is a model citizen and a keen Rotarian, however, he is a bit boring and has not done anything adventurous in his life.
George’s uncle was John Abbey, to his mates, Jack. He was born in Yorkshire, England, in a beautiful and ancient village called Bolton Percy in North Yorkshire. The village was established under William the Conquer.
Jack, unlike George, was an adventurer; he left home at seventeen and spent his life’s savings on a one-way fare by ship to Melbourne, Australia, where he thought his prospects would be better.
He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces on the 18th of December, 1914 in Melbourne Victoria. His unit was 8th Battalion 2nd Reinforcement. On the 2nd of February, he boarded the HMAT Clan Macgillivray to England and then on to Gallipoli. He survived the carnage of Gallipoli. He then went to Egypt and joined the 60th Battalion and then shipped to France. The first and only action in France for Jack was the disastrous battle of Fromelles. He died on the 19th of July, 1916.
Jack has “No Known Grave”.
George took the decision. He and Anna would travel to Europe and as part of their European adventure, they would take part in the “Back-Roads Touring” battlefields tour. He hoped this would give him a greater appreciation of his Uncle Jack’s short life.
Sydney, Australia 2012
Christine Abbot is a medical doctor practising in Bondi Junction in Sydney NSW; her husband Tony Hailes is also a doctor practising as a cardiologist out of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Both are dedicated and very good at what they do. They have two boys, Ben, 16 and Adam, 13. Both attend Sydney Grammar. They live in Belleview Hill in a multi million-dollar villa with swimming pool and tennis court. Things are pretty good for the family.
Things were not so easy for Christine’s Great Uncle, David Abbott, who was a boot salesman and lived in Surrey Hills, which was, in the early part of the twentieth century, a working class suburb. At the age of twenty-one he enlisted in the AIF at Holsworthy Army Base, where he completed his basic training and embarked from Sydney on board HMAT, Star of England, on a sunny balmy day on the 8th of March, 1916 heading for England, then France. He arrived in England at the end of May, 1916 and was immediately shipped to Marseilles, France and then moved out to Fromelles to help with the trench digging prior to the Battle, a battle which would take his life.
Christine had never really taken any interest in the First World War, or any war for that matter. She was more interested in saving lives rather than reading about the carnage of war. She never really had any interest in her family history either… that was until she saw a documentary on the Battle of Fromelles and how a mass grave had been discovered at a place called Pheasant Wood. She knew that she had a relative who had died in France but did not know where or how. Her father never talked about it and apart from ANZAC day and Remembrance Day, she never really thought about war.
She turned to her husband: ‘Tony, did you know I had a relative, a great uncle I think, who died in the First World War?’
‘No darling you have never mentioned it to me before. Where did he die?’
‘I don’t know, but I intend to find out.’ ‘Well, said Tony, lets look it up on the Net.’ After a little research they found the Commonwealth War Graves Commission web site.
There it was: David Roylestone Leslie Abbott, Sydney NSW, Single, Five feet seven inches.
The key piece of data was: killed in action 19th July, 1916 They knew from watching the documentary that was the date of the Battle of Fromelles. They decided then and there that they would all go to France and visit Fromelles and learn more about the battle in which her Great Uncle fought and died. Christine again searched the web and discovered “Battlefield Tours of France and Belgium” led by “Back-Roads Touring” . She requested the registration forms, completed them and paid the $3,200.
The following morning over breakfast Christine and Tony made the announcement to their two sons, they would all be travelling to France and Belgium and take the battlefield tour.
Adam was very excited and could hardly wait to tell his mates at school. ‘Hold on Mum and Dad you didn’t consult me first, I have pre-season football training to attend and its not a good idea to take time off in my final year. You guys and Adam go and I can stay home and look after the house.
‘You are certainly not staying home alone Ben end of discussion you are coming with us. You might just learn that there are more things in the world other than you and only you.’ Said Tony in a stern fatherly voice.
Ben asked to be excused from the table and went to his bedroom to listen to his Ipod and sulk. ‘He will come around Darling don’t worry’ said Christine
‘I really do hope that this experience will enlighten him. Kids his age were fighting on the frontlines of Gallipoli and the Western Front and here he is being all petulant because it interrupts his diary. I think leaving his new girlfriend has something to do with it as well.’
Ben’s behaviour did not improve including when they boarded the plane for Paris. They had all checked in their luggage and gone through security when Ben could not be found.
‘I have looked everywhere he does not seem to be in the terminal’ Tony said in a frustrated tone. The announcement came over the PA that fight AF1267 was boarding.
Tony raced to the men’s toilet again to see if Ben was there he noticed the cubicle with the door closed twenty minutes ago was still closed. He was suspicious and got down on his knees and looked underneath. There was no tell tale pants around the ankles. He knocked on the door and surprisingly Ben answered with a ‘What do you want’?
‘You get the hell out of there right down you little bastard or I will break the door down and lead you through the terminal and on to the plane by the ear’ Ben reluctantly opened the door and walked out with a very sheepish look on his face.
‘I don’t have time to talk to you about this now just get your skates on and rest assured we will talk about it later.’
The family boarded the 747 last and were shown their seats. The plane took off on time. Ben having been reprimanded severely by his parents spent most of the flight listening to his music and reading magazines.
Brisbane, Australia 2012
Steve Vardy has lived in Brisbane for all of his fifty-nine years and has worked in the Information Technology industry for the past thirty years. He loves his family and his golf and apart from a divorce twenty years ago, nothing dramatic has happened in his life. Steve decided to research his family history as many people are now doing and paid his subscription to Ancestory.com. He enjoyed doing the research and was having some success in tracing his ancestry back to England and in particular the Nottingham area where the Vardys seemed to inhabit. It was while he was researching, that he found he had a Great Uncle, Frederick Vardy, who was a soldier with the Sherwood Foresters and had fought and died in the First World War.
Fred Vardy came from an adventurous background; his father, Henry, came from a small village called Hucknall – under – Huthwaite in Nottinghamshire. At the age of fifteen, Henry joined the army. He lied about his age and was dispatched to Australia via the Crimean war and the Maori Wars in New Zealand.
