Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Maurice Walter Graves was my father. He was onboard Sydney when it fought a duel with a Zeppelin in the North Sea in 1917 and we have a fragment from one of those bombs - https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C174886. Another fragment can be seen here - https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C117621.

After his naval service, he joined the NSW Police Force in 1922 and served until 1955 with the rank of Sergeant. He died in 1966 from mesothelioma, from his service in engine rooms containing asbestos (we always presumed). After his death, he was cremated and we scattered his ashes from a police launch in front of the mast of HMAS Sydney at Bradley's Head.

In 1937, he married Frances May Dagg from Rathdowney (then Queen's County, now Laois) Ireland, who had arrived in Australia in September 1930 aboard the SS Jervis Bay. My mother always subsequently revered Captain Fogerty Fegan VC. I always noted with some synchronicity that Sydney had been sailing with HMS Dublin, at the time of its 1917 engagement with Zeppelin L.43.

There are two children: Elaine and Peter. My sister was a NSW school teacher all her professional life and I started in the Customs Department Sydney, before moving to Canberra. I completed my professional life as a lecturer at the University of Papua New Guinea (via ZOOM from the Australian National University).

Dad was unusual for his time - he neither smoked, drank alcohol, nor gambled. He also valued his 1934 Chevolet sedan, until that time in 1966. He never mentioned his war experiences (nor his time in the NSW police, either), nor attended Anzac Day marches. But we do have his HMAS Sydney cap badge and that bomb fragment, as echoes of those long-ago days past.