State Library WW1 exhibition sparks Sue Nicholls journey to find out more about her adopted grandfather, Soloman William Jacobs

A “HAUNTINGLY gorgeous opera song” provided author Sue Nicholls the sign her book on WW1 digger Soloman William Jacobs the right thing to do.

9.2.2015. 100 Days of Anzac coverage. Susan Nicholls is writing a book about her adopted grandfather Will Jacobs, who signed up in 1915 and was in a Belgium trench right next to his brother when the brother "was blown to pieces". The brother was a journo at the Register before he signed up and Will was apparently production manager at The Advertiser for three decades. Photo Sam Wundke.

SHE can still see him as if he’s standing before her.

The kind old bespectacled man with the immaculate grey hair, dressed in his white shirt and tie, heavy trousers and olive green waistcoat.

The neighbour with the kind face so wearied by age it almost looked like that of a Bassett Hound.

The war veteran with the warm smile.

That smile is what Sue Nicholls remembers most fondly about her old neighbour and “adopted grandfather” Solomon William Jacobs.

The veteran was her neighbour during the ‘70s.

Ms Nicholls had moved back to Adelaide from the country at 17 years old, and settled into a unit at Somerton Park.

On the way home from school, she would stop and chat with Mr Jacobs in his front yard and the pair soon became good friends.

“I would sit on his 1920s armchair and he’d give me Golden Circle pineapple juice, cheese and crackers,” Ms Nicholls, now 60, says.

“Then we would go out to lunch in the city and talk about politics and bump into people he knew.

“He had the most wonderful smile and laugh, and we used to laugh often.”

Behind the laugh was a man who had seen the horrors of war, though he never spoke about it with Ms Nicholls.

“He talked about the good parts, but never about the horrible parts,” Ms Nicholls says.

“His legs were in bad shape and I knew he had suffered but I never asked him exactly why because I was only 17 and it wasn’t polite.”

Ms Nicholls was 26 when Mr Jacobs died at 84.

Last year, Ms Nicholls was at the State Library exhibition Remember Me: The Lost Diggers of Vignacourt, and thought perhaps she would see a photo of her beloved neighbour and learn more about his war journey.

Eight hundred photos later and no Mr Jacobs to be found, she started her own search for answers.

Through her research she was able to trace Mr Jacob’s steps from practically every day of his war journey, from his time as an apprentice at The Register newspaper to his role in The Battle of Passchendaele.

Ms Nicholls remembers the day she wrestled with the decision to turn her research into a book.

“I said ‘Mr Jacobs, if you’re out there, and I think you are, can you give me a sign you’re OK about this, even though I’m not a blood relative, and you better hurry up about it and make it before I get home because I can’t wait all day’.

“So I’m driving home and I’m swapping between Radio Adelaide and Classic FM and this beautiful, hauntingly gorgeous opera is on and the lyrics are ‘remember me, remember me …

“And I said to myself, ‘that will do’.”

Ms Nicholls hopes to finish the book by September and donate it to the War Memorial in Canberra.

Ultimately, she hopes to find Mr Jacob’s seven grandchildren or two great grandchildren and give them a copy of Mr Jacob’s story.

“I don’t know where his family is and I don’t have any clues ... so I hope if this gets published, his family will see it.”

This story is part of Messenger’s 100 Years, 100 Days, 100 Stories project, which will profile 100 South Australian World War I heroes as the nation builds up to the centenary of the Allied landing on Gallipoli on April 25, 1915.

If you have the details and war record of a family member who served during World War I, let us know. Please go to your local Messenger’s Facebook page and send us the details.

Originally published as State Library WW1 exhibition sparks Sue Nicholls journey to find out more about her adopted grandfather, Soloman William Jacobs