Reverend Langley walked from his St Mary’s vicarage to an unfamiliar address in Elsternwick
Reverend Langley walked from his St Mary’s vicarage to an unfamiliar address in Elsternwick. He opened the picket-fence gate, walked up the path, and knocked on the door. Widow Mary Reid answered. Langley guided Mary into a room, sat her down, and shared the ‘sad tidings’ that her son Lindsay had died on Gallipoli. Reverend Langley offered Mary words of comfort, but she would have no memory of them, and would not recall how long he stayed or when he left. The news of Lindsay’s death overwhelmed Mary. Everything seemed swept away by the hand of fate. She struggled to comprehend how, in her declining years, she would cope without Lindsay’s much-needed financial support. In Mary’s grief she drew the curtains and took to bed. Reverend Langley attempted to nurse Mary through her grief with soon-to-be familiar rhetoric about a noble sacrifice. Mary understood that Victorian sensibilities meant that displays of emotion in public were frowned upon. Mary sent a letter to the ‘military authori