A YOUNG farmer’s love for his Margaret River farm died in the bloody strife of Gallipoli – but he lives on in a nonfiction book by Sydney-based Penelope Ransby.

Mrs Ransby was inspired by letters written by the young man, which led to her writing Dream of Margaret River.

It is the story of three young men, Lance Andrews, Chris Andrews and Evelyn Wilton (her grandfather), who came to Margaret River when the area was being opened up to new settlers in the early years of the last century.

Brothers Chris and Lance Andrews both served at Gallipoli, and Lance went on to the Somme.

Evelyn Wilton served at sea on the north Atlantic convoys.

The tale continues on to show the lasting effect of the war both on the Margaret River region and on the survivors.

“The story is drawn from original sources (letters, personal diaries, battalion diaries, government records, eyewitness accounts, contemporary newspaper articles held in the records of the WA State library) and, seven decades later, recollections by contemporaries recounted to my mother, Evelyn’s daughter,” Mrs Ransby said.

She started writing the book about five years ago when she inherited Chris Andrews’ correspondence after her father’s death.

The three were partners in a farming property at Margaret River in the years before the First World War.

Mrs Ransby’s parents were primarily interested with learning about Evelyn Wilton, but reading Chris’s letters drew her into the lives of the Andrews brothers.

“When I read them, I was entranced,” she said.

“He leapt out from the page, so vibrant and energetic.

“His enthusiasm, his love of his new life, his plans for his farm, his hopes and dreams for the future leap out of the page, even now, almost a century after they were written.

“Yet two years later he was dead, killed at Gallipoli.

“The waste and tragedy of the war, and the continued loss to the survivors, their communities, and to us as their descendants, is to me a story worth telling.”

Captain Andrews was the first man from Margaret River killed in WWI, as noted by the saddened Margaret River Progress Association in 1915.

“I did not like leaving the Margaret at all,” he wrote in 1914.

“I am sure it is one of the choicest spots in the world.

“I fully expect to be back before the end of next year.”

Mrs Ransby has often visited the local area, and her husband calls it her “sacred site”.

Research in the Battye Library helped her with details for the book, and a newspaper request drew more interest from locals.

So far she has received a good response to her first book.

“It’s a contribution to our history, of people who otherwise are forgotten,” she said.

The book is published by Centennial and will be available in local bookstores and in Perth for $32.95.