ANZAC Day 2016 – Do you have a family story about war service to share?

Today, 25th April, 2016 ANZAC Day commemorations are taking place around Austraia and overseas. As a society we collect, preserve and share the family history of ‘MacFarlanes’ (various spellings and sept names included) via our newsletter, “MacFarlane’s Lantern”. Stories of war service often feature in articles published, one of which was in Issue No. 131 (September, 2014). This article was in honour of Private Albert Leslie (Les) McFarlane (from Bairnsdale, Victoria) who kept a diary of his experiences on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915. The following snippet gives some indication of what Les experienced.

THURSDAY 5TH AUGUST 1915 ANZAC (Assault on Lone Pine)
(Sic) “Spent the day in the trenches With (no) food or tea, just had our water bottles which have to last us 48 hours. Shells are flying about in every direction and a continuous rifle fire is kept. The Turks are entrenched about 15 yd to 450yd? Aeroplanes are continually flying over us and dropping bombs. Stan and I are split up. Went to sleep close to the firing line as supports.”

The soldier Stan, referred to in the above passage, was Les’s mate, Private Edward Stanley Burt. Although both men returned home from the war, Stan passed away in 1919, whereas Les lived until 1973.

If you would like to read the full article please click here Snippets from WWI diary of Pte. A.L. McFarlane as published in MacFarlane’s Lantern No. 131

We are interested in hearing from other families who would like to share their story. Please contact the Secretary for further information: secretary@clanmacfarlane.org.au