As Australian teenager George Stringer lay dying in a foreign country, his close friend Henry Lawry sat by his side and wrote down his last ever words to his mother. The pair were mates from back home in central Victoria and had survived the Gallipoli together.
"Dear Mother," George's letter written in Henry's hand read, "I am still in the above hospital and improving slowly, but expect to be here for sometime yet as I cannot use my arm and also my leg."
Nine days later, he was dead.
103 years on, another pair of teenagers stood on the same Turkish beach at dawn on April 25. Will Stringer, 14, and Jasmine Lawry, 16, are their respective descendants. But until six months ago, neither of these schoolmates from central Victoria had known about their century-old family connection.
Even more eerie coincidence was given to a story already teeming with serendipity, when this discovery eventuated from a piece of writing.
Jasmine had seen Will's article in her school’s newsletter about a H.A. Lawry from the Macedon Ranges who wrote letters home for his injured mate.
“Me and my father were reading it and we saw there was a Lawry so we thought we’d look into it because we thought it might be a family connection,” she told SBS Turkish.
“That’s when we found my great-great cousin was Henry Lawry and he was the one Will was writing about.”
The Gallipoli Peninsula, 1915. In the distance can be seen a pier built by the men under fierce fire and with very primitive tools. Source: Bettmann
'It would be better for him to die'
George Stringer and Henry Lawry were from neighbouring communities in Central Victoria. Following the outbreak of World War One, the pair had enlisted together, trained together, travelled together to the Western Front, fought together and even been injured by same bomb blast.
In the “mayhem of Gallipoli”, the two had been separated for some months before they were reunited at the British Military Hospital in Malta, a descendant of George’s wrote in a historical report. But their relief at finding each other still alive quickly soured: While Henry recovered well from his wounds, George’s condition deteriorated.
“The Matron of the Hospital wrote to Flora (George’s mother) describing his wounds as ‘so serious and so many that they have poisoned the whole of his system, and really if you could see him, I feel sure you too would say it would be better for him to die,’” writes Geoff Stringer in 2004.
“One comfort would have been the presence of Henry Lawry from Malmsbury.”
With a compound fracture to his shoulder, a fractured lower jaw and severe shrapnel wound in his leg, George had lost use of his arm and his leg. Nine days after Henry had penned George’s last ever words to be sent home to his mother, George died and was buried in Malta. He was 19.
Henry went on to survive the war, return to Australia, marry and have a family.
Yet, it wasn’t until Will mentioned Henry's in his newsletter article that Henry’s distant descendants became aware of him.
'Gallipoli was like a living hell with dead and wounded all around'
But scaling the harsh terrain was just the beginning of the misery to come for George, Henry and their company, according to Kyneton Historical Society member and George's great nephew, Geoff Stringer.
"George came ashore at 5.30am at Anzac Cove with the rest of his company and over the next few weeks would have experienced the full horrors of Gallipoli, including intensive fighting and the loss of friends who would have been like brothers after the previous nine months of training and ship life," Mr Stringer wrote in his 2004 article.
"When positions became entrenched the extra hardships of rats, lice and the stench of death would have made conditions intolerable.
"Gallipoli was like a living hell with dead and wounded all around."
The harsh terrain that met thousands of soldiers when they landed in Anzac Cove in 1915. Source: Photolibrary RM
'It looks nice and peaceful... You couldn’t imagine a war could be there'
In the lead up to Anzac Day, Jasmine and Will travelled with their schoolmates to the Turkish site that has become a focal point to the Australian identity.
In a further coincidence, both students had applied for their school’s Turkish exchange program to visit Gallipoli, unaware of their ancestors' mateship.
Speaking to SBS Turkish, the teenagers said it was hard not to feel emotion "standing where thousands of people would’ve died".
Jasmine Lawry, 16, points to the name of Private Henry Lawry at the Anzac memorial in Gallipoli. Source: East Loddon P-12 College
While the beach itself where the Anzacs had landed, lived up to the hype of looking every bit as steep and scrubby as history has documented it.
“I felt a bit shocked to see how difficult it would have been at Anzac Cove,” Will said.
“Standing on the Gallipoli Peninsula, just looking around at the terrain of Anzac Cove, [it] was amazing just to see how difficult it would have been to climb and fire at the same time.”
“It’s pretty unbelievable to think that happened and that I’m where [Henry Lawry] was 100 years ago,” Jasmine said.
“[Anzac Cove] was pretty surreal. I couldn’t believe there was a war there 100 years ago. It just looks nice and peaceful... You couldn’t imagine a war could be there."
