Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

My grandmother was Florence Beryl May Watson nee Browne, and when she died in 1996, one of her possessions we most coveted was a china staircase with children sliding down, which she said had been given to her by Harry Verey.

For several decades we have mistakenly believed that his surname was 'Ferry' so it is only now we are able to share this story.

My grandmother told us that Harry was a friend and that he had been beheaded by the Japanese. This had clearly affected her, and she treasured the staircase and kept it in pride of place on her display shelves.

Exactly how grandma came to know Harry Verey remains unclear. While Harry was born in Carlton, he grew up in Sydney, whereas my grandmother was Melbourne born and bred. During her 20s, however, she lived a life slightly less ordinary, going on road trips with a group of friends in an era when car ownership was not the norm and roads outside the metropolitan areas were little more than tracks.

On one such trip in 1937 she and her friends went to Sydney. Did she meet Harry on this trip? We may never know. Amongst her possessions was also a photograph of her group of friends taken at Lorne around Christmas 1938. On the back she wrote the first names of the people in the photo, but not their surnames. Amongst these was Harry. I hesitate to submit the photograph, because I cannot know for certain that the person she was referring to was Harry Verey. But I do wonder...

Historians often tell us there is power in objects, and all these years later we treasure that china staircase, and through it we keep alive the memory of a brave young man we never knew, who lost his life in terrible circumstances, fighting for peace and freedom.