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| Some treasures from Nelson Ferguson's service in Villers-Bretonneux |
On Sunday, 24th April, 2011 ABC Classic FM broadcasted The Glass Soldier, a concert from last year's Port Fairy Spring Music Festival.
The Glass Soldier is Nelson Ferguson, a young Ballarat artist who became a stretcher-bearer in the First World War. On 24th April, 1918 the church he was in was bombed with mustard gas, as part of the battle for Villers-Bretonneux.
This resulted in him being blinded and coming home from the war. Later, he regained partial use of his eyes and lectured at RMIT. He was called The Glass Soldier because of the factory he founded which made beautiful stained glass windows, some of which are now heritage-listed.
The music in the program is composed or arranged by Nigel Westlake, one of Australia's most popular film composers. The performance, by Melbourne Symphony orchestra brass players featured Geoffrey Payne playing the original cornet that Ferguson had played during his time in France, which you can hear in this extract of The Last Rose of Summer.
There was good news at the end of the story. After many years of sight-impairment, a British eye surgeon was able to restore Ferguson's sight, so that he could spend his last days enjoying the full use of his eyes again.
