‘Kurrajong Heights Tragedy’.
That was the headline in the Windsor and Richmond Gazette in March 1928.
The whole of World War I was a tragedy, with its millions of casualties, and the awful damage wrought, especially in France and Belgium. But it did not end with the 1918 Armistice. What we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) had continuing effects on many who had been exposed to the horrors.
In 1928, Alwin Peck lived at Fernhurst in Kurrajong Heights. The name Peck is well-known in the area. Alwin Peck, whose war service was variously described as Company Runner and Dispatch Rider, was at the Somme, and he received the Military Medal.
He was wounded in 1918, and arrived home in August 1919. He was an orchardist.
In February 1928, he took his own life, having given no indication to mates he had been with just previously that he had any intention of doing so. However, his wife, who at first was not capable of speaking in court, later made the following statement:
“On February 20 last my husband had been to Richmond doing business in connection with the sale of his car. He returned home about 3pm and was in good spirits. After lunch he left to go George’s packing shed, and returned home about 6pm. His manner then appeared to be strange, and he went straight into a room where a rifle was kept. I said to him, ‘What are you going to do with the rifle?’ He replied ‘Nothing’. I said “Well put it back, and he did so. He was in the kitchen when I went to put the baby to sleep, and when I returned I found he had gone. I went to the room where the rifle was kept but it was also missing. I then got the baby, and walking towards a shed on the property, I heard the report of a rifle. When I got to the gate Mr Telling took me over to the deceased’s father’s residence … The coroner returned a verdict of suicide.”
We can’t know exactly what led to this tragedy, but given what he had been exposed to at the Somme, and the fact that he used his service rifle to end his life, this is very likely to have been an example of the long-lasting effects of PTSD.
