A GREAT WOMAN TO BE REMEMBER " THE HAND THAT DEALS".

 The Hand that Fate Deals.’

Robert Archer was in a bad way. It was September 1917, and the battle raged all around him, as he lay, wounded, in the Passchendaele mud. 

His injuries were serious: shrapnel had tore into his temple, leg and arm.  The two German prisoners tasked with carrying him to an aid station had bolted back to their own lines. 

He lay out there for two days, until a fellow soldier reported that ‘Bob Archer is out there and still breathing.’ It prompted three mates to rescue him.

Yet it was too late save his sight. He was completely blind. Both eyes were removed and he was sent to St Dunstan’s in England to recover.

But it could have been worse. Robert’s leather wallet had stopped a bullet. Here, his daughter Joan Matthews peers through the bullet-hole shot through the image of her aunt. 

After returning to Australia, Robert remained close friends with his battlefield rescuers, and Joan later married Jim, the son of one of the rescuers, Reuben Matthews.

Joan remembered, that despite his blindness, her father lived a full and happy life, mostly at Sandringham, in Melbourne, and died aged 85 in 1983.

Like my posts? Then you’ll love my books!

‘Pozières: the ANZAC Story’ 

‘This is a staggeringly good first book.’

- The Canberra Times

‘Night In Passchendaele’ 

‘Bennett makes a brilliant foray into fiction … a must read’.

 - Better Reading 

‘The Nameless Names: recovering the missing ANZACs’ 

‘This is an admirable book, superbly researched and insightfully written’.

- Ross McMullin, Author of Pompey Elliottt 

Purchase ‘Night in Passchendaele’ and receive ‘Pozières: the ANZAC Story’ half-priced (AU$48.99 plus postage) and author signed.

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