Beverley Delve writes:
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Congratulations to Cate and Geordie Clark for the work they did to make the Between the Crosses Exhibition a reality.
I was so pleased to be a small part of it when I was able to loan some family treasures that had been lying in drawers at “Hillgrove” for almost 100 years.
The best outcome for me was when Geordie and Cate searched war records and passed them on to me – for I now know the man behind the photo on the wall - until six weeks ago that’s all he was - a soldier in a photo.
I now know that James Joce Delve was 19 years and 10 months old when he enlisted at Narrabri. He was 5 foot 10 inches tall and weighed 143 lbs with a chest measurement of 34” (36 ½”) expanded. His complexion was fair – his hair brown and curly – he had a distinctive mark – a scar an axe cut radial side left wrist and his vision was D=6R and D=6L.
My late husband was also named James Joce Delve. His grandfather Arthur Charles, or Charlie as he was known, signed Jim’s enlistment papers but his mother Janet was an invalid and could not sign, but gave her consent.
The only details I knew was his date of birth March 17, 1896, and that he died of wounds (a fractured skull) in the battle of Messines after being taken to the 11th casualty clearing station on June 28, 1917, and was buried at Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension France in Plot 3 Row D Grave 125.
You can understand my delight at learning these facts and I only wish my husband James Joce Delve 11 was here and I could tell him.
All he knew was that Uncle Jim and his father Arthur George were more than just two years apart in age – they were very close as brothers on a farm doing what farm boys do at work and at play.
The Between the Crosses exhibition includes items from World War I sourced in the Gunnedah Shire. It is on display at the Civic until Friday.