SA: Gallipoli legend still strong

AAP General News (Australia)
04-22-2005
SA: Gallipoli legend still strong

By Sam Lienert

ADELAIDE, April 22 AAP - Ninety years on, the legend of Gallipoli - in which thousands
of young Australians charged naively into an ill-fated battle - retains a central place
in the nation's psyche, and some historians still wonder why.

History Trust of South Australia director Margaret Anderson said the horrific battle
became a national legend almost from the time the first soldiers set foot on Anzac Cove.

And it continues to fascinate a new generation of Australians.

"Young people seem to be searching for a sense of identity through history," Ms Anderson said.

"I think that perhaps the Gallipoli legend is one of the most powerful ways in which
they are tending to do that."

But it was unclear why Gallipoli became such an iconic national symbol, Ms Anderson said.

"Historians still struggle to understand why what was really a very costly stalemate
in the end became a national legend almost immediately," she said.

"Perhaps it was the sheer scale of the losses, although the losses would of course
be greater on the western front in the years that followed.

"Perhaps it was simply the fact that this was the first time Australians had fought
under their own flag.

"Whatever the reasons, from the very beginning, Gallipoli was hailed as Australia's
national baptism of fire."

The Gallipoli story, in particular the role South Australians played in it, is the
subject of an exhibition put together by the trust, which opened in Adelaide this week
- Gallipoli: The South Australian Story.

Its many accounts of soldiers, as well as their loved ones at home, highlights the
exuberance and excitement with which they entered battle, something difficult to comprehend
with hindsight of the horrors they faced.

The story of Ms Anderson's own grandfather, Frank Vickery, illustrates the eagerness
with which Australians at that time entered the field of war.

A dairy farmer from the Adelaide hills, Mr Vickery walked 45km to Adelaide to enlist,
only to find that surnames A-K were being enrolled that day.

Rather than walk home, he changed his name to Frank Hickory on the spot, the name he
fought under throughout his service.

While the name change meant it later took him years of bureaucratic wrangling to gain
an army pension, it also typified the earnest desire of young Australian men to join the
war.

"There was that huge optimism in the first world war and incredible faith and genuine
belief in king, country, empire and the cause of the empire," Ms Anderson said.

"I also think young men didn't have the faintest idea what they were going into ...

later on I think the full horror of that war came home."

Another SA soldier, George Seager, died at Lone Pine as a teenager, with his parting
words to his mother: "If I stop a bit of German lead, be a sport."

His mother, Alexandrina Seager, established the Cheer-Up Hut, in which Adelaide women
cooked and served meals for soldiers, distributed clothing, provided entertainment and
organised farewells and welcome home ceremonies.

Mrs Seager, who was instrumental in the formation of the RSL in SA, also wrote a book
of poetry, Violet Verses, in memory of son George, which forms part of the exhibition.

Her two other sons, Harold and Edward, survived the war, with Harold having worn Violet
Verses over his heart during several battles.

Harold's son, Michael Seager, said his father captured the optimistic outlook which
young Australians carried into battle in a letter home describing the landing at Gallipoli.

"He said the boys just cheered as the band played them out of the harbour, the boys
just cheered going to their first battle," Mr Seager said.

Mrs Seager, in her poetry, tried to make sense of the deaths of her son and others.

"Twas fitting that the young and brave should die to build a nation's name/That strong
young hands should mould her destiny in an undying fame," she wrote.

"It's an interesting attempt to come to terms with that and what it meant," Ms Anderson said.

"It also shows an extraordinary sense, so early on, that history was being created,
written in 1915."

AAP scl/sl/bwl

KEYWORD: ANZAC GALLIPOLI SA RPT

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