By Goya Dmytryshchak
Private Eldred Clayton Lovett was just a 12-year-old Footscray schoolboy when he read about a fabled general who camped his entire army under a magnificent oak tree.
Enraptured at the thought, Lovett planted an acorn in an old jam tin and eagerly watched it slowly sprout.
Lovett enlisted in 1916 and was just 27 when he died in action, 100 years ago in Polygon Wood, France, in World War I.
When his parents heard of the death of their only son, they transferred his tree to Footscray Park as a living memorial.
The only oak in the park, it became known as Soldier Tree.
It was the Footscray Historical Society’s Steve Wilson who discovered the tree had disappeared while researching Private Lovett’s story, and organised its replacement with Maribyrnong council.
“I think it’s an ongoing memorial to soldiers killed in the war,” he said.
“It’s not a statue – it’s a living monument, so that’s why I wanted to replace it.”
On Saturday, a replacement Soldier Tree was planted in the memorial garden in honour of Lovett’s sacrifice and other local Anzacs.
It is suspected the original tree disappeared during the widening of Ballarat Road in the 1960s.
