June Meeting. Patricia (Trish) Skehan will be speaking on her new book, The Secrets of Anzac Ridge, In Flanders Fields.

                     Trish Skehan

Patricia (Trish) Skehan will be speaking on her new book, The Secrets of Anzac Ridge, In Flanders Fields, being published by Hachette, in bookstores from 26 March, for Anzac Day 2025. (Slight name change from Flanders 1917 to In Flanders Fields)

Jim Armitage was the last surviving Central Coast WWI veteran, dying in Brentwood Village in Kincumber in 1999, after he turned 100 years old. His previously unpublished war diary was given to Trish by his niece, Jane. Jim served under Sir John Monash in the 3rd Division, 8th Field Artillery Brigade in Flanders. He was one of eight boys from Sydney Grammar school who signed up on Jim’s eighteenth birthday in May 1917. Despite odds of 1 in 4 dying in the conflict, all eight boys survived.

Letters from other soldiers, nurses and doctors, tell amazing stories in and out of the trenches. Supporting extracts from Monash diaries included.

Jim Armitage and wife Lurline taken after the war.

Jim receiving his Chevalier Medal of Honour from the French Consul-General