4 - The War Widow and the Cost of Memory

Summary

In most cases the home has to some extent been broken up as the result of the enlistment of the husband.

One week after the announcement of the outbreak of the First World War, Frances Anderson, who was then engaged to be married to Alfred Derham, wrote to her fiancé after he expressed a wish to join the procession of men who clamoured to enlist. ‘I know it is no passing enthusiasm’, she claimed with a degree of certainty.

And altho' your going will hurt me as it will hurt Ruth [his sister], I wouldn't say – don't go … even if the worst came to the worst I think you are right to go … For myself I enjoy physical risks more than nearly anything! and I honestly don't believe I am afraid of dying or death – tho’ I find it hard to extend this feeling to the people I love.

The lure of adventure soon dissipated for Anderson as the numbing brutality of war began to impress itself onto the consciousness of those awaiting news on the homefront. Within two years, Australian losses were to reach 5000 a day on battlefields such as Pozières in France, which became a plateau of death. As early as November of the first year of combat, Anderson no longer offered unconditional support for the war.