Jennifer Murray shares the story of her great uncle, and the circumstances that saw him serve in the war. 

My great uncle Fred came from Wedderburn. He tried to enlist for WWI locally, but was not accepted because his medical history of being a bad asthmatic was known. Some time later, the mother of a local boy who was also serving in the war, sent Fred a white feather.

With that, Fred went to Melbourne where his medical history was unknown and enlisted on 4 September 1916. He embarked on 23 September on HMAT Hororato and was killed in action in France on 20 September 1917, aged only 23. He has a memorial at Tyne Cot Cemetery in Belgium.