Daniel Herbert died before Fred was married. Growing up our grandfather was this highly revered soldier. At the appropriate times (often Anzac day) the story of his ‘adventures’ during World War One were retold, sanitised for a generation that had no experience of war. However, his humanity, his family life were not discussed (as far as I can remember). So we have no real idea as to what sort of man he was outside of being one of millions mad bastards fighting in the First World War. That said, apart from being a bit quick with the belt I never heard anything bad about him and from the writings contemporary with his life he is reported positively. I think this is probably very typical for many of his generation who did not keep diaries?
What we do have is a detailed piece written by J.B. Hopley that describes Daniel’s war stories and adds a glimmer of his home life. This piece was published in a journal called “Despatch”, the Monthly Journal of the New South Wales Military Historical Society. It was published in September 1977 and can be read here.
