The Miraculous Lives of a Man Called Jack

October 31, 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Beersheba, famous for the mounted charge of the 4th Light Horse Brigade and a significant battle in the British campaign for Gaza. It was for his brave action in this battle that my father, Jack, was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal.

At 14 years of age, Jack was a cabin boy on a fishing boat as it rounded Cape Horn. Six years later he was with the British Yeomanry, fighting in the South African Boer War of 1899-1902.

Because his brother had been killed while fighting next to him, he would not go home and stayed in South Africa working in the gold mines of Johannesburg and the diamond mines of the Kimberly. From 1906-08 he was one of the volunteers fighting in the Second Zulu Rebellion. After discharge, he became a Patrol Officer in what is now the Kruger National Park. He did 6 six-month patrols with only his native carriers as company, seldom seeing another white person.

Jack was in Australia when WWI started and he went down to the recruiting office at 4 a.m. hoping to be No. 1 only to find 84 other keen men had arrived there before him. As No. 85 he spent 4 years in the 4th Australian Light Horse Regiment and was in most of their campaigns at Gallipoli, Romani and Palestine. During the Charge at Beersheba, he was awarded the DCM for his very brave action in charging a Turkish machine-gun and its 11-man crew.

He was wounded four times and, excluding the times when he and his fellow Light Horsemen charged into those Turkish artillery bombardments - that murderous fire from Turkish machine guns and their accurate rifle fire - and managed to come out unscathed, he did escape certain death on nine separate occasions during his amazing, adventurous life.

This is the story of my father. A man who asked for nothing more than to serve his country and protect its freedom.