A Wartime Romance - World War I

Beatrice, Rene, and Dora Dunsford

Beatrice Dunsford and her sisters enjoyed their

 

happy family existence until their father suddenly died. With their mother widowed and money scarce, they each searched for a job that would help the family finances.

Their little brother, Dickie, was a concern to his mother because he cried so often for his darling daddy, and she also never got over the shock of losing her husband for many years. She clung to her faith in the Lord, a real comfort in her grief, and always looked for His Second Coming.

The eldest sister, Dora, married first, and left to begin a new life with Charlie a clever banjo-mandolin player.

The second girl, Beatrice, became an excellent typist and with her looks attracted many young men. However, heartbroken after a failed romance with a handsome young Jewish man, she turned to another young man who told her he was going to marry her on their first outing. Flattered, she finally agreed. But by that time he had joined up as a volunteer. Their romance and courtship was all too brief, and they barely had a week's honeymoon before Harrie Mackie Kinnear was shipped abroad to fight in the Great War. No wonder Beatrice looked so sad in their wedding photograph... Harrie was one of the fortunate ones who returned at the end of that awful time to find he was a daddy. In those days soldiers weren't counseled for the traumas they suffered, and Beattrice never could quite understand his silences, nor he sudden flares of anger. More children followed, but two tots died as three-year-olds. One was lost to diptheria and a childhood accident took their beloved little girl from them. It was only then after a sweet Christian lady visited them that they too found a faith in the Lord and that one day they would again see their little ones. Because of their love for these little ones, they began a Sunday School in their home. It wasn't too much longer before this began a small church of believers in the nearby suburb of Russell Lea.

Harrie enjoyed his work as a signwriter and for many years his work was on public view on the small metal signs naming the variety of flora in Sydney's Botanical Gardens. Some years passed before the NSW government accepted them for the position of matron and manager of various Aboriginal reserves, as they were called in those days. And long after Harrie "retired" he was still involved at painting jobs in Christian camp sites. Their long life together was severed on this earth when Harrie went to be with the Lord. Now they have both joined all their children and their friends in Heaven as they enjoy the Lord's Presence.