As the 100th anniversary of the landing at Gallipoli approaches, the Advocate will be continuing the publication of the second half of Thomas Edward Drane’s diary entries.
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Last year in the lead up to Anzac Day, we published the first half of T. E. Drane’s diaries and now we pick up from where we left off as we near April 25.
Local man T. E. Drane was one of the first Australians to sign up to the war effort - the 53rd person to be exact - in August 1914, which is impressive considering he travelled from Forbes to Sydney on the mail train to do it.
Significantly, T. E. Drane was one of the men who landed at Gallipoli on April 25, 1914 and the second half of his diaries detail the events leading up to, during and after that day.
The Drane family have kindly given the Advocate a copy of his diaries during his time in the war from August 4, 1914 to April 1916.
We will publish the diary entries in each edition of the paper right up until Anzac Day this year, withholding the entries from April 25 which T. E. Drane’s great grandson, Andrew Drane, will read during the Anzac Day service in Forbes. We will then continue to publish those diary entries from April 25 until the very last one.
Diary of a WWI digger - Tom Drane:
January 1915
We are quite used to Egypt now with all its faults.
I, along with my pals, went to see the Citadel and some of the Mosques, which are very interesting.
Of course like a lot of blobs we were, we wanted to go straight in with our boots on but no, we had to put holy slippers on. All the time we were in, we were on the lookout for some curios but they watched us too much for that.
We have had some musketry, this time we had to march out to the rifle ranges over the sandy desert, it was work going over there with full packs up, but we spent some good times even at this faraway range. If you could only hear what the new boys are singing out it would amuse you. For our lads have learned them all the slang and filthy talk they could do, and they make use of it with a vengeance. If you see a native - now he is on to you with this (Australia very good, very nice. Plenty money Australia. Bucketeesh piastres, etc.) it makes you tired of the whole lot.
There is not much news to put down this month, I did not trouble to take things of interest so we will pass on to the next month.
