ANZAC Day

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Lest we forget.

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As you know, I've been researching my family history the last few months. I've come across a fair few people who served in the wars (and probably more to come once I get to transcribing some written records). For now I'd like to commemmorate three relatives who made the supreme sacrifice.

Robert Maurice Stubbs, 1876 - 1918.
Private, Sapper, 46th Battalion Australian Infantry AIF. My great-great uncle. Maurice was an assayer and metallurgist in the mining industry, working in Peru when war was declared. The only unmarried son of Elizabeth and John Stubbs, who recorded that he was greatly liked by all who knew him, Maurice came back to Australia to enlist for King and Country. He was shot in France during the beginnings of the German Spring Offensive, and died of his wounds on April 2nd.

John Henry Stubbs, 1918 - 1942.
Flight Sergeant, bomber pilot, 21 Squadron RAAF (attached to RAF). My great-uncle. Jack had been dux of his school in Geraldton and was working for the Public Works Department in Perth when he enlisted in 1940, and had intended to train as an architect, and stay in Europe after the war to help rebuild. Spending the next year in training excercises across the UK, he was trained to fly the Bristol Blenheim bomber. It was in one of these that he was flying from RAF Station Luqa in Malta when his flight, returning from a mission at the Kerkenna Islands, was attacked by enemy fighters near Finfola and his plane shot down on February 11th, the day before Jack's 24th birthday.

Frank Erick Cottrell Throssell, 1881 - 1917.
Corporal/Second Lieutenant (accounts vary), 10th Australian Light Horse Regiment AIF. My great-aunt's great-uncle by marriage. Ric Throssell was a farmer near the town of Northam with his younger brother Hugo "Jim" Throssell (who won the VC at Gallipoli), their bond strengthened by shared adversity in drought conditions. The brothers enlisted in October 1914 when the 10th LHR was formed. Ric Throssell was killed in the second battle of Gaza on April 19th, Hugo searching for him through that night.

A Letter Home

I'd like to share some views of the Second World War from my Great-uncle Jack, the pilot I mentioned in my previous post. I found his letter to my grandparents interesting to read, not just from what he got up to and what's foremost in his mind, but also just the way his thoughts were constructed on the page, when I read I can't help thinking "if that was me writing how would I have put it?"

Anyway, on with the show. The letter is undated, but probably sent around late October-November 1941.

( Jack's letter )

Berwick's Wartime Stories

A few weeks ago I posted some stories written by my grandfather, Berwick Hanton for the writers group at his retirement village. I only looked at the first two volumes, since I saw that the third volume was printed a couple of years after he moved to a country town down south, so I thought there wouldn't be anything in there.

You can guess what Mum told me next, can't you?

Anyway, the entries in this volume had to do with Berwick's experiences in World War II; he had been instrumental in forming/training a cadet unit at Wesley College as a member of the old Militias, and when they were absorbed into the regular Army he was assigned to the 44th Battalion. These more memorable exchanges take place training in Western Australian country towns.

( High Class Living, Cool Sergeants, Newspapers. )