Through the sands of time

Charles Henry Nash, at the age of 19, you answered the call to do your duty for your country. Although you were married with an 18-month-old daughter, you enlisted in the army.
Then, as you set sail for Gallipoli as part of the first re-enforcements, a son was born.
A son you never got to see, but did get to know with the exchange of letters with your loved ones back home.
You arrived at what is now called Anzac Cove, one month after the original landing. What a shock that must have been to see what war was really like.
Looking at the photo you sent back from Egypt, after Gallipoli was evacuated, we can see the strain of battle in your face when compared with the one taken before you left home.
It is hard for us to imagine the horrors of war you must have witnessed.
In a letter to one of your sisters you described your disappointment that your wife, Rene, would not tell you when the children were sick and you did not mention what the war was like.
We guess you both did not want to burden each other unnecessarily with any worrying thoughts.
You asked that your thanks be passed on to those at home that had sent you parcels, you questioned why some of your relatives had not enlisted.
You took your army responsibilities seriously, being promoted to Lance Corporal then corporal.
In July 1916, at the first major battle the Australians were in since arriving in France, you were wounded at the Somme. After recovering, you rejoined your battalion; you were again promoted, this time to Sergeant.
Then on the 1 November 1916 you could do no more, because that was the day you were listed as KIA. You had done your best for your country.
The circumstances of your death are unknown to us, other than you were killed in action just a few days before your 21st birthday.
We do not know where you lie. Is it an unmarked grave in the cemetery or undiscovered on the battlefield? These questions remain unanswered.
Sadly your wife, mother of your two children, died in 1919 from the influenza epidemic that swept the world, leaving two orphan children who were then raised by your wife’s mother.
But your spirit lives on. From your two children there are 12 grandchildren, 38 great grandchildren, 59 great, great grandchildren and 15 great, great, great grandchildren. After the war was over three medals were posthumously awarded to you – the 1914/15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
These went to your infant son, Vernon Nash. He was very proud of your medals but unfortunately they disappeared when his house was burgled in the 1950s.
We have searched many a second hand shop in the hope of finding them but to no avail.
Perhaps one day they will turn up somewhere. At the War Cemetery in Villers-Bretonneux, France, your name is proudly displayed on the Memorial to the Missing.
Wherever you are rest in peace Sergeant Charles Henry Nash, 1860 59th Battalion, 5th Division, Australian Infantry.
You did your duty. We are proud of you and we remember you.