Anzac Day Stories

Honouring the brave men & women who represented their country during war.

LEST WE FORGET - ANZAC DAY 25 APRIL

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Private Charles Albert Lovell Humphreys, 37th Batallion

Charles was born December 1886 in Darlinghurst, New South Wales and was aged 30 at time of death. He was the son of Thomas Bosworth Humphreys and Margaret Ann Jane Humphreys. Charles was from my fraternal grandmother's family line. He is my 2nd great grand uncle. He left Sydney on 9 November 1916 on the HMAT Benalla, Ship number: A24. He died on the 8th June 1917 at Messines, Belgium. He is remembered on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial Belgium....

Julie Carrington
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Stanley John Bancroft

My father, Stanley John Bancroft died in hospital in 1985 of Mesothelioma, the lung cancer, caused by asbestos. The day prior to his death he told me this story. During the later years of world war two, he had been working for the Postmaster General's Department as a Senior Radio Mechanic in charge of a group of men installing microphones and broadcasting equipment in what is now called 'The Old Parliament House'. They also installed radio broadcasting equipment at the 2CY Studios at Civic Center in Canberra and the Transmitter site at Red Hill...

By Max Bancroft
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Walter Sidney Ward

Here is a letter written by my father during WW2. He was born 27th November 1920 in Sydney so was 21 when this letter was written to his father. My dad's name was Walter Sidney Ward and his rank and regiment are on the letter. The letter is an account of his being stranded in Greece and how he and his comrades managed to finally get to safety in Crete. I find the letter extremely interesting from the point of view that it is written in the third person...

By Leslie Maxwell
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Ross Willam Bennett

My father in law, Ross William was a prisoner of Changi WW2 and treated like an animal. He went through, like other men, a terrible ordeal at the hands of the Japanese. He stole a slice of bread from a guard and was caught and tortured for it, a time he never forgave the Japanese for, no Japanese products were bought or ever brought into the household, Ross came home a broken man, although he picked up his life and went on, we are so proud of him...

By Elaine Bennett
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