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The man who carried the nation's grief, James Malcolm Lean MBE & The Great War Letters, Carl Rosenhain

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

contains biographical information

illustrationsportraits

index present

non fiction

The man who carried the nation's grief

bibliography

Carl Rosenhain

James Malcolm Lean MBE & The Great War Letters

"I do feel the loss of my two boys, they was my all," wrote grieving father Ernest Watts following the death of his two sons. Like thousands of Australians during World War I, Ernest Watts received his tragic news through the office known as Base Records. This letter was just one in a series of correspondence that lasted the duration of the war and well into the post-war period. Every letter was answered with patience and courtesy and every response carried the same signature: J.M. Lean. The Man who Carried the Nation's Grief describes the extraordinary work of James Lean, whose office at times received over 100 letters a day from distressed families. The letters selected by author Carole Rosenhain are quoted verbatim in all their rawness; showing the families grief, anger and disbelief, together with the devastating wounds that would often never heal. The chain of correspondence between Lean and the family would often last well beyond the Armistice of 1918. Given his crucial role as the link between anxious families and the bureaucracy of the AIF, James Lean's remarkable work is a surprising omission from the vast body of World War I literature

adult