Donald Wilson Veitch & Arthur Wilson Veitch Donald Veitch was born in Bridgeton in Glasgow, Scotland, 1870. He was the 5th son and 8th child of a total of 10 to James Veitch and Margaret Wilson. When Donalds parents married in 1851 at St Nicholas Church in Aberdeen, his father James was a professional Soldier.a Colour Sergeant in Queen Victoria' s 42nd Royal Highlanders, stationed in Aberdeen. This regiment is famous as the Blackwatch regiment. Not much is known of Donalds young life except that it is clear that he was quite well educated. When he was around 20 or so he came out to Australia. My grandmother told me that he was sent out here to take the opportunity to study wool husbandry in Victoria. Whether he was sponsored in some way or came out of his own accord is not known.. His eldest brother was working as a Forester on the Greenburn estate outside Edinburgh in 1891. This is sheep country and maybe there was a connection. What is clear though, is that he was intended to go back to Scotland after his studies In 1894 Donald met Mary Ellen Payne in Berwick. Mary Ellen seems to have had a very tough life. She was born in New Zealand in 1877. Her parents are listed as George Payne and Elizabeth Wakelin, who did not marry until 1882, so it seems that she was either born out of wedlock or perhaps was born to Elizabeth Wakelin by a different father and changed her name to Payne after George and Elizabeth married when she was 5. George Payne died when she was 8 years old. He was a railway platelayer and he was "found drowned" according to his inquest. In 1889 Mary Ellens mother died leaving her with both parents dead by the time she was 12. At some stage after 12 she came over to Australia...perhaps to be with relatives or what is more likely, she came over as an indentured servant to help alleviate the acute labour shortage that existed in Australia at the time? In 1894 she was living in Berwick and met Donald. They married in June and their first child, Arthur Wilson Veitch was born six months later. Over the next 20 years Mary Ellen and Donald had twelve children, the fifth one was Clara Ellen who was my grandmother ( known as Nellie). My Nana has described her childhood as normal for the times, but to us it would seem a tough one. By this time her father was working as a revenue officer for the tax department to support his large family. It seems that Donalds family back in Scotland were never happy with his marriage to a "colonial girl". They would often try and induce him to come home to Scotland and they would sent him the money for his fare, but it was only for one person, one way. When he would get a letter like this from "home" he'd usually go and get on the booze for weeks and usually lose his job. Nana has described to me that at those times she remembers the family would hock whatever they could, including the brass bed stands and all the beds would be sitting up on kerosene tins. Eventually, the old man would sober up, get another job and things would settle down again, usually with the arrival of another baby. In 1914 when war broke out in Europe, Donald saw this as an opportunity to get back home to Scotland to see his family and take his eldest son with him. No doubt, they believed that it would all be over in three months, like the rest of Australia did at the time. In 1914 he lowered his age from 45 to 39 to qualify, and he was among the very first to enlist in the AIF with his son. Arthur Wilson Veitch, a paper miller at Australian Paper Mills was 19 years old. They enlisted in Fitzroy as Registered numbers 157 and 158, in the 7th Battalion. My nana has told me that George Annas Veitch, the next son down, also wanted to go with them. As he was only 15 he was too young to enlist. So with his eldest son 19 years old and his youngest one 9 months old, Donald set off to war. Father and son trained together for three months in Australia, were shipped off to Egypt together and on April 25th, 1915, the first Anzac day, they landed on the beaches of Gallipoli together. They are both listed as having died on that day although the son was originally listed as wounded and missing in action. Both of them lie in unmarked graves somewhere on the beaches of that sad and historic place. They form part of the Lone Pine Memorial in Anzac Cove in Gallipoli because many who died in those first days were hastily buried in shallow graves which were later obliterated by shell fire. They never made it to Scotland. The next son down, George, enlisted in 1916 when he was 17 years old and was sent to the infamous trenches in France where he was gassed. He died in Heidelberg Repatriation hospital of war wounds in 1937 aged 35. My grandmother helped her mother raise the remaining 10 children. She never heard a word from the heartless family in Scotland. In my view, the hero in this story is my great grandmother.