Australian soldier's skull taken from US museum and buried with remains in France

Submitted by Paul Daley on Mon, 23/07/2018 - 12:11pm

Private’s head had been taken to the US after he died from wounds sustained in the Battle of Polygon Wood in Belgium

The skull of an Australian first world war soldier who died of terrible facial wounds sustained on the European western front, before his head was removed and displayed in an American medical museum, has been buried in France with the rest of his remains.

Guardian Australia first highlighted the disturbing case of Sydney-born Private Thomas Hurdis, who died in an American battlefield hospital from wounds he sustained during the 1917 Battle of Polygon Wood in Belgium.