Wednesday 11 January

The uninspiring weather continues, with more overcast skies and rain. The wind has put in an appearance, and it is currently blowing at 30 mph, that's a full force 7. It should brighten up and get colder over the next few days - but not  for very long, if my reading of the weathermaps is correct.

I am not very pleased at the moment, because my camera has developed a fault. I'm sending it off for repairs, and hope to have it back in service soon. Meanwhile, I'll continue to take pictures, using someone else's camera.

I'm still going through Australian service records from the First World War, and sometimes, the soldier's private life crops up in the correspondence. One young lady wrote to the Army to request the correct address for letters to her intended. She had despatched 30 epistles, but none had arrived, and a degree of acrimony had apparently crept in. Some 3 to 4 years later, the service file includes a transcript of a marriage certificate: to a different woman.

Last night, my researches turned up a deeply tragic turn of events in the life of one soldier. He had gone to France in 1916, but was returned home to Australia after contracting pneumonia. Although the man had recovered from his illness, it left him out of breath at the merest exertion. Six months after repatriation, he once more applied for war service - but was rejected. The army records show he had died after discharge, and I wanted to know if his death was directly attributable to his war service, which seemed likely. Not so. When I accessed the death record, with the help of fellow researcher Direcleit, it showed that our man had hanged himself, at the age of 25. We will never know why, because an inquest ruled that no indication of his state of mind had been apparent beforehand. RIP William Arthur Bawden.