Johanna

Joanna and John Davis

I know little about the couple in this photo but it helps demonstrate the absurdity of war. They are, in a way, my only known family connection with WW1.

John Davis was born in England in 1838 and sailed to Australia with his parents in 1848. He married Johanna Shannoch, a native of Germany, at Taree in 1860. Joanna was born around 1841.

Their fourth child and eldest son, John William, was born in 1866 and married Eliza Jane Orr in 1893. They had three children; Ethel, William Roy (known as Roy), and Lucy, my grandmother. John William died before Lucy was born.

Roy enlisted in 1915 and saw service in Egypt and France. In France he was gassed and severely wounded. He left for home in November 1919 and in 1924 married Alma McLennan, my grandfather Joe Marsh's cousin.

Roy and Alma had one daughter, Marie. In WW2 she joined the RAAF where she met a young Catalina pilot, Don Day. They married and had three children, Jennifer, Bill and Suzanne.

I loved Roy and Alma and visited them whenever I was home on leave. Mind you, Alma's cooking might have been part of the attraction. She cooked the best Christmas cake I have ever tasted, great short breads and other delicacies.

Although we went to the same high school I didn't know their grandchildren all that well, although we did meet from time to time at Roy and Alma's.

Back to Johanna, our shared great-great grandmother. In all probability Johanna had relatives in Germany. When she farewelled Roy in 1915 he in all likelihood was leaving to fight her relatives. She would have waited anxiously for news of her grandson, but did she also have communication with her German family, and equally hold anxiety for them? Did she loose German relatives? I will never know. She was buried in Maclean Methodist Cemetery in 1921 and all those who know her have long since passed.

Eliza, Lucy, Roy and Ethel Davis

My relationship with Roy and Alma's grandchildren, my cousins a few times removed, Jenny, Bill and Suzanne is the same family connection Roy may well have had with his Grandmother's relatives opposing him across the trenches. And the idea of facing such close relatives across the trenches is something that I am thankful I have never had to contemplate.

On ANZAC day it is fitting and proper that we commemorate the sacrifice of those who served, the courage and the mate ship. We should remember the horrors of war, and the sacrifice and suffering of the families of those who served. And I also think of Johanna and others like her, who had anxieties about loved ones on both sides.