A century on from the end of World War I we acknowledge their service …
Lest we forget.
Private Methuselah Covey
Born: 24 November 1881 Surrey, England. Died: 26 May 1963 Ascot Vale.
Enlisted: 12 February 1916 aged 34
Served: Western Front
Born in Surrey, England, Methuselah married Elizabeth Rosemond in 1910 and emigrated to Victoria in 1912.
He was working as a rabbit trapper around Pakenham when he enlisted in March 1916, when there was a major recruitment drive underway to replenish and expand the AIF following the Gallipoli campaign.
Methuselah served in France, where he was twice hospitalised with malaria and “carbuncle neck”.
In March 1918, aged 41, he wrote to the military authorities seeking to be discharged and returned to Australia, explaining that two of his brothers had been killed in the war while a third was a POW in Germany.
His superiors supported the application, saying he was of exemplary character but was “old and is troubled with bad feet”.
Returning to Pakenham, he was granted a 140 acre block on what had been part of the famous IYU Estate, which had been divided into dairying lots for returned soldiers, but had to forfeit that when his wife became gravely ill.
He worked for many years with the Berwick Shire outdoors department and was active in the RSL.
This is an extract from Patrick Ferry’s book A Century After The Guns Fell Silent – Remembering the Pakenham District’s WWI Diggers 1914-18.
For more details on this and other profiles in the book, head to the website www.pakenhamww1.com
