Researching your family’s history can quickly become an obsession. Penny Matthews knew almost nothing about her uncles’ older brother, Glen Murrie, except that he had died in the Second World War. An RAAF bomber pilot, he was killed on operations in the Pacific. Seventy years after his death he was just a name to her: a photograph, a poignantly brief entry on the family tree.

Asking questions, scouring service archives, trawling through Trove, Penny began to discover more about Glen. At the heart of these discoveries was the story of his love for the girl who was to have been his wife. For Glen’s short life touched many lives, and his death cast a shadow that is still felt today.