About

Our Dad, Hartley Mann was born in Pinnaroo in 1913.

While living in Merbein, Dad joined the ADF in August 1940, and in late ’41 he commenced his active service in Palestine, serving the North African front.  After his discharge in 1945, our family moved to the soldier settlement block 30B in Robinvale, in what is now called ‘Benghazi Road’.

It’s taken a long time for us five siblings to gather together these photos, to try and learn more about our Dad.  To paint some sort of picture of who he was and how his experiences affected him, and ultimately,  his whole family.

Like many men and women who serve in conflict zones, I think that the story that these photos and his letters tell, is that he came home a changed man.  Reading the letters he wrote to my mother and then baby sister, I see a side of him that I never knew.  A side I wish that I had known.

more to come…