A day of gratitude
IT’S a handwritten love letter of sorts, penned in worry 100 years ago in a bid to hear news of a missing fiance.
English nurse Ruby McLoughlin was desperate for news on Private Clement Aloysius Joseph Mahoney, who she met after the Aussie Digger was hospitalised with typhoid in London.
A century later, Brisbane man and Vietnam veteran Phil Brookes tomorrow will place a copy of Ruby’s letter near Mr Mahoney’s name at the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux. Pte Mahoney’s body was never found.
The letter, dated June 8, 1917, is written on a letterhead from Blake Hall Auxiliary Hospital for Officers in Essex.
Writing to military officers, Ruby wrote, “Can you give any news (on her fiance). He has been missing since April 9, 1917.”
Unbeknown to Ruby, her love was killed two days after he was listed missing. He died at the bloody battle of Bellecourt.
Mr Brookes said he has never forgotten about the woman who fell in love with his great uncle.
“I wonder what happened to Ruby,’’ he said earlier this week.
“My granduncle was born in Adelaide, one of 13 children, a sister was my grandmother. He was a fitter/machinist and enlisted at Keswick Barracks and was posted to A Squadron 9th Light Horse.
“His photo shows a very dashing light horseman indeed. He served at Gallipoli and contracted typhoid and influenza and was hospitalised in Malta and England.
“During his stay in hospital he fell in love with a nursing sister, Ruby McLoughlin, and became engaged.”
Mr Brookes, whose family has dedicated itself to serving Australia, is leading a group of 19 – called the Grocers and Gunners for memorial services in France.
Villers-Bretonneux earned the unenviable claim of having the first tank-against-tank battle in history: three British Mark IVs versus three German A7Vs.
The British were no match for the Germans, who took the town only to lose it to two brigades of the First Imperial Force.
About 1200 Australian troops died there. There are graves of more than 770 Australians just outside the town.