Diane's husband Bob served in the Army during both world wars.
Major Robert 'Bob' Sydney Melloy was an Armourer Sergeant in the 42nd Australian Infantry Battalion during World War I.
Bob enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 6 January 1916. After basic training, he embarked for overseas service in June 1916. With the 42nd Battalion, Bob served on the Western Front until the end of the war. Returning to Australia in late 1919, he was discharged medically unfit.
During World War II, Bob served with the army again, as a property acquisitions officer in Queensland. Diane says his memory of the pitiful state of refugees he had seen in World War I steeled him in his new wartime job. He was advising people to evacuate the Far North in the face of what was feared to be imminent Japanese invasion.
Diane valued her family's past military history and says to have had Bob by her side as a ready-made source of history was a great opportunity to explore her love of the past. She asked him often about his wartime experiences and he willingly shared them with her. She presumes the coterie of returned men with whom her husband mingled after the war spoke to one another about their experiences.
Diane says she shared a great sense of adventure with Bob and the saddest thing about his passing for her was that people would never get to know him.
