Not all letters home tried to sound brave. Some were raw with grief, written in moments when the war stripped everything back to loss.

Australian soldier Owen Donlen wrote home after the death of his closest friend, George.

“I’m the miserablest and sorriest man in all the world since poor old George was killed. We were like brothers, we were never apart out of the lines, they used to call us husband and wife.”

When a close mate was lost, the survivor lost his go to, the person who knew exactly what it took to get through each day.

This letter reminds us that war is not only about death but about the permenantly altered lives of those who remained.

Sometimes the hardest thing was not fighting on, but carrying on alone.