Headstone for Captain J P Lalor, 12 Battalion AIF. We do not know where you are nor how you are … It is very hard writing to night, but of course we keep hoping and trusting all is well with you, our dear, dear son. “We are passing thro’ a time of terrible anxiety just now,” wrote Margaret Melvin,Īnd it is you dear son who is ever in our minds, our hearts and prayers.
While the reported success of the landings at Anzac was indeed the cue for some warm self-congratulation in Australia, it was also the cue for excruciating anxiety and fear surrounding the wellbeing of loved ones.įamilies clearly struggled with their feelings as they waited anxiously for news of loved ones. They were especially aware of the scale of the fighting and the toll in lives it was taking on the European battlefields.
But it was this, together with a wider understanding that the war was not going well, that defined 1915 and drew Australians ever deeper into the vortex of total war.īefore Gallipoli, Australians had been watching the war closely. Today we struggle to capture a sense of the profound shock and anxiety the landing at Anzac Cove brought to Australia. 1915 was a critical year for Australians, and not just because of the pride and myth-making associated with Gallipoli.
