Berylouise Mitchell Photography
  • Home
  • Projects & Photo Series
    • Anzac Day
    • Birdsville Races 1990
    • Birdsville Races 2015
    • Black Summer
    • Elvis Festival
    • Covid-19 Pandemic
    • Garden Island Dockyard
    • Garden Island Funeral Ceremony
    • Life in Kypseli, Athens
    • School Strike for Climate
    • The Greek Crisis
    • WWI: Mementos of our Grandfathers
  • BLOG: WWI Mementos of our Grandfathers
  • Portraits
    • Working Men of Garden Island Dockyard
    • Men at Work
    • Fathers & Sons
    • Women at Work
    • Photographers
    • Family
    • Pregnancy
    • Babies & Children
    • People & Pets
  • Street Life
    • Athens
    • Paris
    • Melbourne
    • Sydney
    • Bangkok
  • Landscapes
  • Architecture
  • Abstractions
    • Vivid Festival
    • Crowdy Bay
  • Odd Man Out
  • Performance
    • Circus Oz
    • Musicians
    • Theatre
  • Still Life
    • Flower Studies
  • Travel
  • Exhibitions & Awards
    • I Like the Nightlife, Baby!
  • Contact
  • Links

WWI: Mementos of our Grandfathers

A blog over 52 weeks dedicated to my two grandfathers who both served in WWI. It commenced on 29 January 2017.

Contact Me

Three Woodford Brothers Go to War:  Week Forty Nine

1/1/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
 Phil Schwenke with his faithful dog Meera at Invergordon cottage at Gilgai, near Inverell, built by WWI veteran Austin Ainsleigh Woodford after the war

Phil Schwenke and I met in 1994 when we both worked for a not-for-profit community organisation.  We have been friends ever since.  Phil’s grandmother Daisy had three brothers - Gordon, Edgar and Austin Woodford – his great uncles, who all enlisted in Inverell and served in WWI.  Three brothers went to war but only one came back.

The eldest brother Gordon, aged 29, enlisted first on 20 November 1914, 4th Battalion AIF.  He was wounded in Gallipoli by a gas shell exploding quite close to him, causing facial burns and hearing difficulties in his right ear, and pain in his right eye.  After recovering he was sent to the Western Front in France where he was killed in action on 29 June 1916.  Prior to being shipped to Gallipoli Gordon made a will on 21 April 1915 leaving his share of a tin mining operation to his youngest brother Austin.

Austin, only 18, joined up next on 15 October 1915, also 4th battalion, but later transferred to 56th battalion.  He served in France but managed to escape injury, and was discharged safely on 10 August 1919.

Edgar joined up last on 29 February 1916, just short of his 23rd birthday.  He joined as part of a local Inverell contingent known as the “Kurrajongs” and was assigned to 33rd battalion, but later transferred to 9th Light Trench Mortar Battery.  He too served in France, and then just six months after Gordon, he too was killed in action on 23 December 1916.  So sad for their parents George and Henrietta to lose two sons within six months of each other.

All that remained of their boys were a few personal effects – identity discs, a new testament diary, purses, a razor, a watch, some photos and postcards.  And of course their medals for serving and the memorial plaques given to all families who had lost their loved ones.  They are both buried near Armentieres where they were killed, and Phil has been to visit their graves.

After the war Austin moved to Gilgai near Inverell and built his house Invergordon where he lived with his sisters Ruby and Daisy.  Daisy married Phil’s grandfather William Schwenke who lived across the road at Morven.  Stelios and I visited Phil and his wife Cristina at Gilgai in 2002.  Little did I know then just how closely we were connected in another way to this small village.

When my mother died I vowed to find her first son given up for adoption in 1952 before meeting and marrying my father in 1954.  In 2004 I discovered that my half-brother Scott Sinclair had been adopted by a farming family living at Lorraine in Inverell, the area where my mother’s cousin Valmai lived.  Cristina put me in touch with the local school principal who knew many people in the area, and I was able to speak to a neighbour of the Sinclair’s only to find out that young Scott had died of an accidental gunshot wound in 1966.  I’m so glad my mother never found out because all her life she worried about the baby boy she had given up, wondering if he was alright?

In 2006 on a family history trip to meet various relatives I stayed with Valmai and told her my mother’s story.  Valmai suggested I go to the local Inverell paper and look for more information.  That was how I discovered that the Sinclairs had moved to a property called Morven owned by the Schwenke family in Gilgai, right across the road from Invergordon!  And that was where Scott had died.  Stelios and I shared New Year’s Eve 2017 with Phil and Cristina and I am looking across at that property right now.  Phil and Cristina are slowly renovating Austin’s house and have shared his story.
Lest we forget!

0 Comments

    Author

    I am a social documentary photographer & the family historian. I like to share visual stories.

    Archives

    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017

    Categories

    All
    12 October 1917
    34th Battalion
    48th Battalion
    5000 Poppies
    7th Battalion AIF
    A Farewell To Arms
    Anzac Memorial
    Anzac Memorial Service
    Archibald Fountain
    Argyle & Sutherland Highlanders
    Arthur Mootz
    Ashfield
    Ashfield Boys High
    Auburn Gallipoli Mosque
    Austin Woodford
    Australian Light Horse
    Australian Light Horse Association
    Australian Postage Stamps
    Australian War Memorial
    Balkan Wars
    Battle Of Messines
    Beersheba
    Blanche Antoinette Hobson
    Books Of Remembrance
    Brad Manera
    Broken Hearts
    Bullecourt
    Callan Park Mental Hospital
    Caporetto
    Charles Bean
    Charles Kingsford-Smith
    Colonel Percy Fawcett
    Cyril Moroney
    David Livesey
    Dead Man's Penny
    Dirk Cardoen
    Douglas Grant
    Edgar Woodford
    Embroidered Handkerchiefs
    Embroidered Postcards
    Enfield Rifle
    Ernest Hemingway
    F90
    Field Of Mars Cemetery
    Francis Hocking
    Frank Hurley
    Frank Uther
    French Embroidery
    French WWI Medals
    Gallipoli
    Gilgai
    Giovanni Manera
    Gordon Cricket Club
    Gordon Woodford
    Gore Hill Cemetery
    Greco-Turkish War
    Harold Lilja
    Harold Wyndham Lilja
    Helene Van Deynse
    Henry Cassidy
    Henry Costin
    Indigenous Veterans
    In Flanders Fields
    Invergordon
    Isle Of Lewis
    James Aspinall
    J F Archibald
    John Hilary Lynch
    John Laffin
    John Mitchell
    Jordan Nicolopolous
    Karlsruhe
    Lancashire
    Lancaster VIC
    Lechard Lilja
    Legacy
    Legacy Week
    Lieutenant Lilja
    Lithgow Small Arms Factory
    Lone Pine
    Mary Eliza Lilja
    Mary Frances Lilja
    Memorial Plaque
    Menin Gate
    Mentioned In Despatches
    Michael Wilson
    Military Historian
    Morlancourt
    Mounted Police
    National Reconcilation Week
    Norhern Suburbs Crematorium
    Norman McLeod
    Oxfam Trailwalker
    Passchendaele
    Paul Stephenson
    Poelkapelle
    Poperinge
    Poppy Appeal
    Pozieres
    Private Thomas Robinson
    Private William Shirley
    Reincourt
    Remembrance Day
    RSL
    Rupert C McWhinney
    Sacrifice
    Shrine Of Remembrance
    Small Magazine Lee-Enfield Rifle
    Souvenir Handkerchiefs
    Sphinx Memorial
    St John's Garrison Church Gordon
    St Thomas' Church North Sydney
    Sydney Harbour Bridge War Memorial
    Sydney Legacy
    Ted Ferguson
    The Cenotaph Sydney
    The Last WWI Veteran
    The Lost City Of Z
    Tony Griffiths
    Tony Lilja
    Trench Art
    Trench Feet
    Troop Horse Gallant
    Turkey
    Varlet Farm
    Victor Trumper
    Wal Scott-Smith
    Walter Hilary Lynch
    Western Hebrides
    Winston Churchill
    Woolloomooloo Wharf
    WWI POW
    WWI Stamps
    Ypres

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.