“I reckon the Turk respects us, as we respect the Turk, Abdul’s a good, clean fighter – we’ve fought him, and we know – and we’ve left a letter behind us to tell him we found him so”
Feature Quote
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- Oliver Hogue, extract from the poem, ‘Anzac’ by ‘Trooper Bluegum at the Dardanelles’, London, 1916.
Oliver Hogue (1880-1919) was a journalist and soldier who enlisted in the AIF in September 1914. Hogue served in Gallipoli as an officer with the 6th Light Horse Regiment and gained recognition as a loyal and dedicated front-line trooper. He regularly wrote letters to family and to the Sydney Morning Herald under the pseudonym “Trooper Bluegum” – honestly detailing the events of the Gallipoli campaign, depicting the ‘happy-go-lucky spirit of the Australians, their indifference to danger, and laughter when in difficulties or in pain’ (Mitchell, 1983).
Image A02353, courtesy of AWM.