3158 Private Ellery Gordon Lynch - Bairnsdale Killed in Action 19 July 1916

….. comforts are distributed amongst his friends

Ellery Lynch was born in Bairnsdale in 1892 but the Lynch family were from Brodribb where they had farmed 110 acres. Ellery had worked the land with his father before enlisting in July 1915 when he was 22 years and 10 months old. He sailed on the Commonwealth in November 1915 bound for Egypt. Ellery was another of the ill-fated 59 th  Battalion who transferred to Marseilles on his way to the frontline and come the 19 July was never seen again. It was almost two years before the family were informed he was no longer missing and presumed to have been killed at Fromelles. In 1918 his mother wrote that she never received word from him of parcels being received nor had any items been returned to them. She received an official letter stating that comforts, such as socks, mittens, etc., are distributed amongst the late soldier’s friends. At almost the same time as the family were being told there was no hope they were selling up their property. Had it all become too much for them? We will never know but the grief felt by the family was perhaps best summed up by the memorial notice that they placed two years later: On the blood stained fields of France you are lying my dearest boy – my best, and the lone winds are mournfully sighing where calmly you rest.