Prologue

Summary

The grass-covered, rounded lower slopes of the Australian Snowy Mountain Range outside Mansfield have an eerie similarity to the kunai foothills around Wau. This was in my thoughts as I made my way to a meeting with Elaine Sherlock to find out more about her late husband.

On the strong wooden table in the dining room, with past family members looking down from their frames along the wall, Captain Bill Sherlock's history was laid out for me. From the childhood photos and the newspaper cuttings of his rowing and athletic prowess, I learned more of this man. Dominant among the ephemera of his life were the letters and notes relating to his role in the critical action at Wandumi Ridge, among those kunai foothills overlooking Wau. There were handwritten letters from General Herring, Colonel Wood, Colonel Starr, Major Muir, Captain Gullett and Captain Lyndon among others.

There was much to peruse, but before I had finished Mrs Sherlock wanted to show me another collection of books, letters and photographs. ‘These are my father's records’, she told me. Lieutenant-Colonel Ernest Knox-Knight had been a battalion commander in the First World War, killed at the head of his men during the decisive August 1918 offensive. He would have been proud of the son-in-law he never met.