Anthony Hill first heard of Henri Hemene Tovell through newspaper clippings shown to him by Ashley Ekins, an historian at the Australian War Memorial. His book tells the story of an orphan French boy who turns up on Christmas Day 1918 in the mess of No.4 Squadron, Australian Flying Corp in Bickendorf, Germany. He’s a cheeky young lad who has left his friends in the British 48th Squadron because of No.4’s planned Christmas dinner. “It’s the talk of the aerodrome. Roast duck and apple sauce. Fruit and custard.” (page 17) while the Brits are only having boiled mutton and cabbage.
Henry, as the Aussies call him, is taken under the wing of aircraft mechanic Tim Tovell, and becomes the official mascot of No.4 Squadron. We gradually discover how Henry comes to be in Germany at the end of WWI. He remembers some terrible events, such as his home being shelled, being wounded by shrapnel, and his mother killed, but these memories are so traumatic that Tim is loath to push for more information.
Tim soon decides he will take Henry back to Australia with him and give him a better life and Hill convincingly, often amusingly, tells the story of the trials, tribulations and triumphs involved in the journey. Suffice it to say, with particular help from his brother Ted, financial help from other airmen and a blind eye being turned by officers, they successfully make the journey back to Tim’s home in Queensland.
Henry wants to follow in his foster father’s footsteps and join what is now the RAAF but problems arise because of his French citizenship and doubts about his age. Very unusually, he is offered a civilian apprenticeship at RAAF in Point Cook but he is desperately homesick and, like many young men, goes a little off the rails. Henry meets a young lady but just as he seems to be maturing and settling to his work and studies, he is killed in a motorbike accident.
Hill convincingly fills in the details of sketchy, but known, events, and conversations are well reimagined, solidly built on research, family histories and archival material. He writes very movingly of the tragic death of Young Digger and how the exclusion of the Tovell family from all arrangements, with no time for them to travel to the funeral or even be consulted about the boy’s headstone, left the family heartbroken.
Hill thinks the boy’s real name was Honoré Hemene and still hopes that further evidence of who Young Digger really was will turn up in old letters and photographs, as did the cover photo of the book.
Reviewed by Jan Kershaw
Rating out of 10: 7
Released by: Penguin Australia
Release Date: June 2016
RRP: $29.99 paperback, $14.99 eBook
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