Bill Lavelle of Harriet Street, Coburg in Killarney, Ireland, 18 February 1918. (Image courtesy Leonie Lloyd)
I'd love to know the story behind this photo, but unfortunately, all I can say is that it includes Bill Lavelle of Coburg. If by chance anyone looking at this has any more information about the people in the photo or the occasion, I'd love to hear from you.
----
3149 Pte William Francis (Bill) Lavelle served in the 22nd Infantry Battalion. A member of a staunchly Roman Catholic family from a remote corner of County Mayo, Ireland, like other family members he was a parishioner of St Paul's, Sydney Road, Coburg, the church in which he was baptised in January 1894.
He left Australia on 26 November 1915, received a severe shell wound to his head and neck and face in November 1916 and was wounded again in February 1917, but he survived the war, returned to Australia, married Gertrude (Gert) Morrissey in 1926 and lived at 3 Harriet Street, Coburg for many years (in the area of the car parks between Sydney Road and the railway line).
By the 1950s, he and Gert had moved to Elsternwick where he worked as a driver for the PMG. (Remember the PMG? Postmaster-General's Department, predecessor of Telecom (now Telstra) and Australia Post)
Bill Lavelle in later years. Image courtesy Leonie Lloyd.
Remembered by members of his extended family as a 'good bloke', he died in 1982 aged 88 and is buried at Fawkner Cemetery with his wife Gert, who died in 1967 aged 68.
No comments:
Post a Comment