Con Reilly.
The bible.
Ted and Lorna Porter with the bible.
more photos
A bible lost by a brave young Digger almost a century ago on the World War 1 battlefield has found its way home to the soldier’s Seven Hills family.
Lorna Porter, 82, of Seven Hills showed the South-East Advertiser the small worn book her late father Cornelius Reilly carried in his pocket on to the beach at Gallipoli as a fresh faced 18 year-old on September 12, 1915, and then lost several months later.
Mrs Porter and husband Ted, 81, were recently reunited with the bible.
It had been found by another Gallipoli Digger and then spent the next nine and half decades after the war in the care of his family.
The story began when Cornelius (Con) Reilly left the family home on Moreton Island to enlist in the Brisbane-raised 26th battalion on June 16, 1915 at the age of 18.
After three months dodging death in the hell that was Gallipoli, Private Reilly received shrapnel wounds and was evacuated to an Army field hospital in Cairo.
It is here where it is believed he left the bible, inscribed with his surname and first initial, in a bedside table drawer.
Private Reilly spent four months recovering from his wounds and then spent the rest of World War 1 on the French battlefields.
A young Anzac named Corporal Louis Stephen Simpson took over Private Reilly’s hospital bed and discovered the bible which he carried for the remainder of his war service and took home with him to Perth.
After the WA Digger’s death in 1956, the bible was passed down through two generations to his granddaughter, Lora Trafford, 72, from Bunbury in Western Australia. Mrs Trafford had long wondered about the name inscribed in the bible and had made several unsuccessful attempts to find its rightful owner.
Last year Mrs Trafford decided to have one last go at finding Pte Reilly’s descendants and with the help of a friend scoured the internet.
The online search led to a family history web page created by Richard Walding, a Griffith University Nathan Campus research fellow and grandson of Ada Reilly, Con Reilly’s sister.
Dr Walding, of Sheldon, arranged for the return of the bible to his second cousin, Lorna Porter.
“It’s an amazing story. It’s a great credit to her (Mrs Trafford) because she showed great tenacity in finding his (Con Reilly’s) family,” Dr Walding said.
Mrs Trafford said the exact circumstances surrounding the bible’s discovery by her grandfather are still unclear, with another story suggesting he found it on the ground at Gallipoli.
“Whether the bible was dropped on the battlefield or left at the hospital is a bit of a mystery,” she told the South-East Advertiser last week.
“It’s been a long story. One day, we hope to get over there (Queensland) to meet them (Ted and Lorna).”
Con Reilly survived the war and returned to Queensland where he fathered five daughters and worked aboard the ships of the Brisbane Pilot Service before his death in 1970.
Mrs Porter said: “He never said anything about the bible. But I’m sure he would have been happy to know other people have taken the time to return it to us.”
Source: whereilive
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