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

Remembering Harold Lilja: his father, my grandfather in Week Fifty Two

28/1/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Because my maternal grandparents separated in 1930 I never knew my grandfather Harold Lilja.  This was instrumental in my dedicating a year to finding out more about him, his war service, and his life.  And to finding out more about my paternal grandfather John Mitchell’s war service also.

As I have now arrived at the end of my project I am happy to say I have reconnected with Harold’s second family and with part of my grandfather John Mitchell’s Scottish family.

Meet Tony (Anthony) Lilja, Harold’s son to his second wife Mary Patricia.  Tony is my mother’s half-brother, and my half-uncle.  It is Tony who shared his father’s WWI 34th Battalion diary with me and photos and a painting of my grandfather.  Tony is pictured here with his father’s WWI and WWII medal ribbon bar and the WWI Victory medal, and WWII medals.

Tony’s fondest memory of his father is going up to their weekender cabin on Scotland Island on Pittwater where they would often fish off the sundeck.  He said it took 1.5 hours on the bus and then the ferry ride to get there.  He was about thirteen at the time.  Tony said it was also the place where Harold would go sometimes when he separated for periods from his second wife, Tony’s mother.

I asked Tony if Harold ever spoke about his WWI experiences and he said “never” except when he had his breakdowns, then he would talk a bit.  And he confirmed that Harold had spent several periods in Callan Park Mental Hospital.  Tony too has visited the Western Front battlefields to honour his father’s service.

To date I have searched in vain for more information on my other grandfather, John Mitchell’s WWI service.  There were so many John Mitchells in the Royal Scottish Regiment.  But thanks to an Ancestry.com subscription Christmas present from my daughter I am starting to narrow down this search. 

After I did an Ancestry DNA test Scott Mitchell Muir, a grandson of John’s youngest Scottish brother Alexander has found me.  John’s youngest siblings were put into an orphan’s home after their mother died in 1914.  Scott lives in England but sadly has no further information on John but is very happy to have found his Mitchell family in Australia!

I have never been to Scotland Island….so I am off to visit it right now!  
Lest we forget!

Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    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.