Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

SERGEANT CHARLES HENRY NASH 1860
C Company, 59TH Battalion,
5th Division AIF
Somewhere on the Somme in France

Dear Grandpa,
at the age of nineteen, you answered the call to do your duty for your King and Country. Although you were married with a 12 month old daughter, you enlisted in the Army, for what you thought, would be a great adventure for a short time on the other side of the world. It would be all over by Christmas, you were told
After your training at the camp at Broadmeadows and assigned to the 7th Battalion,
you set sail for Gallipoli as part of the fourth re-enforcements, a son was born.

A son you never got to see, but did get to know him with the exchanges of letters with your loved ones back home.

You arrived at what is now called ANZAC Cove, one month after the original landing.

What a shock that must have been to see what war was really like and the carnage that had taken place there. We heard about the battle you fought at Lone Pine.

In total, over 100,000 were to die at Gallipoli before you left.
Of these, nearly 9000 were Australians
In one of your letters, you asked that your thanks be passed on to those at home that had sent you parcels, you questioned why some of your relatives had not enlisted.

Looking at the photo sent back from Egypt where you were sent to after Gallipoli was evacuated, we can see the strain of battle in your face when compared with the one taken before you left home that shows a fresh innocent young man.
An innocent young man.

It is hard for us to imagine the horrors of war you must have witnessed.

You took your Army responsibilities seriously, being promoted to Lance Corporal when you were transferred to the 59th Battalion, then to Corporal when you landed in France.
In July 1916, at Fromelles, the first major battle the Australians were in since arriving in France, you were wounded in the face and hands.

The British high command had ordered an attack on a heavily fortified German front line
It was a pointless and futile attack. Over 5,500 Australians became casualties from running straight into heavy machine gun fire. Almost 2,000 of them were killed in action or died of wounds and some 400 were captured.
This battle has been described as "the worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history."

Due to war time censorship and cover up, it would be many years before the Australian public became aware of this enormous and tragic disaster and even now, many Australians are unaware of what a slaughter it was.
Fortunately, your wounds were minor and after 10 days, you had recovered enough to perform base duties, then 3 weeks later, you rejoined your battalion and once again promoted, this time to Sergeant.

At the end of October your Battalion, the 59th, moved into the ‘Carlton’ trench in the vicinity of the village, Longeuval, then on the 1st of November 1916, you could do no more, because that was the day your name were listed as killed in action.
You had done your best for your country.
Your soul has gone to God
According to the Battalion dairy, there were three casualties that day.

The circumstances of your death are unknown to us, other than you died just a few days before your 21st birthday.
We do not know where your body lies, is it in an unmarked grave in the cemetery
or undiscovered on the Battlefield?
These questions remain unanswered.
At the War Cemetery at Villers-Bretonneux, your name is displayed on the Memorial.

Sadly, your wife, Irene, mother of your two children, our Grandmother, died in 1919 from the influenza pandemic that swept the world, leaving your two children orphans, who were then raised by their Maternal Grandmother, our great grandmother, affectionately known as Grandma Britt.
The pandemic, known as the Spanish flu, killed more people world wide in two years than the war did in four and like the war, the most vulnerable were the young adults.

Dear Grandpa, your spirit lives on, from your two children there are,
12 Grandchildren and many descendents from them.
Wherever you are, rest in peace Sergeant Charles Henry Nash,

You did your duty, we are proud of you, and we remember you.
From one of your grand children
Max