All stories
A love stronger than pain
Private Bill Kearsey was badly wounded in an artillery barrage at Glencorse Wood in Belgium. Doctors saved his life, but not his face. Shrapnel cut a deep gash in Bill’s forehead and, as the medical... » read more
A most particular friend
John Hutchinson
John Hutchinson was shot by a sniper at Gallipoli. It would take Private Hutchinson over two hours to die. It is said that in the last moments of life, a dying man’s thoughts turn to the ones he... » read more
A vacant look in his eyes
Alfred Atkins
When Alfred Atkins enlisted he claimed he was forty-five, but in truth, he was closer to sixty. We don't know why Alfred Atkins went to war, nor do we know why he took his own life. An inquest into... » read more
Almost within sight of Australia
Narrelle Hobbes
Narrelle Hobbes was born in Tilba Tilba, trained as a nurse and enlisted in London in 1915. Through the long course of the war she served in British hospitals in Malta and Sicily, India and... » read more
Amongst the first ashore at Anzac
Bernhardt Walther
Bernhardt Hermann Walther enlisted in Perth at the outbreak of the war. His grandfather had immigrated to Australia from Germany in the 1840s. Bernie was blonde, blue-eyed, and shared his grandfather... » read more
Hard up against it
Dennis ‘Paddy’ Hauenstein
Dennis Hauenstein was repatriated home soon after the war ended. Suffering from rheumatic fever, jaundice, and shrapnel wounds, the former stretcher-bearer found it hard to get work. ‘Paddy’, as he... » read more
Inventing Anzac Day in England
Alfred Sharp
On the eve of the Great War, Alfred Sharp was appointed the Victorian Immigration Officer in London. He sailed off to ‘the old country’ in 1912. In England, Sharp advocated the cause of Australia. It... » read more
Something to remember him by
William Maynard
At the outbreak of the Great War around 170 Aboriginal people lived on Cape Barren Island. Islanders earned a living from fishing, sealing, whaling, and snaring animals. From February to May each... » read more
Their name liveth for evermore?
Abas Bhawoodeen Ghansar
Abas Bhawoodeen Ghansar was born in Bombay (now Mumbai) at the height of the British Raj. The young man worked his passage to Australia (via London) and landed in Sydney in 1907. Australia must... » read more
A Duntroon man
Tom Elliott
Tom Elliot was one of the first young men to graduate from Duntroon Military Academy. He sailed off to war with the second contingent in December 1914. Elliot fought at Gallipoli with the seventh... » read more
