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What did the revolution in Russia in March 1917 mean to them, in the month that Elizabeth
Honeycombe, Richard's wife, reached the age of 95? Surely she was no longer pretending to be
younger than she was? Richard himself was now 88. And when America declared war on
Germany on 6 April and the battles of Arras and Vimy Ridge were fought in France, what did
they care? For Elizabeth was dying, and would never live to celebrate the 70th anniversary in
September of that daring wedding at Gretna Green. They would never be the oldest married
couple in Australia, as their grandson, Charles Regelsen, would one day claim. But they weren't
far off it when Elizabeth died on 30 April 1917.
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She was buried beside her daughter Emma {who had died in 1876 aged 22, and not 21 as the
gravestone states) in the Wesleyan section of the Melbourne General Cemetery; and her name,
and correct age, were added to the gravestone at the head of the plot enclosed by a low
ironwork grill. There was room for two more coffins in that grave and room for two more
names on the stone. And the two who were the chief mourners that day, Richard and his
daughter, Jane, would be those two in time.
Perhaps the tiny, gaunt old man, with his sharp blue eyes and his tousled white beard, wearing a
bowler hat and clutching a stick, thought of his wife for a while with fondness and missed her
more than he would ever say.
Thousands continued to die in Europe as thousands in Australia became the victims of a series
of local and national strikes, caused by workers' fears of modernisation and mechanisation, by
demands for better wages, for better living standards and better hours. Workers were also
unsettled by the military casualties, by the conscription dispute, by class envy, by anti-German
and anti Irish-Catholic sectarianism, and by a split in the Labour Party - one section, led by
WM Hughes, amalgamating with the Liberals to form the Nationalist Party, which seized power
in May after campaigning under the slogan "Win the War".
In Footscray quarrymen and bottle workers walked out and were sacked; other unions pledged
their support. In Sydney, a dispute over a new card system led to a national strike by rail and
tramway workers, that also brought out seamen, dockers, miners and others protesting at the
use of scab labour - in effect, a general strike, though one poorly organised and without popular
support. By September 1917 some 95,000 workers were out and the war effort was
paralysed.
But even then some workers were drifting back to work, and after a few more weeks, the
unions succumbed. As a result, their power and that of the labour movement was for some time
tarnished and reduced, and many workers, unable to regain their former jobs, had no option but
to enlist. WM Hughes, in another empty display of loyalty to the idea of Empire and 'good old
England' and aiming to 'win the war' held another referendum on conscription in December. But
even more people, nationally, said 'No'.
The war was not won for another year, and although an Armistice was declared on 11
November 1918, peace did not become official until June the following year.
There was much cheering in public when the war came to an end: in Footscray bells rang,
factory whistles blew, bands played, speeches were made and 'God Save the King' sung and
played again and again. But this was not so much a celebration of victory as an expression of
relief that the killing had stopped. For little had been gained and much had been lost. The world
was not a better place: if anything, it was worse. Millions of lives, cities, towns and villages had
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