The recent Boer War celebrations in Hobart made me regret not having donated earlier to Tasmanian Times … the brilliantly preserved photograph copy of Lance Corporal John Bayliss Burkett (above).
He was Regiment Number 366. Unit Name:4th Victorian Bushmen.
It came to be in my possession some time ago when sharing the family home with his daughter Alison in a twilight year of her life, when to surprise her, I copied the small original we came across searching among her possessions for something she couldn’t find after moving, framed it and hung it on the wall in the room she slept in.
As the only surviving child, a younger brother taken tragically before his time and a mother later passing prematurely, Alison left the exclusive lady’s education facility where she boarded to become the rough and tumble right-hand man of the land in those days and the hardships endured remaining forever; devoted to her father.
A mother, son and daughter …
A gracious lady (below) to the end and a privilege to have shared the brief moment in time when it was needed …
.jpg "A Boer War memory ... 10")
*Lynne Newington resides in country Victoria …
