Memoirs of an Anzac

a first-hand account by an AIF officer in the First World War
John Charles Barrie

“An easy read, combining details of the action with an account of the personal side of the soldier’s life both in the trenches and out and a fair amount of humour thrown in…a good way to learn about World War I without feeling bogged down in a history text.”

Weekend Herald

“One of the positive side effects of the excesses of the “centenary of Anzac” will be…new sources giving us fresh insights into a war we thought we knew. John Barrie’s memoir of his service on Gallipoli, in Britain and on the western front is, I hope, a harbinger of more to come.”

Peter Stanley, Canberra Times

“If [Barrie] were a war poet, he would be a bush balladeer, galloping assuredly from one stanza to the next, breathlessly evoking one adventure after another in vivid, syncopated detail…Barrie’s book offers a timely reminder that not everyone felt the war was a pointless waste of life. For some men, the war was their reason to live.”

Weekend Australian

Against his mother’s wishes, John Charles Barrie joined the Australian army in 1909. Five years later, he was on his way to Egypt as an officer with the Australian Imperial Force. He survived the war to write his memoirs, which were kept by his family for 80 years.

Made public for the first time, this book gives first-hand accounts of Barrie’s wounding at Gallipoli on that fateful first Anzac Day, his recuperation in England, and the friendships he made there. It chronicles his escape from rehab so that he could return to the war in France, and his fighting for days on end, waist-deep in mud in the trenches.

Memoirs of an Anzac tells of the horrors of war, but it is also lightened with the good humour that resulted from thousands of young Australian men being thrown together in dire circumstances. This is not a history textbook, nor is it a series of diary notes and letters—it is a gut-wrenching, heart-warming true story that will move you.

Weekend Herald

Peter Stanley, Canberra Times

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Details

Format:Paperback

Size: 9.21in × 6.02in

Extent:304pp

ISBN (13):9781925106497

RRP:$17.95

Pub date:24 Mar 2015

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John Charles Barrie

Born in 1883, John Charles Barrie grew up in Victoria. He joined Australia’s militia in 1909, and remained an army man his entire life, retiring with the rank of colonel. An officer in the AIF from the start of World War I, Barrie was involved in the landing at Gallipoli, and later served at the Western Front. He was wounded twice during the war. Barrie died in 1957, survived by his wife and daughter. His memoirs have been made available by his granddaughter, Judy Osborne.