What happened to our Joe? This is the story of Joe Cree, a young Australian farmer. But it could be the story of anyone who joined up to fight for his country. It is perhaps the archetypical story of war. Joseph Cree was born in Majorca, a little town in Victoria, in November 1894. His father Samuel Talbot Cree was born in County Down, Ireland, probably [Click to continue…]

Born in Banbury in 1890 Frederick William Blencowe son of James Blencow (1857-1914) and (Caroline Boazman) 1855-1920 he was to become a career soldier and in some way following his father James who was a veteran of the South African war. Frederick ‘joined up’ at just 18yrs of age in 1908 and from then went on to serve 40 years, mostly overseas [Click to continue…]

Harold joined the London Regiment in 1910 and served with them until 1916 after which he moved to the RFC (later the RAF). On 27 December 1916 Harold's plane was shot down by the infamous 'Red Baron' (Manfred von Richthofen, pictured above) although he was fortunately unhurt in the incident. Harold's service file is filled with incidents causing him [Click to continue…]

Thomas Watkins Rayment, known by everyone simply as "Tommy", was the son of Herbert John and Sara Louise Rayment.  He was born during the year 1914 in Petersham, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, where both his English-born parents were working in the seed business. He was educated at Barker College (located in a North Shore suburb [Click to continue…]