Bravery cost teen World War I soldier Arthur Pockett his legs

PRIVATE Arthur Herbert Pockett lied about his age so he could serve his country in World War I.

PRIVATE Arthur Herbert Pockett lied about his age so he could serve his country in World War I.

He was just 16 when he enlisted with the 38 Infantry Battalion, with whom he served a year later in the Battle of Passchendaele from July-November 1917.

Private Pockett returned from the front line in December that year, his life changed forever after losing both his legs in the battle.

“He was a very sick man as you would realise with one leg off at the knee and the other above the knee,” his wife Jean Pockett recalled as she sat in her lounge room in Coorparoo with her husband’s war memorabilia around her.

“He was a closed book, he didn’t like talking about the war under any circumstances,” she said.

Mrs Pockett (nee Bloxsome) is one of Queensland’s last living connections to World War I and her story is reminiscent of the time.

Now 91, Mrs Pockett is one of just a dozen or so World War 1 widows still alive in Queensland.

She met Private Pockett through her father. They were married in 1947 – she was 23, he was 46.

Mrs Pockett cared for her husband until he died in 1978.

See our special feature: 100 Years of Untold Stories – ANZAC to AFGHANISTAN

It was then that she relocated from their home in Melbourne to Brisbane where she made it her mission to keep the Anzac spirit alive. She took up a position as the state vice-president of the War Widows’ Guild of Australia and spends her days sharing what she believes is a very important message.

“I think it’s very important, not only to me, but to everybody else to recognise Anzac Day,” she said. “I think all young children should be taught what the war was and what it was about – which is our freedom.”

Mrs Pockett spends precious time visiting other widows who will spend their remaining days in Brisbane’s Greenslopes Hospital.

“If they are from the country they don’t often have visitors so they always look forward to someone saying hello,” Mrs Pockett said.

According to War Widows’ Guild of Australia state president Gynith Whatmough, “widows are the forgotten lot but a vital part of the community’s fabric”.

“Some of them, I don’t know how they manage when their husbands don’t come home, it can take an awful toll on them,” Ms Whatmough said.

Mrs Pockett intends to spend this Anzac Day in the company of the other war widows she has formed friendships with over the years.

News_Rich_Media: 100 years of Anzac diaries are being brought to life, from script to social media, the soldier's story can now be accessed by anyone at anytime