HELEN KERR FROM GEMLIFE HIGHFIELDS NEVER IMAGINED WHAT SHE WOULD FIND WHEN SHE FIRST BEGAN RESEARCHING HER FAMILY TREE.
Given an excerpt from a war diary by her mother’s cousin, Harry Hartnett, Helen began a quest to seek out more war memoirs within her family. Little did she know that her uncle’s recollections would turn into a best-selling non-fiction book.
“I uncovered quite a few interesting stories while researching my family history, including a story about some Irish orphan girls, while another relative had an encounter with bushranger Captain Moonlite,” said Helen.
But the story about three brothers, Helen’s great uncles who fought in World War One, and the circumstances behind their very different lives and endings, was one which struck very close to home.
“The Hartnetts were my mother’s uncles,” she says.
“Robert Hartnett joined up as soon as the war started. He was in for the duration and was never injured. He was in the Middle East as part of the Light Horse, went to Gallipoli, and was one of the last soldiers evacuated at dawn – the last to board the ship.”
“Robert was promoted for his bravery, and when they signed the peace treaty in Jerusalem, known as the Armistice of 11 November 1918, he was there as a witness or an adjunct, and was part of the signing.”
Helen tells us that Harry, the second brother, gave her about 30 or 40 pages of extracts from his diaries, which years later, were turned into a book called Over the Top – A digger’s story of the Western Front.
“Harry had it tough. He was injured several times, even mustard gassed, and was at the front in France in the line of fire, a true soldier,” she says.
“John, the youngest brother, sadly only lasted six weeks in the war before he was killed in action on 3 May 1917 in France. He was only 24.”