Wendy Hebbard

Roy Gollan

by Wendy Hebbard

Story 148

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My uncle was present at Gallipoli in 1915 and later on the Western front. After he was invalided off the Gallipoli Peninsula with typhoid he was sent to France where he was awarded the DSO with bar and Military Cross and Oak Leaf cluster. He was wounded and sent to England to recuperate, then returned to France to continue fighting.

He was a newspaper correspondent to the Geelong Advertiser and continued to send reports which were published in an adjunct to the paper, the "Illustrated News of the week".

Roy Gollan has 75 entries in the "Illustrated News of the week." He describes a visit to Buckingham palace where the king and queen entertained Aussie soldiers.

Roy did not write much about the deplorable conditions at Gallipoli, but by sneaking a look at some of the other letters I found some interesting reading. One man was killed in his trench by a stray bullet which entered whilst he was reading a letter from home.

Another soldier pleads with his mother to send him some socks and singlets.

If anyone thinks they had a Geelong relative who went to the First World War. There is an index of names mentioned in the paper at the time to make the search easier.

Story 148

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