The WWI battlefield visit that brought Richard Marles to tears
The defence minister’s grandfather was decorated for gallantry in World War I. On a recent visit to France, he found himself in the field where his grandfather’s courage helped win the war.
Richard Marles’ strongest memories of his grandfather are of sitting with him and watching the cricket. He knew his grandfather, Percy Pearce, had fought in WWI, and had once been shown shrapnel scars on his leg. “But I didn’t know anything about how he had been injured,” the deputy prime minister says. “He didn’t talk about the war.”
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles with the photograph of his grandfather, Percy Pearce. James Brickwood
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