Here is a blog post I had to write about family connections - enjoy!
Mateship, determination, resilience, courage, generosity, ingenuity, endurance, persistence...just a few of the words that spring to mind when I think about the ANZACS who fought for us 100 years ago,and in all of the wars that followed. My great-great uncle Oswald Brown was one of those soldiers who fought during World War One, and I like to think that I carry some of the characteristics that he would have shown all those years ago. Prior to the war, he was a school teacher in country New South Wales, and spent his life instilling a passion for learning in the minds of those he taught. He enlisted on the 31st of July 1915 and embarked on the HMAT Beltana from Sydney on the 9th of November 1915. His family never saw him again. That is why I find it so important to continue his legacy - because he wasn't able to share it himself.
On the 28th of August 1918, only months before the war ended, he was killed in action on the Western Front. He had fought in many of the major battles of the Western Front campaign, including Amiens, and was only 30 years old when he died. Although he was unable to bring the stories and experiences of battle home to share with his loved ones, I take comfort in knowing that he didn't have to suffer with flashbacks of what he saw for the rest of his life, and that he died while fighting for our freedom. The highest sacrifice one can make is their own life...and Oswald is only one of thousands of young men and women who made that ultimate sacrifice. We must commemorate and remember all of these people, as well as those who survived, because no one came out of that horrific war unscathed.
Oswald is one story amongst millions of others, so there is no way we can share them all. But what we can do, is commemorate as many as we can, which is what I hope do on my arrival in Gallipoli.
Everybody in the world has some sort of connection to the Great War, the fact is whether or not wechoose to investigate that connection to the past, or cut the tie loose and forget about whathappened. It's our own decision, and I choose to remember.
Bronte :)
Mateship, determination, resilience, courage, generosity, ingenuity, endurance, persistence...just a few of the words that spring to mind when I think about the ANZACS who fought for us 100 years ago,and in all of the wars that followed. My great-great uncle Oswald Brown was one of those soldiers who fought during World War One, and I like to think that I carry some of the characteristics that he would have shown all those years ago. Prior to the war, he was a school teacher in country New South Wales, and spent his life instilling a passion for learning in the minds of those he taught. He enlisted on the 31st of July 1915 and embarked on the HMAT Beltana from Sydney on the 9th of November 1915. His family never saw him again. That is why I find it so important to continue his legacy - because he wasn't able to share it himself.
On the 28th of August 1918, only months before the war ended, he was killed in action on the Western Front. He had fought in many of the major battles of the Western Front campaign, including Amiens, and was only 30 years old when he died. Although he was unable to bring the stories and experiences of battle home to share with his loved ones, I take comfort in knowing that he didn't have to suffer with flashbacks of what he saw for the rest of his life, and that he died while fighting for our freedom. The highest sacrifice one can make is their own life...and Oswald is only one of thousands of young men and women who made that ultimate sacrifice. We must commemorate and remember all of these people, as well as those who survived, because no one came out of that horrific war unscathed.
Oswald is one story amongst millions of others, so there is no way we can share them all. But what we can do, is commemorate as many as we can, which is what I hope do on my arrival in Gallipoli.
Everybody in the world has some sort of connection to the Great War, the fact is whether or not wechoose to investigate that connection to the past, or cut the tie loose and forget about whathappened. It's our own decision, and I choose to remember.
Bronte :)