Bringing the boys home

Local Studies has received a significant donation of First World War letters, postcards, photographs and memorabilia relating to Henry (Harry) Jeffery, his brother Robert (Bob) and their cousin Alfred (Alf) Cassidy.

The letters and postcards were lovingly collected in an album by Harry and Bob‘s mother, Margaret. One hundred years later they provide a very special glimpse into the lives of the soldiers and the conditions they experienced. Harry was killed in action in Belgium on the 4 October 1917, aged 19 years while his cousin Alf was killed in action a few months earlier in France, aged 24 years.

The photograph shows Bob Jeffery with his mother and siblings superimposed in the top corner. When Bob Jeffery enlisted he was only 15 years and 8 months old. He survived the war in which he fought in the Middle East. When he received razor blades in a Christmas package he ‘gave those away because I was too young to shave!’

The generous donor Christine Tracy, a descendant of the brothers, felt it important that the album and photographs be preserved in Local Studies at Five Dock which is the suburb the boys called home.