Gallipoli frontline telling from a true league man

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings, we look at the part played by a rugby league man, who was one of the first rank and file soldiers to present an eyewitness account of the events of April 25, 1915 to the rest of Australia.

PERSONAL accounts of the soldiers of the Gallipoli campaign began to appear in Australian newspapers from early June 1915, more than a month after the original landing. Most took the form of letters to loved ones “reproduced with permission” and provided readers with the unequivocal truth of the desperate battle to gain a foothold on the peninsula on April 25. Those at home had read the first eyewitness accounts of the landing from British war correspondent Ellis Ashmead Bartlett, whose descriptive narratives were reproduced from London’s Daily Telegraph. Reports from Australia’s own official war correspondent Charles Bean appeared a few days later. Their accounts filled in many of the gaps for families and loved ones desperate for information from the front. Earlier reports were heavily censored, lacked hard facts and were…

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Official Rugby League Annual (Digital) - 1 Issue, 2014

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