Grandpa Jack's pictures from the front line tell the story of World War I

Can you believe the majority of these photos are nearly 110 years old?

The amateur photographer was my maternal grandfather, John Mortimer Leahey. Sadly, I never met him. The veteran of both world wars died 10 years before I was born.

I wrote about him for another publication 10 years ago on the centenary of World War I and in the lead-up to Anzac Day every year I think about him, but I reckon we would have been mates.

You see, he was an Irishman who was a bit of a naughty boy and who doesn't love naughty boys?

I interviewed his daughter, my late mum Maureen Murray for the story.

In 1915, he upped his age from 16 to 18 to fight on the Western Front in France and then Ypres in Belgium.

When World War II came about, Grandpa Jack, as I call him, wanted to fight again. But because he altered his age in World War I, this time he had to drop it and he joined the Air Force.

From the time I was five, Mum let me wear her father's British War Medal to every Anzac Day service at school over the years and the ribbon is a tad worn.

Mum was intensely proud of the man who died too young and left too many questions including why he left home to fight at just 16. Was it because he could not bear to be parted from his brother Fred, who was old enough to fight?

"Of all the battles my father was in, the one he spoke about most was the battle of Ypres so it must have been the most important battle he was in," Mum said.

"He did not return to Australia until 1919 because his battalion had to be repatriated first.

"My father was very proud of his medals. The only thing that he prized more than his medals was his bugle. It went missing long ago.

"The fact that he was so young when he joined the 55th Battalion and being among such a huge group of mates was something that was most important to him in his life."

A keen amateur photographer, Grandpa Jack left hundreds of photos of action on the Front, each one captioned and dated in glorious copperplate handwriting.

He must have risked so much to take photos of the barbed wire covering No Man's Land, German tanks, the enemy, German biplanes flying overhead and his comrades.

Mum recalled: "I was not very old when Dad joined up for World War II in 1940.

"Dad's entire family had been in military service and I believe he felt honour-bound to join up again. The only problem was age. Because he changed his age to go to World War I, he had to change it again.

"I vividly remember him going off to serve in World War II in the Air Force where he was a leading aircraftsman.

"He wanted to serve but not in the army, which he thought was too bloody, particularly after what he went through in World War I.

"I can still see him in his uniform as he went to World War II. I was really impressed by the uniform.

"I used to talk to Dad about his service and he told me how brutal it was in World War I.

"He also told me it helped him to see the world - not a bad achievement for a 16-year-old, really.

"In those days it was rare to know anyone who had seen the world and my father had."

This coming Anzac Day, I'll be raising a glass to Grandpa Jack and his beautiful daughter Maureen who died just over a year ago.

Of course, it will be Guinness to honour Grandpa Jack's Irish heritage.