Today, April 25th, is the annual observation of Anzac Day, the remembrance of the Allied troops from Australia and New Zealand during WWI. This particular Anzac Day is a very special one, as it marks the 100th anniversary of the Anzacs landing at Gallipoli.
Researching Anzac relatives is easy from any corner of the world now, thanks to the joint efforts of the Australian and New Zealand governments, who have put the service records of these soldiers online. You may research them yourself, at the Discovering Anzacs site.
One example is a distant cousin of mine, Joseph Michael Lavan of Ballyhaunis, Mayo (it shouldn't be a surprise that many were Irish born). Joseph Michael was the youngest son of Susan Treston of Cottage, County Mayo, who was a first cousin of my great-great grandmother, Adelia O'Reilly. Susan's father was Hubert Treston, the younger brother of my great-great-great grandmother Bridget Treston.
Joseph Michael's service record tells us is that he signed on relatively late in the war, in 1917. He was sent from Australia to England, and from there to France, where he survived several gas attacks. It is here that the record acquires a bit of a mystery. It was while recuperating from the last of these that Joseph Michael was invalided to hospital in London and mid-May 1918 granted a furlough until the end of the month, which he failed to return from. On 31 January 1919 he reappeared in Waterford, in civilian clothes, and rendered himself to the civil authorities. What the record can't tell us (or doesn't, at any rate) is why Joseph Michael disappeared when he did, what he was doing in all that time, or why he was found back in Ireland. A possible reason emerges, however, based on clues contained both in the service record and in existing Irish records.
What the service record does say is that sometime before his record was closed, his family contact back home had changed. It had been his mother, Mrs. Susan Fallon of Ballyhaunis, but her name was crossed out and his brother, Bernard Vincent Lavan, a resident of Ballinlough, Roscommon, written in. When Joseph's furlough was up and he didn't return, a letter was sent from the Army to Bernard rather than to Susan. Looking at the Irish records, specifically the will calendars in the possession of the National Archives in Dublin, we learn that Susan Fallon had died sometime prior to the end of 1918, when the administration of her estate was granted on 24 December to Mssrs. Patrick Costello and James Lyons. Susan had a cousin named Patrick Costelloe who lived at Graigue Lodge, Tuam, Galway; it is unclear if he is the person referred to here or not. James Lyons is also an extremely common name throughout Mayo (Lyons is one of the most numerous surnames in the entire county), but the 1901 and 1911 Irish census tells us that a James Lyons was a merchant in Ballyhaunis, and ran the Commercial Hotel (Susan and her first husband, Michael Lavan, had run the Railway Hotel in Ballyhaunis). James Lyons had a daughter, Annie, who had married Bernard Lavan, mentioned above, in 1910. It is reasonable to conclude that it is this James Lyons who helped administer Susan's estate. Could Susan's death have had something to do with Joseph's disappearance in those months between his leaving the hospital in London and turning up again in Waterford?
Regardless of the disciplinary mark on his record for his unexplained absence, Joseph Michael did receive recognition for his military service by being presented both the British Medal and Victory Medal, as indicated by the stamps and medal numbers recorded in his file. He certainly hadn't had an easy time in the short duration of his active service, as the number of times the word "gassed" appears in the notations for his file indicate, and his disappearance and reappearance coinciding with his mother's death back home in Ireland certainly adds an intriguing, and very human, element to the story of a young Irishman far from his home.
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