World War I ended in 1918, but among those who survived, many were broken in body or damaged in mind and spirit.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
This Anzac Day, Cobram-Barooga RSL will be especially remembering those soldiers and their families who returned at about this time 100 years ago.
Lieutenant Roy Anderson of the Australian Imperial Force 7th Battalion was one such soldier.
Lt Anderson was born and raised in Cobram, where his parents John Finley Anderson and Barbara Anderson resided at the Royal Victoria Hotel at the time.
He was an energetic and ambitious young man and, before joining the AIF, he was in business in Cobram as a hairdresser and newsagent.
Determined to do his bit, aged just 21, he placed his lucrative business in the hands of others and enlisted as a private at Seymour in June 1915.
He was a prolific letter writer throughout the war and housed in the Australian War Memorial is a collection of letters he wrote to his mother.
A fellow soldier, Frank Presnell sent a snap shot home, taken at the Pyramids in Egypt, of a group including Roy Anderson, Roy Grant, Jack Morgan and himself — headed it ‘A little bit of Cobram at the Pyramids’.
Lt Anderson served at Gallipoli briefly and was serving in France when he was selected for officer training in August 1917.
He rejoined the 7th Battalion as a Lieutenant in France in early 1918.
On the April 19, 1918, he suffered shrapnel wounds to the head and back when a high explosive shell burst close by, completely burying him.
He was rescued and evacuated to England.
After several months of treatment he partially recovered but was invalided back to Australia in July 1918 still suffering from internal injuries.
After an examination in hospital in Melbourne, x-rays showed his spine was in a serious condition and an operation was necessary.
While recovering from the operation, he succumbed to pneumonia and other complications, dying on January 14, 1919.
His body was returned to Cobram by train where it was met by a large number of returned soldiers.
After placing a large Union Jack on the coffin and, with his felt hat on top, Lt Anderson was carried by his mates through files of returned soldiers, with heads bowed and arms reversed.
Lt Anderson was given a full military funeral at Scots Church, Cobram, and then conveyed to Cobram cemetery.
It was said it was the first time in history Cobram East sand hills reverberated from the sound of the three volleys fired from the rifles of the military firing party.
Lt Anderson left a will to his mother and his younger brother Gordon, who ran the Holden agency in Cobram during the 1950s and 1960s.
Lt Anderson is one of few Australian World War I soldiers to be buried in the home town of his native country.
20°C