Our ANZAC In The Attic

• Chapter 27 •

{ Eli Shearer }
In my hand I held that crumpled telegram. The telegram that broke the hearts of an entire family.
"Angus, his name was Angus," Elouise had tears welling in her eyes.
"He lasted the entire campaign, the whole thing," I was so gobsmacked I could hardly speak.
We were virtually silent the entire plane trip, still trying to get our heads around the death of someone we didn't know.
We got to the War Memorial at around 12:30 pm that afternoon, "you brave?" Elouise looked up at me.
I took her hand, "the bravest I've ever been," we made our way up the slate steps and into the huge place. You feel insanely insignificant as your eyes focus on every tiny detail of the entrance.
"Wow, just wow!" I couldn't believe what was in front of me. This whole place was so confronting all I could do was stare.
"Excuse me are you Eli Shearer and Elouise Green by any chance?" a young woman asked, she had dark curly hair and a questioning look in her eye.
"Yes that's us," Lou smiled.
"My name is Clara, we were informed of your arrival and the story that you hold, we hear you need some help discovering about your soldier?"
Elouise and I nodded vigorously.
Clara smiled, "please step this way,"
We carried the two boxes into a room, inside was a long table and a computer.
"Ok so I'll be helping you discover everything there is to discover about your soldier. We have thousand and thousand of archives that you can search through and look at," she informed handed us both thin white gloves.
I took a deep breath and handed her the photograph of Shearer. Clara furrowed her eyebrows then looked up at me, "you've noticed-"
"Yes, spitting image we know," Elouise laughed. "So it was pure coincidence you found these?" Clara had an astonished look on her face.
"Yes we moved to a old house in May last year and these were in the attic," I told her, she nodded, "ok so what can you tell me about him?"
"Well, his name throughout the diaries and letters is Shearer but we found out it was Angus on the telegram at the end. He was engaged to a kiwi named Lucy Hamilton and he was sent certificates of marriage while he was on Gallipoli which he signed. She had a son while he was away named Alistair whom he never met. He was made a sniper in Egypt and was the very first man to step onto gallipoli," I explained.
"He was indigenous Australian and 22 when he died I think," Elouise finished.
Clara stared at us in disbelief, "you've found him! He's the man we've been looking for," she pulled out her laptop and typed in 'ANGUS SHEARER' then she pulled out her phone,
"Mary can you bring out everything we have on Shearer please? Thank you," she hung up then turned her focus on us.
I could tell Elouise was just as confused as I was, "you know about him?" I questioned.
"Yes we do, he was probably Australia's most famous snipers and indigenous soldiers, we have so many articles and letters on him but they're only from brothers and sergeants, these artefacts are so important," Clara was so excited she could hardly contain herself.
Mary walked in carrying a long plastic container. She smiled at Elouise and I before walking out, leaving the box with us.
Clara turned the computer to me and asked that I put my name into the website.
"Now scroll through this," she said.
Next to my name was my sister, then above us was our parents then our grandparents then-
"Lou look," my eyes widened as I pointed to my grandfathers father.
"Alistair Henry Shearer," she read out, gasping in shock. Sure enough above his name was 'Angus William Shearer'.
"Your great, great grandfather is Angus William Shearer, the first man to land on Gallipoli and Australia's most values sniper," Clara smiled as I sat back in my chair.
"See I never doubted that he was a relation but hearing it out loud is just mind blowing," I said, comprehending everything.
"These things can be very hard to process so I'm going to leave you both to it," Clara made her way outside and I reached into her box.
"Here's a letter from Mrs Shearer," Elouise said handing it to me. I slowly unfolded it, I knew what I was about to read.
-
Elouise and I spent the rest of that lazy afternoon reading letters and studying photographs.
"There's just one thing," she began, a confused look in her eye. "Nothing here tells us what happened to Lucy."
"Yeah I dunno," I replied placing the letter I held into the box.
"We found a piece here in our archives from a Lucy Shearer, we weren't sure if it was from a sister or an aunt," Clara handed us a photograph, a photograph we'd already seen. "Vowed his favourite."

"Lucy Shearer was laid to rest in 1991 aged 97 in Hillford Cemetery, there is also Alistair Henry Shearer's grave beside her and his Henrietta who only died in 2002," Clara explained.
Elouise and I just sat back in our chairs. There was nothing to say, nothing to think. Nearly every question had been answered and the last one was where his name was on the Roll Of Honour and well that was answered too.
My fingers traced his name and I whispered to myself "I'll bring you home," and that's exactly what I did.