FAMILY history buffs have taken on a challenge to identify a World War I soldier whose heart-breaking letter to a Wagga woman will be read aloud at an Anzac Day service in France next month.
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Able Seaman Luke Menz, who will read the letter at a dawn service in Villers-Bretonneux, made a public appeal last week in a bid to identify “Jack” who wrote to a Jo Cox in 1918.
A number of people who read of the appeal in The Daily Advertiser have taken on the challenge of tracking down Jack.
A couple of readers think Jo Cox may be Josephine Cox, of Mt Peter, Livingstone Gully.
She was the daughter of district pioneer, Richard F Cox.
“You will find lots of mentions of her in The Daily Advertiser between 1913 and 1919,” reader said.
“She was educated at Mt Erin and was a prominent musician at the time.
“She married Alan Pragnell, of Darbalara, Gundagai, in 1926 and died in 1954.”
Another reader said Jo was born in 1897, the daughter of Richard and Isabel Cox.
Able Seaman Menz said a few people in the Australian Defence Force had contacted him directly on Facebook also pointing to Josephine Cox.
“That is a name that has come up more than once,” he said.
Able Seaman Menz said Jo had a younger brother named Claude Macdonald Cox who was known as Jack within the family, but he served in World War II and marked his papers as not having had previous war service.
Able Seaman Menz, who also hails from Wagga, said he was encouraged by the helpful “digging” by others also trying to solve the mystery of Jack and Jo.
