Charles Alfred Heather

I sometimes get referrals from the most unlikely place. A couple of weeks ago I received an email at work telling me about a request in the Herald News Paper for any information about an AIF soldier. A lady had his memorial plaque and had run out of leads to locate his family.

I contacted the Herald and offered to help. A couple of days later the lady conducting the search dropped me a line with the number and name of the soldier. From there I found this information:

HEATHER, Private, CHARLES ALFRED, 850. 8th Bn. Australian Infantry, A.I.F. Killed in action 4th July 1915. Son of Edward John and Ada Main Heather, of 415, High St., Kew, Victoria, Australia. Native of Bournemouth, England. II. C. 28.

There was nothing in any of the archives of the contemporary papers to give me a clue and since Charles was not married there were no children to track down. It turned out his father's name was all I needed. I found one Internet reference to Edward John Heather which gave a name and number of a family member in Brisbane. I provided all this information to the lady with the plaque and sure enough it was the Right connection. Below is a photo of Heather's plaque.

The returned tally is now 619.