An annotated transcription of the personal diary of a (very) ordinary Australian soldier, a Primary School teacher by profession, who enlisted and finally died of wounds and gas at Ypres in 1917. (George) Clarence Hurley was my wife's great-uncle and his pencil scrawled notebook was found in the bottom of a box of old family photographs. It covers his arrival in the UK in late 1916, leave in London, transfer to France and the events leading up to his death on a gun crew in late 1917, just under a year in total. The text is transcribed on the right pages with annotations and notes on the left to expand what he witnessed and recorded. It reflects very clearly that old adage that war is long periods of boredom interrupted by moments of absolute terror. As a literate and intelligent gunner, he left a detailed and fascinating record of the life and fate of an ordinary recruit.
Clarence was not a particularly good or professional soldier, just a curious and doomed other rank, one of a huge number who did not return and who, in the Australian tradition, now lie at rest near where they died. This is his legacy. It was a privilege and an emotional journey to preserve it.