Mr William Honeychurch shares the story of his family – three brothers who served in ‘The Great War’.

Henry Honeychurch

Henry enlisted on 12 September 1914 in 14thBattalion B Company, the first of the three brothers to serve overseas. Henry died at Gallipoli on 27 April 1915. I have his original diary, written until his death. His last entry on the day he was killed reads “advancing under fire, now in the trenches.”

Hector enlisted on 23 February 1916.  He was wounded four times and killed in action on 23 August 1918 and is buried at Harbonniers, France.  I have in my possession an original card from Hector written to his father that begged him to stop Bill from leaving Australia.  It reads “I seen [sic] in the paper where young Bill has enlisted and is going into camp. He will be sorry, but try and stop him leaving Australia if you can as two out of one family is quite enough to be in this war.” However, it was too late – ‘young Bill’ was already on his way.

Bill enlisted on the 4 May 1917. He served in France and was fortunate that the war ended soon after his arrival.