Centenary Anzac exhibition arrives in Adelaide

IT was just a young boy’s curiosity, but Chris Colyer’s act as an eight-year-old preserved a bit of Australia’s war history — and it’s now part of a national exhibition that’s come to Adelaide.

CHRIS Colyer remembers snaffling a couple of his grandfather’s possessions when he was about eight years old, and believes a young boy’s curiosity was the only thing that has preserved them.

When the nationally touring Spirit of Anzac Centenary Experience goes on show at Wayville Showgrounds this week these small mementos will be among the displays.

His grandfather, Walter Dollman, carried with him his Army issue wallet and a paperweight with a photograph of his daughter Rosalie into Gallipoli, and later into the First Battle of the Somme in France.

Now they are tangible connections to their grandfather’s experiences, more than 100 years ago.

“My grandfather died four years before I was born, 70 years ago, but he has had such an enormous influence on the whole family, and his presence has always been around,” Mr Colyer said.

Walter Dollman was a journalist at The Advertiser, and was Mayor of Unley when war broke out. He had first joined the militia in 1889, and despite a gammy leg joined the 74th Battalion, later called the 27th, and was soon made the commanding officer of the battalion, known as “Unley’s Own”.

He survived the fighting in Gallipoli and on the Western Front, suffering a gassing, and shrapnel wounds, but the devastation of the First Battle of the Somme, which largely wiped out the battalion as a fighting force, was a severe blow.

Christopher Colyer with his grandfather’s medals at the Spirit of Anzac Centenary Experience, currently at Wayville Showgrounds. Picture: Matt Loxton

“Today I suppose he would have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome,” said Mr Colyer. “He was relieved after the First Battle of the Somme and took over command of the Mitcham Army Camp from 1917 to 1919.”

The Spirit of Anzac Centenary Experience is a large exhibition developed by the Australian War Memorial. It tells the story of the war, helped by museum pieces.

Chris Colyer’s mementos are included in a community section, but the main section includes field guns, field hospitals, and many other objects from the war.

It is at the Wayville Pavilion in the showgrounds from March 8 to March 20.

Tickets are free, but bookings are required, by going online — see www.spiritofanzac.gov.au

Walter Dollman with his daughter Rosalie. Supplied by Guy Dollman

Colonel Walter Dollman outside the 27th Battalion Headquarters at Gallipoli.

Originally published as Centenary Anzac exhibition arrives in Adelaide