1. Dispatch From the Qantas Lounge

Hello.  Mr. Precious?

Yeah, I am.

My name is Rod Stewart, calling from California.

California? 

Yes sir, I am trying to locate decedents of a man who served in the Australian army in World War One - at Gallipoli.  Records show him as a John Henry Precious.  Could he be your grandfather?

My father was at Gallipoli … William Precious.

Your father then? 

Right.  I’m in my nineties.

Well, Mr. Precious, I think I owe you, or more correctly your father, a thank you.  You see, according to the history books, I think your father once saved my grandfather’s life.  At Gallipoli.  In 1915.


And so starts another trip.  Another reason to get up and go.  This time, back to the birthplace of my mother, a country that remembers her father very well.  A country that had been a country only a few years, when my grandfather, Edward John (EJ) Howells, left his desk at the Office of Patents and Trademarks, to answer his King’s call to arms - and joined the Australian Army in 1914.

Armed with a thick ream of old documents and photos, we get ready to fly over the vast Pacific, toward Mr. Precious, and other appointments - including the head of Military History at the Australian War Memorial Museum - and a genealogist cousin too far removed to calculate.

This trip “down under” will hopefully fulfill a desire that is only burning hotter than when first lit while following Granddad’s horse prints to Gallipoli and Palestine.  I want to find and tell Granddad’s story, to his descendants - his great great grandchildren (and perhaps their kids) so they will know and remember him - and have a great grand time doing it!

Dispatches to follow as time and talent allows.

 - Packed n Stacked Stew