On June 28^th, 1914, the Heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, the capital of the Austrian province of Bosnia. It was the spark that would soon ignite the First World War.

Zola Janson (Lilydale): Zola was the daughter of Edward Janson who owned ‘The Towers’ at Lilydale. At the time of the assassination in Sarajevo both she and her mother were in Germany and in the following letter to her father she describes their escape as events in Europe began to quickly escalate. She would be the first resident from the Shire of Lillydale to experience the conflict first-hand.

‘Dear Dad,

We have just reached England again (July 2^nd) after our most thrilling adventures in Europe, once in a life’s experience. We have had many ups and downs and seen many wonderful sights. We only arrived here yesterday, after a sixty hours’ train run and no sleep.

Every British subject had to leave Bale, Germany, within twenty-four hours of the notice given. Luggage etc had to be left, and we had to go as best we could to Geneva. The poor Italians who worked in Germany had to go without food or money.

We heard of a train leaving from Geneva via Paris; as lines were taken up on the Bale route and bridges blown to pieces, we had to go miles around to reach the special train. There were eight hundred of us on the train which was composed of only second-class carriages. We had to take food and water for a sixty hours’ journey, and the train, with one engine and poor coal supply, travelled very slowly. There were ten people in each compartment and we had to eat and sleep as best we could. All along the line were soldiers, and the train whistled from morn till eve.

We had a grand reception at Lyons where about three thousand French welcomed we English. We sang ‘La Marseillaise’ and they sang ‘God Save the King’. There were soldiers everywhere. We had no sleep for two nights. At Lyons we saw over one thousand Belgian engines sent out of Belgium into France away from the Germans. We also saw several flying machines on the German frontier, up about two thousand feet and looking like huge cigars. On the outskirts of Paris we passed six train loads of troops going to Metz, we also passed many trains carrying dying and wounded men.

At Paris we saw the remainder of the grand Zouarves who fought so bravely, their officers not being able to keep them back. At another part of the journey we saw hundreds of French soldiers crowded around our train carrying shoulder high one wounded English Officer. Everyone tried to shake hands with the French, there were thousands of them, all clad in red trousers and blue coats, they could be seen for miles off. The Germans wear a greenish grey uniform and are very hard to see at a distance.

I will never forget the cheering, singing and flag waving on our trip to England from Basel and Douisberg. There were about one thousand, eight hundred people on a very small boat, the fog in the Channel was very thick, and it took us five hours to cross to Folkestone. We left the French land behind with its people on the wharf crying out ‘Long life to your King’.

The German Emperor has said that he will eat his Christmas goose at Buckingham Palace but though the English and French have lost many people at the war, Russia is now well on its way to help. Everywhere in Europe there is great excitement, but at the time of writing, London is very quiet’.