John Angus McDonald (known as Jim) wrote to his mother in Queensland, Australia, on October 14, 1917. His unit had just seen action in the Battle of Polygon Wood. In his letter, he told her:

"...I lost some of my best mates, and it was with a sad heart and a tearful face that I had to help bury their remains on that shell-torn ground. But never mind, this can't go on forever, and let's hope they have not given their lives in vain. The weather here at present is very wet, and winter is coming on us again. You might knit me some socks and send me a pair of warm gloves..."

Jim's mother, Fanny McDonald, had already been knitting socks for him even before he asked. She received his letter in December 1917, but by then she had already learned of his death in November. Jim died on October 22, at the 3rd Australian Field Ambulance station, where he was taken after being wounded - one of the many thousands who fell at the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele).

Fanny never finished the socks. Today, the unfinished socks - still on the needles - together with the balls of yarn that would have completed them, and Jim's letter home, can be seen at the National Trust Queensland Zara Clark Museum in Charters Towers, Queensland, Australia.

They are not the only unfinished knitted socks or other "comforts" meant for soldiers or sailors whose deaths were reported before their gifts could be completed. Many such items are held in museums and historical societies around the world, and many more remain with the families of the deceased. Their existence speaks to the enduring bonds between those at home and those who fought - and they stand quiet, tangible reminders of the lives, loves and dreams lost to war.