War Diary Entry

• Caitlin Johnston, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2012

My dear son, this is a diary entry I wrote on the day you went to war.
Dear diary April 18th 1914
I had my first son when I was 22; he grew up always wanting to go to war to save his country. 20 years later he got what he thought was a Christmas letter but was a letter requesting him to go to war. My heart was shattered beyond repair but it was what he wanted to do. It said on the 20th of April your son requested to go to war, to fight for our country. There was no possible way that your son could have got out of the war, but he was brave enough to fight. Tomorrow he will go on the boat to Egypt to train and then he heads off to Gallipoli. We all don’t know what to do with ourselves and we are scared, sad and disappointed. We went down to the boat, some of the Anzacs were so happy but some were sad and then the boat left the wharf to go to Gallipoli. It slowly faded in to the dark horizon. So we all went home and just went straight to bed. Several months later we reserved a yellow slip that said sorry but your son Tom Johnston has been killed in action. I read the letter to his whole family. To the Johnston family, I am very sorry to say but your very brave son has passed away from a bullet shot. He was a great person and he will always be remembered.
We all fell in tears until no more will come out, all that we could think of was regret

By Caitlin Johnston