne/ All excerpts Australian War Memorial Archives.