Three brothers go, two return
Brothers Daniel and Ephraim Jarvis were close.
They both enlisted to do their bit in World War I on February 27, 1916, in Perth. Daniel gave his occupation as horse driver and Ephraim as stove maker.
They became reinforcements for the 28th Battalion.
Daniel was allocated service number 4758 and Ephraim was given 4759. They sailed for the war from Fremantle on the transport vessel Aeneas on April 17, 1916.
But only one of them came home.
Ephraim was killed in action in France on April 20, 1917, at age 21.
Daniel, who gave his age as 23 when he enlisted and left behind his pregnant wife Gertrude and young daughter, suffered trench foot in Belgium and was wounded twice in 1917.
After recovering, he saw further action in France and was on an army course when the war ended.
Daniel and Ephraim had followed in the footsteps of a third brother, Reuben, who had enlisted in August 1915, giving his occupation as plumber and his age as 21.
He sailed for the war on November 2 as a reinforcement for the 11th Battalion.
He saw his first action in France in April 1916, and a serious gunshot wound sent him to hospital in England.
Reuben rejoined the battalion in December. On April 16, 1917, he was reported missing in action.
A fellow Digger's report in Reuben's Red Cross wounded and missing file said he was seen "with others surrounded by the Germans" and taken prisoner at Demicourt, France. Reuben spent the rest of the war as a prisoner at Limburg PoW camp. He was finally repatriated to Dover, England, on December 1, 1918.
Judy Jarvis, who is married to Daniel Jarvis' grandson Jim, said that after Daniel's return from the war he worked for many years as a labourer, including a period carting bricks. Initially this was done on a horse-drawn cart, but he refused to learn how to drive a truck, so when the horse-drawn era came to a close he worked on the railways and on road construction.
Mrs Jarvis said that Daniel was a member of the Returned and Services League but did not take part in marches because it was against his principles, nor did he keep his medals.
He completed his family with a son and a third daughter in the 1920s, had 20 grandchildren and died in 1968.
Reuben Jarvis married Edith Smith in 1924. They had a son and a daughter and were also foster parents to several children over many years.
Reuben embraced motorised transport and worked most of his life for Bunnings as a carter and then a tallyman before retiring in the late 1960s.
He was also a member of the RSL but, like his brother, did not march, and he kept his medals in a drawer.
Reuben had five grandchildren and died in 1974.
Ephraim has no known grave but has a plaque in the Honour Avenues, Kings Park, which was dedicated in 2010 in a ceremony that brought together descendants of the brothers who had not been well known to each other previously.
Judy and Jim Jarvis located his name on the memorial wall at Villers-Bretonneux, France, in 2011.
