THE letter from Alice Crellin to the Australian Imperial Forces records office is heartbreaking.
Now living on a Margaret River farm, "Glen Iris", the widowed Mrs Crellin writes in an urgent and insistent scrawl:
"Sir. It is now 15 months since my husband L. Cpl W.M. Crellin 11th Batt. A.I.F. was killed in action at Bullencourt. I think it is about time I got some word about his personal effects."
It is July 1918. There had been nothing left of William Crellin's body to bury.
"I have received nothing and you must be fully alive to the fact anything that was left would be dearly prized by one."
William Moore Crellin had been considered a tall man at five feet, six inches. Born in Eltham, Victoria to John and Amelia Crellin in 1880, it is unclear when or why he came to Western Australia.
But it was here the grey-eyed, fair-haired William Crellin fell in love with Alice Maud Baker.
Soon after their marriage, the couple moved to Manjimup where he worked as a timber worker at the Number 1 Mill.
At the outbreak of war, he didn't enlist immediately. But on February 1, 1916, he travelled from Manjimup to Bridgetown to sign up.
Nine days later he was sent to the army training camp at Blackboy Hill in Perth. After six weeks of basic training he was given the rank of Private in the 11th Battalion 16th Reinforcements.
Private Crellin embarked from Fremantle aboard the HMAT A9 Shropshire on March 31, 1916, landing in Suez almost four weeks later.
A further five weeks passed before he boarded the HMT Tunisien, finally disembarking at Marseilles, France, on June 3.
A week later, he was in base camp at Etaples, near Le Havre on France's northern coast. Here he joined "C" Company in the 11th Battalion.
A year after leaving home he was bloodied in battle and promoted to Lance Corporal in the field on March 14, 1917.
Less than three months later, William Crellin was dead. Killed in the infamous Battle of Bullencourt on June 6, 1917, there was no body to bury.
Lance Corporal Crellin is commemorated at the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux and on panel 61 at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. St Margaret's Anglican Church in Eltham, Victoria.
As for his widow, research has yet to reveal how Alice Crellin came to be staying at Glen Iris, or, indeed, where the farm was located in the area.
In her original letter to the Army dated August 1, 1917, Mrs Crellin's careful hand and submissive, measured tone requested any of her late husband's personal possessions, a copy of his will and any details of his death.
But this letter, written so close to his death, produced no answers to ease her grief. The reply dated October 4 gave a short, uninformative answer with an undetailed death certificate.
Alice Crellin's second letter, dated July 24, 1918, contrasts starkly with the original.
The letter clearly conveys the young widow's frustration and annoyance with the army, although she does state she had received news of her husband's deferred pay.
This time the reply is swift. The records office writes that as yet it has none of Lance Cpl Crellin's possessions due to the lack of room on board returning ships, although it promises anything which eventually arrives will be dealt with expediently. That paybook, though, would be retained by the paymaster for record-keeping.
But life went on for Alice Crellin. In 1919 she married Charles William Steedman in Perth.
In the years following, the Army sent the now-Mrs Steedman the Memorial Scroll in January 1922, the Memorial Plaque in August 1922 and Lance Cpl Crellin's Victory Medal in 1923.
These profiles will form part of an exhibition at the Bramley School, Old Margaret River Settle ment, for the commemoration of the ANZAC centenary.
If you have any pictures, memorabilia or information regarding any of the Anzacs on the local honour roll, please contact Pauline Graves at the Margaret River and Districts Historical Society by email on pushing_60@hotmail.com.
