Navy commander to recount family's World War One history at Launceston Historical Society

Commander Cornish, was once the owner of a treasured family artefact - the diary of his uncle Cyril Parry who served in World War I.

Commander Cornish received his uncle's diary when he was posted with the navy in Canberra. It was one of several factors that led him to research his family's involvement in World War

He previously knew that his two uncles, Cyril and Athol had served in World War I but didn't know anything about their service during the war.

"We knew Uncle Cyril came back, we knew Uncle Athol didn't," he said.

Through his research in the National Archives, he was able to build up a deeper picture of his family's contribution to the First World War.

However Staff Sargeant Cyril Parry's (1892-1947) diary offers a deeper and more intimate perspective into daily realities of Australian soldiers who served in World War I.

When World War I broke out, Cyril Parry first went to Egypt and then to France, England, back to Egypt and in 1918 found himself in Palestine before arriving back home in 1919.

His diary only covers the first 15-16 months of World War I, said Commander Cornish.

"But what was really interesting about the diary was that he was a paymaster and he basically described what he did."

On Sunday, Commander Cornish will present a talk on his family history research to the Launceston Historical Society.

"What I'm trying to portray is the family touch or the personal touch. How families were affected by the war."

He'll present some of the insights gained through research in the archives and some of what his uncle experienced in Egypt.

But he'll also talk about the impact the war had on those who were at home.

"When you look at the number of people involved and they were away for so long.That must have had an impact on the family back here in Australia," he said.

Surviving letters from his great grandmother and aunts show that "there was a degree of anxiety," he says.

Communication at the time was awful, he says.

Cyril's brother Athol, an artillery gunner, died in Gallipoli just a few days after the ANZACs landed but Cyril would only have learned about this 3 or 4 weeks after it had happened.

As a lawyer in the First Gulf War, Commander Cornish would send communications to ships in the Gulf and would receive a response within 10-15 seconds.

"Whereas dealing with communications in the First World War, it was weeks or months for cables or letters or whatever it took to get through," he said.

From his diary, Cyril comes across as a quiet and family oriented man. His wrote about his job as paymaster and about meeting his cousins and uncles who were serving in other parts of Egypt.

The entries talk about his time in Egypt, the archaeological sights they saw and what he got up to on his time off.

There are twists and turns in this story which Commander Cornish doesn't want to give away.

He hopes that people will turn up to the talk to hear the more intriguing aspects of this history.

Commander Cornish didn't get a chance to meet his uncle Cyril who died in 1947 at the age of 55.

From research beyond his own family history, Commander Cornish was struck by the fact that veterans of the First World War "didn't live very long after they came back."

"A lot of them were physically scarred and nearly all [were] mentally scarred."

Cyril Parry's diary is now located in the Australian War Memorial and has been digitsed and made available to the public.

Cyril's camera along with his diary keeping would have been frowned upon by the authorities, Commander Cornish said.

"But thank goodness he did because we've got a record of some of the things he did."

"You can read official histories till the cows come home but you don't get a feel of what the individual actually thinks or what they see."

Commander Cornish will present his talk at 2pm on Sunday 16 April at the meeting room in QVMAG Inveresk.

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