Odyssey of the Unknown Anzac by David Hastings

Author:David Hastings
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Biography
Publisher: Auckland University Press
Published: 2018-06-23T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

Where Are You, George?

Is he alive somewhere and can he see the sunshine still; or is he dead by now and down in Hades’ Halls?

—The Odyssey, Book IV

SOMETIME BETWEEN THE DAY GEORGE DEPARTED FOR WAR AND THE day in 1916 that he disappeared, he lost touch with his family. Accounts differ about when that happened. One story says he wrote one or two letters but these had stopped after Gallipoli. ‘Think of it! Never a word since 1915; never a sign of George since the landing at Gallipoli! Not to know even that he had been killed, no report of him as “missing” – just silence’, Emma was reported as saying.1 Given his record and what he said later about his troubles on Mudros, this rings true. But other sources quoted Emma as saying he wrote letters more or less regularly for the best part of a year after his departure. This would mean the letters stopped about the time he disappeared on the Western Front.2 Again, the story could be right; it is at least certain that he did not write after July 1916. A third version maintains that George never wrote any letters at all. This came from a newspaper correspondent in New Plymouth and Stratford in the days after George’s identity was confirmed. He said Emma had heard not a word from George since he departed with the 5th Reinforcements in 1915: ‘From the day he sailed until last night his mother had never heard a word of him. No letter, not even a postcard from him, ever came to relieve her anxiety.’3 Again, given George’s troubles on the Maunganui, this also could be true. His social isolation was complete, estranged from the men who should have been his mates and not even in touch with his own family.

It is impossible to say for certain whether George ever wrote and, if he did, when he stopped. And yet he must have had some form of contact with home because in Callan Park he said his brother was in the army too, but William had not enlisted until well after he had left for the war. By 1916 at the very latest Emma had become one of the legions of mothers, fathers, wives and children who were left in state of anxiety, doubt and irrational hope over the fate of their men. From then on she and Cis scoured the casualty lists that were routinely published in their local paper and closely scanned the faces of returning soldiers in the hope of seeing George.4 From what she said, Emma knew George had gone to Gallipoli and she must have had some idea he would have been there during the heavy fighting for Chunuk Bair. The 5th Reinforcements were mentioned in news despatches and Stratford had an extra special reason to take interest because of the death of William Malone. The first inklings of what had happened appeared in the Stratford Evening Post on 11 August, three days after Malone had been killed and the 5ths had entered the battle.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.