I’m Joel, Arnold’s great great nephew. Growing up I enjoyed doing lots of family history, but Uncle Arnie has always been the family member I was most interested in. The fact that we have so much information about him and his life, while having that personal touch of all of his letters, it makes it that much easier to imagine what it was like.
I remember when I first read through the letters with my mum, it was really special hearing his point of view of what was going on. The wars were such a big part of the history of the 20th century, but I feel we rarely get to hear the personal side of it, especially being in NZ and being apart from where it all took place.