Love found amid the horrors of warfare: the diary of Hector Brewer

HECTOR Brewer from Marrickville enlisted at 19 and went on to fight in Gallipoli. Here are excerpts from his diary.

HECTOR Brewer from Marrickville enlisted at 19 and went on to fight in Gallipoli, France and Belgium. Hector was in and out of the front line for four years, saw hell on Earth, met the love of his life and came home a lieutenant. His diary was donated to the Mitchell Library in 1967. Nearly 50 years later his nephew Trevor Anderson is discovering his uncle for the first time.

CHRIS MASTERS: THE TRUE LESSON OF ANZAC

SPECIAL SECTION: 100 YEARS OF UNTOLD STORIES

YOUR FAVOURITE ANZAC PHOTOGRAPHS

GALLIPOLI:

25/4/1915 Our Reg. landed about 9am and hopped straight to the job. Terrible fight all day ending in a retreat on our side to the first position.

26/4/1915 Our losses are heavy. The enemy’s losses are unknown but they are being pushed back. Snipers are doing much damage to our men. They are fair shots. The Batts & Bgds are all mixed up now. The N. Zealanders have fought with us all through.

27/4/1915 Our Coy. Com, Captain Concanon killed while leading his men in a bayonet charge. The Brigadier & Major Irving the Brigade Major have been shot dead. Our heroic Col. (Braund) saved a grave situation in the evening with his Reg. (or what was left of it) and one machinegun. He was fearless.

30/4/1915 Heavy artillery has been landed to deal with Mr Turk and his shrapnel, which is considerably superior to ours. We make a little pot of tea any time and have plenty of rations. Cable from Lord Kitchener encouraging us.

4/5/1915 Misfortune seems to be following our Reg. Our Col. (Braund) was shot dead last night about 1.30pm. With a bullet through the head, it is believed a stray bullet.

9/5/1915 Australia’s boys have stuck to it so far and will stick to it to the last. Our platoon went down to the beach for a swim but the enemies shells stopped us after we had got down.

14/5/1915 The routine for our platoon is 36 hours in the fire trench and 12 hours out or
vice versa.

19/5/1915 The Turks attacked strongly about 3am. Their yell was thrilling as they charged our trenches. Our rifle fire was terrific. The machine guns on each flank did good work also. The Turks charged right up to the parapets. They retired about daylight leaving hundreds of dead and wounded.

News_Image_File: Australian soldiers pictured during a charge at Gallipoli / Picture: AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL

20/5/1915 The Turks waved flags and parties got out of their trenches and stood up while another party came forward and held a parley with our General. Evidently in connection with their wounded.

23/5/1915 Beautiful peaceful day. Just an occasional crack from a sniper to break the silence. Officers from the enemy parleying for a truce to bury dead. In the afternoon the enemy’s guns got busy and wounded three of our chaps. I went to hospital today feeling done up, been going for a month with nerves strung.

31/5/1915 Many chaps returned who were wounded the first day.

11/6/1915 Flies here in the million and they are awfully familiar. They crawl over our food in hundreds. Much sickness is reported among the various Regiments probably owing to
these pests.

12/6/1915 Saw the doctor this morning and he sent me to the clearing station and from there I was placed aboard the Fleet Sweeper “Newmarket” to be sent to Lemnos Island with other sick and wounded to recover.

15/6/1915 Cholera has broken out.

21/6/1915 Gen Sir Ian Hamilton looked over the hospital today. He seemed a very genial old chap sitting on the side of the beds inquiring as to the nature of each patients illness, myself
being one of them. One
point about him is that his teeth are his own.

25/6/1915 I am on Milk Diet. Fancy that, after the life we have led at the trenches among flies and dust.

30/7/1915 Back at Anzac again. Embarked on sweeper about 3pm. Left Lemnos Is about 5pm and arrived here 2am this morning. Got back here in the trenches about 12 noon. Everyone given respirators and helmets.

News_Image_File: Australian troops pictured on the Western front / Picture: THE AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL

6/8/1915 Wounded in right arm with shrapnel. Only a fine graze.

9/8/1915 Our losses are heavy. Out of 243 men in my company who charged over the parapets, only 36 came back, some of these being slightly wounded.

14/8/1915 Have just taught a daredevil Turk to keep his head down. Cannot say whether I knocked him or not.

30/8/1915 One shell unfortunately killed two of our stretcher bearers, one being blown literally to pieces.

8/9/1915 We are out of the trenches for good and we got to Shrapnel Gully until tonight.

9/9/1915 Had a safe trip to Mudros Harbor. Lovely breeze.

10/9/1915 The Col. read an address from the Gen. thanking us for the work we had done and commending us on the heroic and successful way we took
Lone Pine on the right of our position.

29/10/1915 Left Mudros about 1.30pm. Arrived at Anzac about 9.20 and disembarked.

30/10/1915 Had breakfast and moved towards the trenches about 9.30am

17/11/1915 Strong wind all day very heavy storm and during night. Many chaps washed out of their dug outs.

28/11/1915 Snow everywhere. The first time I have seen snow. It is very slushy in
the trenches.

2/12/1915 The Turks bombarded the Lonesome Pine position nearly all day last Tuesday and caused
over 200 casualties on our side besides damaging the trenches.

18/12/1915 Orders to pack up ready to vacate the peninsular. It seems a pity that all such splendidly worked out plans should have gone astray. The difficulties were not insurmountable but they were not tackled in the right manner. Grave discredit reflects on someone at
present unknown.

News_Image_File: Some of the diaries belonging to WW1 digger Hector Brewer.

A LOVE STORY

How does true love blossom and survive the perils of war?

It’s no surprise that when you send a generation of young men far from home military victory is not the only thing on their minds. The diaries of Anzacs are littered with references to their interactions with the opposite sex — and many a heart would have been broken in Europe between 1914 and 1919 by adventurous young Australians.

Hector Brewer had no shortage of flirtations. Perhaps conscious his sister Florence was to be the custodian of his diary he kept some of his tales of “romance” cryptic.

27/6/17: Last night I had pressing business — ahem — which prevented my arrival ‘home’ until 11 o’clock and I found the door locked. I hammered that door with my cane hoping to hear a sympathetic voice from the window above ask if I wanted to come in, but no such luck.

But despite the many lovely distractions in Hector’s way, one woman took hold of his heart in the South of France in 1917 and held it firm until he died 60 years later. His record of their first encounter holds no hint of what was to come.

12/12/1917: We caught the 5.30pm train for Trouville, changing trains at a place called Pont Leveque. Here I met an English girl who kindly showed me where to get a cup of tea while waiting for the train. Afterwards she introduced me to her father who invited me out, if I found time, to his home just outside Pont Leveque. (Two days later after catching a train to Pont Leveque) I walked out to see my newly made friends. It was a very nippy morning but I enjoyed it, the road being good, the country very pretty and the sun shining brightly. I reached their house about 10am and was taken round the grounds by my kind host Mr Pinney. He told me he had been in France for 17 years. He showed me many beautiful horses which he is looking after. Afterwards we went inside and I was introduced to Mrs Pinney and their family who made me very welcome indeed.

Hector stayed another day and made another visit to the family and had this to say about the kindly Pinney’s daughter:

Miss Pinney was the young lady who was so kind to me the previous night when I arrived at Pont Leveque on my way to Trouville. My stay with them was a very enjoyable one but all too short.

But Miss Pinney made a bigger impression than Hector’s diary lets on. He and May corresponded for the next 18 years, sending each other birthday and Christmas greetings, before May made the voyage to Australia and the pair was married. They were happily together, on a farm in the NSW irrigation area and later in the Blue Mountains, until May died in 1976, a year before Hector.