Wilfred Collinson in his Australian Imperial Force uniform.<\/figcaption><\/figure>Wilfred\u2019s unit landed at Gallipoli on 2 May 1915. \u201cOnly a very short time later, on 7 June, he was awarded three days\u2019 field punishment for unlawfully damaging government property. A few weeks after that, he was admitted to hospital with dysentery. In May 1918, when he was in northern France, he pleaded guilty to being in possession of plunder \u2013 sadly, it doesn\u2019t say what the plunder was.\u201d He also got into trouble for going absent without leave while he was in Alexandria, and suffered several more bouts of dysentery. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to say why he got into trouble, perhaps to escape the horrors of the front line.\u201d<\/p>
Though Wilfred survived the war, it was at a terrible cost. Among his army records, Michael spotted a letter from a friend written in support of a claim for increased provision from the Australian government following the war. It reads: \u201cCollinson was a fine, clean-living lad of cheerful temperament and much above the average in intelligence. Under the severe service conditions after the landing [at Gallipoli], I noticed that Collinson was much affected in mind and body by the privations and rigours of the campaign and although he always endeavoured to conceal it, he was unusually sensitive to shell fire.\u201d<\/p>
There were subsequent letters and applications from his wife Carline claiming increased pension benefits because of the distress that Wilfred had suffered. \u201cThere are some really heart-rending things in there. She was a very persistent lady who had four children to look after.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>
Wilfred clearly suffered for a long time. Another letter from some neighbours commented, \u201cWe lived with him 14 years ago for about 12 months and couldn\u2019t stand his queer ways.\u201d<\/p>
By 1936, he was reaching crisis point. A letter from his mother-in-law reads, \u201cHe got that bad we did not visit his home very often, as we thought it would disturb his peace of mind. He imagined we were all plotting against him; everyone he came into contact with were his enemies. His workmates were trying to run him out of his work, his neighbours were spying on him and all sorts of impossible things.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>
Michael was shocked to find out that later that year Wilfred was sectioned. \u201cIt took quite a long time for him to descend into such a state that he was admitted.\u201d He was taken to the Bundoora Repatriation Hospital in Melbourne, which cared for soldiers from both world wars and where he stayed until his death over three decades later.\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cI felt a great deal of sadness for him because he seems to have suffered or been rejected throughout his whole life. When his father died in 1939, the funeral was widely reported in the local press,\u201d says Michael. There\u2019s a long list of the people who came to his funeral, and a sentence saying that he was survived by his wife and his nine children. \u201cOf course, there were 10 including Wilfred, so even here there wasno admission that he existed.\u201d<\/p>
Through Susan, Michael made contact with another of Wilfred\u2019s granddaughters, Julie Melia (n\u00e9e Dalgliesh) and her mother June. \u201cJulie says that she used to visit him towards the end of his life, but that he was really lost \u2013 I think he had dementia by then.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>
Bundoora Repatriation Hospital is now a heritage centre with displays about some of its long-standing patients, including Wilfred. \u201cFor someone to spend over 30 years in a mental institution is incredibly sad.\u201d<\/p>
One good thing to come out of Wilfred\u2019s story is that Michael has discovered his long-lost relatives in Australia. \u201cI was beyond thrilled to make contact with a branch of our family that we\u2019d lost touch with for more than 100 years.\u201d Ironically, Susan and her family used to holiday in Scotland each year. \u201cIn 2017, we met up with Susan and Barbara, her sister, at Kenmore on Loch Tay in Perthshire, and spent some time together. It was great. We really hit it off, and are still in touch.\u201d<\/p>
Although they come from opposite sides of the globe, Wilfred\u2019s relations are all in agreement, says Michael: \u201cHe was denied his birthright. None of it was his fault, he was completely innocent in all of this and a victim of the way that society dealt with these sorts of things back then.<\/p>
\u201cHe strikes me as a sensitive person, and you wonder how his life would have turned out if he\u2019d been accepted by his family.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>
Do you have a family story to share with <\/em>Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine? Email us on wdytyaeditorial@ourmedia.co.uk<\/a> for your chance to appear in print!<\/em><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n
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