Waiting to come home ...

When we think of 11 November, we remember those who served and those who fell in conflicts all around the world. For some, the armistice brokered in 1918, brought hope that they would soon be reunited with their families back home.

James Patterson, 15th Infantry Battalion, wrote letters to his mother in Toowong, while he waited to be repatriated home, but there were thousands of men to be transported, so the wait continued for many months.

James and his twin brother Alexander [aka Alec] enlisted aged 18, early in 1915, and they served together with the 15th Infantry Battalion in Gallipoli and later France.

In a letter to his mother, 10 days after the armistice was declared, James wrote:
 

“We have survived the ordeal at last, but it will be some time before things are properly settled.”

James and his company were billeted in Belgium and he describes the almost total devastation by the German armies
 

They have been very methodical in their destruction, all bridges & practically every building of importance has been destroyed by mines.

While he and his company waited, he continued to receive letters from home, and was ‘quite surprised’ to read about the fire at family sawmill in Toowong, the third in the 30 years, which had occurred early in October 1918.

Eventually the men were gathered at various camps in England, but a seamen’s strike held up many scheduled voyages. James returned to Australia in March 1919, but without his twin brother. Alec had been killed during the fierce offensive at Mouquet Farm, Pozieres, in August 1916 aged just 19, he was later awarded the Military Medal for his conspicuous bravery. Alec is remembered at the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, France.

Read more ...

• AWM Roll of Honour, Patterson, Alexander Smith
• Service record: Patterson, James Kerr
• Service record: Patterson, Alexander Smith
• Brothers at War [blog]
• Sawdust in our Veins by Carolyn Nolan
• 27488 Oakhill family memorabilia, State Library of Queensland
• 29420, Alexander and James Patterson Correspondence, State Library of Queensland