A century ago, Harold Bernard fought on the shores of Gallipoli as part of the 1st Australian Infantry Force.
At the centenary of the most memorable battle in Australian history, his son will stand on the same shore and pay tribute to all those who were lost during the nine-month campaign.
Jim Bernard was one of 400 direct descendants of Gallipoli veterans chosen to travel to Turkey for the 100th anniversary of Australia's first military action in World War I.
He only applied for the ballot after hearing of his son's intention to travel to Europe for the ceremony.
"It was in my mind that I would like to go to the Western Front in 2018 for the cessation of the war in France. We can't envisage what they went through."
Born in Dunedin, NZ in 1898, Jim's father moved to Australia at an early age.
Lying about his age, the then-16-year-old was not with the first landing party on April 25, 1915, but did travel to the Gallipoli Peninsula as part of the Second Reinforcements Battalion after enlisting in August of that year.
He was wounded and evacuated to Malta, before travelling to Britain.
After a brief rehabilitation, Sergeant Bernard was deployed to the Western Front and was one of the first soldiers in the Entente forces exposed to mustard gas.
"They'd blow pure sulphur to coat their insides and try to stop the internal wounding," Jim said.
Despite his "gas asthma", as it was then termed, Sergeant Bernard was sent back to the front, but not before he was wrongly court martialled for being absent without leave when he was actually in a convalescent home.
"He was terribly bitter with the poms after that," Jim laughed.
Upon being discharged in 1919, Sergeant Bernard was a plantation manager in the Solomon Islands before marrying and settling in Sydney in 1931.
Jim said his father never spoke about the war and did not let the lingering scars of battle keep him down.
"One of the few things he ever said to me was that in the trenches in France they never took their boots off for eight months.
"He was a terribly sick man because of the gas, but my wife always said she'd never seen anyone like him.
He was terribly determined."
Jim said he didn't know what to expect when the sun rises over the Dardanelles on Anzac Day, but was sure it would be a life-changing experience.
