Survivor of two world wars
Ahighly intelligent man, I wonder whether my grandfather regretted his decision to enlist as he lay in the trenches, mustard gas filling his lungs during the ugliest of World War I battles in France.
Gerald O’sullivan, from King Island off the coast of Tasmania, enlisted in June 1916 in the 1st AIF, was assigned to the 35th Battalion and sailed to England in January 1917 with a dream of returning home to study law.
Serving in the fields of Ypres, Bullecourt, Passchendaele, Peronne, Dernancourt and Villers-bretonneux before his discharge in 1919, he returned to complete a law degree at Sydney University, marry and have five children, including my beautiful mum.
When World War II was declared in September 1939, Grandad again found himself serving his country, this time as an Army Legal Officer, duringg which he was appointed Chairman of the Commonwealthalth War Pensions Entitlement Appeals Tribunal.
As one of the lucky survivorsors of two world wars, Grandad was determined to fight for justicece for the women left behind. He became a passionate advocatete for war widows and was soon admitted to the bench of the NSW District Court, later becoming Acting Supreme Court Judge of NSW.
He passed away at age 68 due to lung complications following years of ill-health, yet he told my mum he never regretted his decision to serve his country, and was a judge until the day he died.
My mum was only 24. He never met his 15 grandchildren, the youngest of which was me. I may have been born 16 years after his death, but I’m forever grateful to the brave soldier struggling to breathe in those trenches, and to the more than 87,000 fallen Aussie servicemen and women whose stories deserve to be remembered this time each yyear.