Family retraces steps of Diggers’ sacrifices

A trip to Gallipoli for Anzac Day will give one Brunswick resident the chance to pay her respects to the sacrifices of the Diggers.

Margaret Paterson will travel to Turkey after her daughter Rachel Paterson won a ballot to be among the 8000 Australians at the Anzac commemorative site.

The Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School archivist will depart tomorrow for Istanbul to meet her daughter, who is flying from England, where she studies at Oxford University after being named a 2012 Rhodes Scholar.

Mrs Paterson said the trip was special because her grandfather Thomas Brooke Stanley served at Gallipoli, where he earned a Distinguished Conduct Medal.

“Rachel was pretty excited when she found out she won the ballot and luckily she was happy to take me along to accompany her, ” she said.

“I was delighted because it was always an ambition of mine to be there for the centenary.

“After everything my grandfather went through at the Battle of Hill 60, it will be great to share the experience with my daughter.”

Mrs Paterson said she was close to her grandfather before he died, when she was a 10-year-old.

“He told me about different things about the war, which is unusual because he didn’t talk to other people about it, ” she said.

“I remember making a dollhouse out of matches and he told me about how they would collect matches so they could make kindling so they could have a hot drink.

“It’s going to be emotional – we are going to do extensive historical tours of the battlefields before the dawn service on Anzac Day.”