Prior to World War, he played the cornet and was a bandmaster in Lithgow, and, he noted this musical potential on his attestation form when he enlisted.

As part of the 19th Battalion, 5th Australian Infantry Brigade, he landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula on August 19, 1915.  

The standard deployment of band members as stretcher-bearers and sometimes ammunition carriers, meant there was an appalling death toll, which left many battalion bands decimated.

It was very moving to read his letters, which have been passed down from my mother, describing how hard it was “getting in the wounded at night with bullets flying everywhere.”

After surviving the Gallipoli campaign, my grandfather was deployed to the Somme, Western Front in France. After horrendous losses of stretcher-bearers during the attack on Pozieres the use of bandsmen as stretcher-bearers generally ceased and it was recognised that the band's primary role was to “cheer up the troops.”

The above photo shows Moira’s grandfather leading the Band of the 5th Australian Infantry Brigade playing the “Victoria March” as it marches through Baupaume on March 19, 1917.

This Australian official photograph has gained enormous publicity and I remember when I was a child, my mother showing me this photo, which was often published in the newspaper near ANZAC Day. I have always felt very proud to acknowledge my grandfather's service to our country.

Fortunately, he survived being gassed in the trenches, and returned home to Australia after convalescence in England.

Eventually he died in Sydney in 1965 at the great age of 85.