WW1 anniversary: Diary speaks to Doug Anthony

Former deputy PM Doug Anthony says his father never talked about landing on the rocky shores of Gallipoli.

‘I am very proud indeed’: Doug Anthony at his home in Murwil­lumbah in northern NSW with his father’s letters from Gallipoli. Picture: Jeff Camden

Former deputy prime minister Doug Anthony says his father never talked about landing on the rocky shores of Gallipoli for the battle that would become an indelible part of the Australian story.

But some years after Hubert “Larry” Anthony’s death, his son found a battered school case in a barn on his farm at Murwil­lumbah in northern NSW. Inside were dozens of letters and postcards Hubert had sent home to his mother, and a diary.

“He didn’t talk to me about it,” Mr Anthony, 85, tells The Australian. “Maybe emotionally he didn’t want to talk about it. It was a rough place to be in. But he was actually there when the boats landed at Gallipoli. And he wrote a letter to his mother some days after.”

Sapper Hubert Anthony’s writings offer a remarkable account of a teenage boy from country NSW travelling abroad and fighting the First World War. On May 11, 1915, Hubert wrote to his “dearest mother” about the landings that had taken place weeks earlier.

“At about 4am I was awakened by a violent clatter and jabber of tongues and a hurrying & scurrying of the troops down here below in the hold where we sleep. ‘What’s up?’ I called out as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. Boom, boom, crash was the reply — and then a sapper not too exci­t­ed to answer said, ‘Can’t you hear it? Get up man quick. Just ­listen to them guns. We’re here bombarding ’em — The Dardanelles!’

“The scene that lay before us shall never die in my memory. It consisted of a stretch of beach studded with scrub in front and to the left a little, which gradually worked up in build till to the right, dead in front of us, it was rock, cliffs, gullies, ravines and wooded hills behind.”

With shells flying past, noises blasting his eardrums and clouds of smoke hanging in the air, ­Hubert described the fighting.

“The 3rd and 1st Brigades suffered very heavily and bore the brunt of the attack. One boat full was wiped out completely by a mach­ine gun before they could reach the shore but when the rem­ainder got there they avenged the fallen ones by driving the Turks back with the bayonet and capturing the gun.

“Coming under fire for the first time is a none so comfortable experience. As you feel the shell screaming towards you, you get a lovely little thrill and if you have any conscience, all the misdeeds of your past life come crowding ­before you. You hold your breath as the screaming grows louder as the missile approaches and heave a sigh of relief as the shell strikes the water with a bang — instead of knocking off your head. After a while you get used to them and don’t give a damn if your head stays or goes.”

It was “a miracle” the letters were kept, Mr Anthony says. “I thought how fascinating they were and how good a writer he was.” He had “tremendous res­pect” for his father, who he succee­d­ed as the member for Richmond in 1957. Both were ministers in Robert Menzies’s government.

Mr Anthony was later National Party leader and deputy prime minister to three Liberal prime ministers. “I’m very proud to be the son of a Gallipoli veteran,” he says. “When I was growing up it didn’t mean much to me, but as I grew older and looked back over the history of Gallipoli, I am very proud indeed.”

In 2009, Hubert’s letters were published in Letters Home (Allen & Unwin), edited by Doug and Margot Anthony.

LETTERS FROM OUR HEART

The Australian has launched a national search for letters to and from the trenches in World War 1. We will publish a series of letters in the lead-up to the Gallipoli commemorations on Anzac Day. Contributions can be sent or emailed to:

Letters From Our Heart, The Australian, GPO Box 4245, Sydney, NSW, 2001

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