Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

My Grandfather trained as a jeweller, so was somewhat attracted to the finer things of life. He opened his own Jewellery shop at 3 Station St, Malvern, an eastern suburb of Melbourne before WW1.

However, despite the financial difficulties of running a small business, with the usual overheads, he decided to enlist in May 1915, barely a month since the ANZAC landings. Somehow he convinced his 60 year old mother to look after the shop in his absence. He had no siblings to turn to and his father had died in 1907.

While his trade was as a jeweller, his interests included sport where he exhibited a love for running, and cricket in the summer. He played cricket for many years, not much good as a batsmen but rolled his arm over as a leg spin bowler. Having a flutter on the horses was also a favourite past-time, and he would be a regular at Caulfield racecourse, even into his 90's.

So, after barely two months training, off he went, like so many others of the time, into the "great adventure". He became a soldier in the recently formed 24th Battalion.

Upon arrival in Egypt, the 24th would further their training before seeing their first action at Gallipoli in September 1915. They would remain there until the retreat from the peninsula by the allies in December 1915.

From there things didn't get much better as they progressed to the slog, mayhem and death on the Western Front, in France and Belgium. Arthur received his first and miraculously only serious wound, when he was shot in the arm, during the fighting at Bullecourt in May 1917. The 24th suffered very big losses at this engagement.

After convalescing a few months, he returned to his unit and continued on. Remarkably he survived the war and returned safely to his shop in Malvern. His mother, Mary had clearly done a brilliant job in his stead; she deserves many accolades for the role she played at home. Mary, a Scottish immigrant arriving 1883, died in 1940.

Arthur was to marry in 1921, to Madeline Barker. They had three children, the first, my mother Denise, was named in honour of one of the children of the family he was billeted with in Belgium after the war, prior to his battalion returning home.

Unfortunately, in 1947, Madeline was to die at the age of 48. Arthur carried on at the shop for many more years. Radford's Jewellers became a landmark, a constant presence where he carried on the business for over 60 years; only finally retiring in the early 1970's, being then in his mid eighties.

He enjoyed travelling the world through the 1950's and 60's and it was on one of these journeys that he met another lady whom he married in 1962.

He would march each Anzac day until he no longer could go the journey. As was the case with most returned soldiers, he spoke sparingly of those war years, but it was obvious that he had moments with memories that troubled him.

This is dedicated to his memory.

His grandson, David