State Library of NSW
[Page 534]
Parliament N.S.Wales
Cranbrook CottageEdgecliff Sydney23rd August 1918.
My dear Geoffrey
The news of poor Bryan's glorious end has knocked everything else out of our minds for the moment. Mother & I are so desperately sorry for Auntie Mary & his sisters and brothers. After all the dear boy had gone through it seemed hard that he should have been sent to the Front again. Wounded & disabled again & again, he went back & back & back, simply because of the accursed undermining work that has been going on for the past few years in Ireland & Australia alike, & has resulted in a slackening of recruits, so that wounded men have to go back to the Front because there are none to take their places. I have written to Auntie Mary but I didn't know what to say in the face of such a sorrow. We remember how idle words seemed to be when we were overwhelmed by the loss of your own dear brother, & how the only real consolation lay in the knowledge that he had died gloriously for his God & his country & that he was happy for ever. So it is with Bryan, who – as we read in the cablegram that came yesterday – fell at the head of his men, & died instantaneously of shell shock, & won his reward. He like you and
This page has its status set to Completed and is no longer transcribable.