Lynch, Leonard Thomas (Private, b.1921); Lynch, Allan (Private, b.1923)

Collection relating to the Second World War service of two brothers, VX63093 Private Leonard (Len) Lynch and VX57753 Private Allan Lynch. Allan, the younger brother, initially embarked with the 6th Division to the Middle East (Palestine), however he was able to join Len with the 9th Division when his older brother ‘claimed’ him. Allan became ill in Palestine, and was on light duties, when he heard that Len’s 9th Battalion had arrived and set up camp. Allan located Len, who then took him to an orderly, and said he was ‘claiming’ his brother. Len always intended to claim Allan, as is revealed in a letter to his mother while he was still at sea, dated 3 November 1941, reading ‘I have made a few enquiries about Allan and if we go to the same place I may be able to claim him.’

The collection consists of four handwritten letters from Len to his mother, spanning 1941 to 1944; and two hand written letters from Allan to his mother, dated July and August 1941. Allan’s letters are written pre-embarkation, while he was still training at the Darley Camp, near Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. In the July letter he writes anecdotally about the Padre: ‘The Padre up here is a bit of a wag, he walks along behind you and sticks a lolly in your mouth; when I was on the range he came up behind me and put a steam roller in my mouth, and says “That’s to keep your nerves steady”’. In his August letter, Allan refers to a strike over the lack of leave: ‘… some blokes haven’t had any since they joined up. We all got into a hut and refused to go out on parade until they told us whether we were going on leave or not. They got the Major up and he gave us a talking, and told us nobody could tell us when we were going on leave, that we weren’t entitled to it and it was only a privilege so that’s that.’ Also included in the collection are two Christmas cards and one Easter card, from Allan to his mother. Both Allan and Len served the course of the war, discharging within a week of each other, in early April 1946, with their final rank as Driver.