Loved ones remember Nathan as hero
STEPHANIE Bewes would always ask her younger brother Nathan when he would get a “real job”.
He dreamed of the soldier's life even before joining Murwillumbah's 225 Army Cadet Unit as a 13-year-old and the ambition was realised when he was made a member of the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment in 2005.
Speaking at the 23-year-old's funeral yesterday at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, in front of Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the Premier of NSW Kristina Keneally and Defence Force Chief Angus Houston, Miss Bewes said her brother was a courageous and brave soldier, who died doing what he loved.
“Now I know you had a real job, one that has created a real hero, in my eyes, in the eyes of the family and all of your friends,” she said.
“I will always be looking up to you ... I will always love you.”
Pte Bewes' girlfriend Alice Walsh said Nathan was her one true love and best friend.
“I can stand here and talk about the dreams that we had but I feel we packed a lifetime into those last few years,” she said.
He had an “infectious personality and you couldn't help but love him”. He was proud of his tattoos and liked a Johnny Walker or a beer, just like his father Gary.
Ms Walsh told how a recent trip to Europe gave “Nate” an opportunity to take on Gary's record of drinking 12 one-litre steins of beer in one sitting while in Germany, but he only manage nine, then had a “power spew” that night.
Pte Bewes' older cousin Samuel Preston, said they would play fantasy war games in their childhood and both went on to become soldiers. “Parents take this as a warning — if your children are playing parliament house question time, they might become a bloody politician,” Mr Preston joked.
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