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Introduction

Ted and Annie Smythe lived in Jerilderie in western NSW with their 9 children: 4 boys Bert, Viv, Percy and Vern; 3 girls Viola, Ida and Rita; then 2 more boys Eric and Gordon.

They moved to Sydney in 1912 so that their oldest daughter could attend Fort St High School and their younger children could have better opportunities.

The four older boys helped get the deposit to build a very modest four-roomed cottage in Kogarah which they named Koppin Yarratt. They had all left school before the age of 12 and had joined the Post Master General's office where they learnt Morse Code and educated themselves to gain promotions.

All four boys enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces (A.I.F.) soon after the outbreak of WWI in 1914.
Bert (aged 25) and Vern (20) were at The Landing at Gallipoli, Percy (21) sailed on the "Orsova" in July, Viv (23) did Officer Training and had married his long-time sweetheart Clytie, before sailing in September.

Bert spent a few months training in Egypt before taking part in the historic 25 April 1915 landing at Gallipoli Peninsula. As a crack shot and an expert signaller he was always in the front lines and in danger. After being injured in the right shoulder, he was sent to Blighty (England), where Percy Morgan another signaller, also wounded, introduced him to his mother, an English widow of 60. A correspondence began between Mrs Morgan and Mrs Smythe and all four boys who also stayed with her when injured or on leave. Mrs Morgan provided a second home and became like a mother. The boys often used her address in England to receive mail as it was more reliable than army post.
She was especially fond of Bert, more so after the death of her own son.
Bert had been seconded to a Training Corps in England, although he felt he wanted to get back into the action. He was redeployed to France in 1917 and was killed-in-action at Bullecourt two months later.
His diary and letters home became very precious to his family.

Vern left Australia with Bert on the "Euripides" and also landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. He was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant in May aged just 20 years old.
Percy arrived at Gallipoli when the Lone Pine Campaign was under way. The three brothers met in the dugouts at Shrapnel Gully. Percy was invalided out to Malta when he became ill and not long afterwards, the troops embarked for France.
Viv sailed to Egypt where he was involved in action against Arabs, then after deployment to France he saw action near Armentieres, then Pozieres, Mouquet Farm and Bullecourt. 

In 1916 Viv, Percy and Vern were all in France near the Belgian border and managed to make contact. In May Vern was again promoted and became a captain and won an MC. The main front of the war was now along the Somme River and they were involved in the battles where Viv and later Percy were awarded MCs. 

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The Homefolk: Eric, Ida, Rita, Annie, Ted, Gordon. Kogarah ca 1915

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These 400 pages of letters remained in the care of one of the decendants for nearly 90 years and were only recently rediscovered. Thankfully the letters and other documents and photos were well preserved & survived intact to reveal their secrets.

The transcriptions have been done as accurately as possible and spelling mistakes and abbreviations have been left in. All notations in square brackets and/or italics are editor's notes. Where pages were damaged or words unreadable, there appears ##.

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