Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

War was no stranger to the family – before World War One, my great-grandfather was a member of the Suffolk Regiment and saw service in the Boer War, Burma and Egypt as a mounted soldier

My grandfather Robert Bryant, whose service number was 28 (he enlisted on the first day at age 19), sailed on the HMAT Orvieto.

Bryant, Xmas card cover 1914

He landed on the beach at Gallipoli at dawn on the 25th and was wounded later in the day. He was sent back to Gallipoli, fought at the battle of Lone Pine and remained for another 4 or 5 months before suffering severe gastro-entertis, common among the soldiers living in such dreadful conditions for so long.

Back in London, as he recovered, he met a young English woman Ada and at the age of 21 they married. Due to his service and injuries, grandfather was not sent back to Turkey or to France (where his brother Alf won a Military Medal for bravery under fire). Instead, he was posted to the fledgling ANZAC Provost Corps, Australia’s first military police force, at Tidsworth UK.

Grandfather survived the war and returned to Melbourne, his wife and baby girl (my grandmother and aunt) arrived later on a war bride ship. My father, of the same name, was born a year later in 1920. I am lucky enough to have mementos of grandfather’s service – his lucky 1914 shilling that he carried throughout his service, his Gallipoli pay book, his medals and the New Testament he was given by a British soldier in Cairo when they were at Mena Camp. Sadly, grandfather died at the age of 50, on the steps of Flinders Street Station from a heart attack.

Grandfather’s brother Alfred Bryant also fought at Gallipoli, although was not at the landing on April 25th. Alf went on to fight on the Western Front and won a Military Medal for bravery under fire in the Somme, near a small town called Lahors. My mother’s grandfather Major Armadale Charles Anderson from Tasmania also fought in the Somme and was mentioned in despatches for bravery. They and other family members who fought in WWI all came back – our family was very lucky.