Roy and Bert Gollan served at Gallipoli and in Europe with so many other young Geelong men, a distressing number of whom did not return. Fortunately, the brothers survived. Roy was a journalist with the Geelong Advertiser and the Melbourne Argus, and in news reports and letters home he writes clearly of what he saw and experienced. His brother Bert, himself no slouch with a pen, does likewise.
Alongside their matter-of-fact descriptions of life at the front and brief interludes on leave or in hospital, Wendy has curated a selection of letters from some of Geelong’s other young volunteers, the whole revealing a compelling, moving and sometimes humorous story of the war. These young men were all from Geelong, but they could have been from anywhere in Australia.
This is Wendy Hebbard’s second book.