ANZAC Day

We always hear about the bravery, honour, and sacrifice of our veterans, our ancestors, our family that went to war…and in turn, we honour them. We seldom think about what they actually went through…the sheer terror, the horror, the fear, the anxiety. Those ‘lucky’ enough to come home to face the private battles (which we now call PTSD) whilst trying to integrate back into ‘normal life’, as my Grandfather Albert Stratford did, and the impact of intergenerational trauma for his future family which only now has started to resolve. And for those others who didn’t return like my Great Uncles, Thomas and Alfred LeRoy. Thomas has a resting place in France, Alfred (for whom my father was named) was never found, lost in the fog of war at the age of 19. The same applies for those serving in World War II, my Uncles on both the Stratford and Ryan sides of the family…Lest We Forget.

ANZAC. 2026