Edward Joseph Kernan of 'Merai', Pascoe Vale

Portrait of Corporal Edward Joseph Kernan, 5th Battalion of Pascoe Vale, Victoria. He enlisted in July 1915 and spent time as a musketry instructor before eventually embarking with the 24th Reinforcements and the rank of 2nd Lieutenant (2nd Lt) on HMAT Ballarat, departing Melbourne on 19 February 1917. He died of wounds on 20 September 1917, aged 25 years. He, along with all others aboard, survived the sinking of the Ballarat when it was torpedoed in the English Channel on 25 April 1917. Image courtesy AWM. Image DASEY1953.

2^nd Lieutenant Edward Joseph Kernan, 5^th Infantry Battalion was the son of John and Nora Kernan of 'Merai', Pascoe Vale and the brother of Mamie and Jack Kernan. His grandfather, John Kernan, bought some of the land (between Gaffney Street and Devon Road) that had been part of John Pascoe Fawkner's original Crown Portion. When the Crown Portion was first subdivided, this land was bought by Henry Ashurst (in 1842) and a few years later leased to Joseph Burns who built a house, garden and outbuildings, planted 40 acres of oats and ran a dairy herd as well as grazing cattle. He called the farm 'Merai'. After Burns left in 1856, John Kernan took over the lease, kept the name and the family remained there for many years. (Moreland Thematic History)

'Merai' was originally listed as being in Moonee Ponds. By the 1880s, the second John Kernan (son of the original) was living in 'Merai', Pascoe Vale, so right on the borderland between the two and in those times it's likely that Edward Kernan (later to die on the Somme) identified as a Moonee Ponds/Essendon man, rather that what was then a fairly far-off Coburg.

Edward Kernan died in France of wounds received on 20 September 1917 and his parents placed the following notice in the Argus newspaper on 13 October 1917:

KELLY-KERNAN. Lieut W.A. (Archie) Kelly, 6^th Btn, KIA Sep 21; Lieut E.J. Kernan, 5^th Btn, died of wounds on Sep 30. Enlisted together in July 1915, always together in camp, and in England and France. Comrades in arms till death. (Inserted by Mr and Mrs John Kernan, as a loving tribute to their dear son’s friend William Archibald Kelly, 2^nd Lt, 6 Btn, parents in Qld.)

Archie Kelly was a Moonee Ponds/Essendon man and you can read more about his war service on the Empire Called and I Answered website here. 

The eye witness accounts noted in the Red Cross Wounded and Missing Files, available online through the Australian War Memorial website, not only fill in details about Edward Kernan's wounding and death, but give the reader more than 100 years later a little of the measure of the man:

 They also give you an idea of the lengths to which Vera Deakin and her team went to to bring comfort to the families at home:

And just occasionally, the files include a letter from a family member, such as this one written by Edward's sister Mary Josephine (Mamie), reminding the 21st century reader of the poignancy and heartbreak that was the lot of so many of our own families, too. I experienced, too, a sense of the bitter-sweet as I read this letter by the articulate Mamie, because I know that my own family members of this generation were barely literate and did not have the confidence or the networks to seek out the information that would have meant so much to them after two of my grandmother's brothers died in France.

(The Joe in the letter is 11136 Cpl Joseph Albert Cormick, 9th Field Ambulance. Cormick was born in Coburg.) 

Mamie Kernan did not marry and died at Essendon in 1963 aged 80. Her father John died at 'Merai' in January 1930 and her mother Nora died there in January 1933. Notices were placed in the Argus in Edward's memory until September 1936. He is also remembered on the family grave in the Roman Catholic section of Melbourne General Cemetery.

Note that there is a Kernan Avenue in Pascoe Vale, built in the 1920s. There was once a Merai Street, too, but it no longer exists. It was absorbed by the Tullamarine Freeway. (Street names of Coburg) Both streets are located in the vicinity of the Kernan property 'Merai'.