Love’s tragic end

By Melissa Meehan
IT was the love story that ended too
soon, a tale of young love torn apart by
war.
It’s an all too familiar story of those
who farewelled family and loved ones
to fight against evil all over the world.
Catani’s Beryl Bainbridge shared
some family treasures with the Gazette
last week in the lead-up to AnzacDay.
“My mother saved all these post
cards sent to my aunty Beryl from Jack
– the man she was supposed to marry,
while he was stationed somewhere in
France during the World War I,” Ms
Bainbridge said.
“I don’t know how they met, I know
he went to war and didn’t come back.”
Jack met Beryl in 1916 before he
went to war in 1917 and sent love letters
and postcards to her and her family.
In his letters he did not go into
much about the war, but instead sent
his love and well wishes to Beryl and
her family.
The postcards are like nothing seen
today, each carefully handcrafted and
embroidered on one side, his hand
writing perfectly readable and his love
for her obvious.
In one letter he sent, Jack attempted
to finish it three times, explaining to
Beryl’s mother that he was very busy
travelling to and from one area or
another and when he arrived there was
much work to be done.
“They should have got married – he
called her parents mother and father,”
she said.
“But it was not to be.”
Jack was killed on 7 September
1918, and their love affair was cut
short.