Private A.A. Vial of DeCarle Street, Coburg

Herald, 19 May 1917

Arnold Vial and his brother Clarence both served in World War One, but as you see from this article, Arnold served with the South African Rifles and although I have not found proof, it seems likely that Clarence did, too. And because I have not found a post-war trail for Clarence, it may be that he died during the war, but I don't know that for sure.

The Vial brothers and their three sisters were born in the rugged tin mining area of Waratah on Tasmania's north-west coast to Samuel Vial and his second wife Harriet Bell. Not long after the birth of the fifth child, Clarence, father Samuel Vial disappeared to South Africa for a year or two before returning to Tasmania in November 1899. 

Four years later the parents divorced and a month after that Samuel Vial left Melbourne for Cape Town with three of his children - Mabel, Lily and Arnold. 

From then until the WW1 years there was a constant toing and froing of family members between Cape Town and Coburg. In 1910 Samuel married a third time in South Africa then his daughter Mabel also married there, so although the boys must have spent some of their school days at Moreland State School (their names are recorded on the school's Honour Board) their family ties were now firmly placed in South Africa.

After the war Arnold married and had four children. His father Samuel and step-mother Elizabeth lived in Witbank (now known as Emalahleni), in a coal-mining area east of Pretoria. Samuel died in 1946 aged 91. It is not known when either of his sons died.