On Wednesday 24th September 2104 Kevin sat in front of a grave in the Pernois British Cemetery in Northern France, a couple of years earlier he had never known the name of this Great Grandfather.

While researching for information on his grandmother I stumbled upon her death certificate which stated her father had been in the “Permanent Army”, with excitement building it wasn’t long before an 80 page service file on Sapper William Wrathall, a Tunneller with the 2nd Australian Tunnelling Company during World War One was found, and so began our search for more information.

Kevin had never met anyone from his father’s side of the family. After losing his dad at a young age, family history was simply not discussed, and as a boy, he never thought to ask about it. Discovering information about his Great Grandfather proved to be an incredibly moving experience. It inspired us to start learning basic French and to book a battlefield tour so we could retrace William’s steps. Before long, we found ourselves heading to the Western Front.

Visiting the battlefields and driving through areas that we had only read about and seen pictures of was such a surreal experience. Our tour visited Hill 60, Polygon Wood, Bullecourt, Fromelles, Villers Bretonneux, Pozieres and Mouquet Farm and Ypres (now Ieper) where a Last Post Ceremony is held every night at The Menin Gate.

On the first day of our tour and in the grounds of Tyne Cot Cemetery in Belgium the idea for Beyond the Front Line came to light, standing in front of the grave of Australian Sergeant Lewis McGee VC and surrounded by a further 11960 graves whom 8373 are unidentified Kevin turned to me and said “Look around you… every one of these men has a story, everyone has a family, when we get home, starting with our local cenotaph we’re going to remember our digger’s the best we can one at a time… they all have a story to tell”.

The next day our guide Ken drove us off the beaten track to find William’s resting place at the Pernois British Cemetery, after an eight hour day we were now in the grounds of that cemetery looking for Plot 3, Row C, Grave 12, it was there that we found William resting surrounded by 417 headstones and wheatfields with the most peaceful view of the Somme Valley and beyond. Almost 96 years earlier in the area had been not far from the front line.

William’s story is one of tragedy, he would not die in battle or underground in the tunnels but be tragically struck by a train behind the lines only two months before the end of the war. His death left his three children orphaned and created a chain of events which shaped Kevin’s family to this day.

At the conclusion of this tour we had a short stay in Paris and it was here our research began into looking into the names on our cenotaph, fast forward 10 years and we now have the records of sixty six men from Batlow who are listed as having served during World War One, seventeen of those men didn’t make it home, each of the seventeen now each have a personalised portfolio on their service. Since our first trip to the Western Front in 2014 we have returned twice more, visited Gallipoli along with the World War Two battlefields of Kokoda, and Singapore and also memorial sites in London and Germany, walking the ground and getting a feel for what happened in these places is a big part of what we do.

Along the way we’ve had the honour and privilege of researching stories for the families of those who’ve served. We develop a strong connection with each person we research and get very emotional at times when preparing to hand over a portfolio, each of which is individual to that person and contains information on where they lived, served and died. Maps photo’s and memories can all be added into a file, focusing on just one service member is so rewarding. Kevin’s ability to gather the facts, recreate a timeline of events within their story is incredible. The attention to detail, being able to remember these men and women and have their individual service information pieced together is unique and a service to the community that for some is priceless.