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 Eldest son of Arthur Wells BISHOP and Eva Dunstan nee CROSS of Basket Range Adelaide Hills SA

In an Australian version of the Saving Private Ryan story, a family salvaged something from the mud and blood and tears of Passchendaele, on the Western Front.

A mother (Eva), disconsolate after having two sons killed in the space of a fortnight, dared to write to the Australian Corps commander, General William Birdwood, pleading for their third boy to be spared the same fate.

“I hope you will forgive me the liberty I am taking in sending this to you,” wrote Eva Bishop.

The “liberty” she requested was for Private Lloyd Bishop to be sent home to help his father in their Basket Range strawberry patch, in the Adelaide Hills.

“It is because his poor father, who is a market gardener, is so broken up at the loss of our 2 sons.”

Gunner Walter Bishop died on September 23, 1917, from wounds he received at the Battle of Menin Road.

Sergeant Alfred Bishop was killed in action at Broodseinde on October 4.

(After two visits in a fortnight, little wonder that Eva never talked to the local minister again.)

“Their father is 58 years of age and getting almost too old to do the work in the garden,” she wrote in her pleading letter to Birdwood.

“If you could see your way to grant my request it would be such a relief.

“We are only poor folks and cannot afford to pay anyone to do this for us or I should not have troubled you.

“Oh, I pray do try and spare him and I will bless the name of General Birdwood forever.”

Whether Mrs Bishop blessed the general’s name forever is unknown, but the request was granted — Lloyd was sent home.

“Birdy”, the man so beloved by the original Anzacs and those who followed them into battle, told Bishop’s divisional commander, Major-General Joseph Hobbs, to pull Lloyd from the battlefield.

The order passed down through the ranks to the brigadier, the 32nd Battalion’s commander, the company commander and finally to Lloyd’s platoon officer, sergeant and section commander.

Operation Saving Private Bishop was complete.

His medals — including the Military Medal awarded for Alfred's heroism on day one of the Third Battle of Ypres — have passed down the generations to Alan Bishop, 58, of Morphett Vale.

Alan has the medals of all three Bishop brothers; the family tradition is for them to go to the youngest son of the youngest son.

Alan’s grandfather, Victor, the youngest of the four Bishop brothers, was too young to go to World War I. The medals went to him when Lloyd died in 1951, apparently at Lloyd’s request.

Andrew Faulkner - article Adelaide Sunday Mail 30 July 2017