In their footsteps
SGT finds family grave at Gallipoli 91 years after eight brothers lost their lives in World War I

By Andrew Stackpool
Volume 48, No. 7, May 04, 2006

SGT Brent Willoughby with the Australian National Flag in front of the Lone Pine memorial.

Photo by LS Phil Cullinan

“I’M the first Willoughby to touch this soil [at Gallipoli] for 91 years. You can imagine how I feel about that.”

Those were the words of SGT Brent Willoughby as he stood at Anzac Cove this year as part of Australia’s Federation Guard.

During the First World War the Willoughby family suffered heavily.

“In our family eight brothers went off to war and three of them are buried here at Gallipoli — two at Lone Pine and one at Walker’s Ridge.”

They were three of 2,701 New Zealanders who made the final sacrifice at Gallipoli.

“Four others were killed on the Western Front in France, so only one out of eight went home to New Zealand,” he said.

The family came from the town of Avondale in New Zealand and were just part of the local community. The youngest, Gunner Robert Dickey, had just left school and was underage when, with his brothers and cousins, he joined on the same day in 1914.

“He lied about his age, and his brother and cousins took him with them.”

The oldest, Trooper Harold Willoughby, was 35 and worked at the local race track.

He died at Lone Pine. Dickey joined the Royal New Zealand Artillery. Trooper Willoughby joined the Auckland Mounted Rifles and the rest the Auckland Rifles Regiment, an infantry unit.

SGT Willoughby doesn’t know the name of the second Willoughby who died at Lone Pine. “He is buried in an unmarked grave,” he said.

SGT Willoughby said the three were part of the New Zealand reinforcements and were quickly in the thick of the fighting. “Robert Dickey was killed at Walker’s Ridge on his third day there,” he said.

While the two Willoughbys and Dickey went to Gallipoli the other five went to the UK and then to France.

Four were shot and wounded, and two died in France. Two of them died back in the UK and the last, repatriated to New Zealand with mustard gas poisoning, died later.

The eight Willoughbys and Dickeys established a family tradition of service and sacrifice. Two more Willoughbys fought in World War II, while SGT Willoughby’s father, also a sergeant, served in Vietnam in 1972.

He served in the RNZAF for 20 years but emigrated with his family to Adelaide in 1977. He died there in 1994.

SGT Willoughby decided to continue the military tradition and joined the Army in 1982, also at the age of 18.

He served with 5/7 Regiment in East Timor, the MEAO and Malaysia. In 2005 he enlisted in the Air Force because, “I needed a change and Air Force offered me a job.”

“I’ve got a lot of military tradition to keep up.”

SGT Willoughby carried the ADF banner at Lone Pine and found Harold Willoughby’s grave there.

“Being there on Anzac Day sent cold shivers down my spine,” he said.

“Then, when we found the grave, I felt that I had found closure for the family. We were back for the first time in 91 years and I felt that something that had been lost was found again. I have walked where they walked.

“It was a very emotional moment, and I had tears in my eyes.

“Carrying the banner, too, really swelled my heart. It was a very humbling experience.

“I had an e-mail from my mother in which she told me this was the proudest moment of her life, particularly after Dad died.”

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