At Any Price: The Anzacs in the Battle of Messines 1917 by Craig Deayton

Author:Craig Deayton [Deayton, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Big Sky Publishing
Published: 2017-05-11T04:00:00+00:00

Private Marcus Brown of Cape Barren Island. A Tasmanian aboriginal man who had successfully enlisted despite the 1909 Defence Act which required all recruits to be ‘substantially of European descent’, Brown was wounded the day after he carried his friend’s body back to the Black Line and died on 11 June (photo courtesy of the Brown family).

The fierce shelling which had cleared the Green line on the 3rd Division’s front died down as the long daylight of high summer began to fade. A patrol from the 40th Battalion kept its abandoned position under observation, noting that the Germans had not occupied it and small groups crept forward to gather the wounded. The 40th Battalion’s ‘Private Ashmead’, Lance Corporal Biggs, recalled one tragic scene:

‘Billy’ [Marcus] Brown, a fine type of man, quarter or half caste Tasmanian aboriginal, was seeking his bosom pal Dave Marriott ... Dave had been killed in the harrier race, and his body lay in the bottom of a shellhole. Billy wept aloud. Several of us offered to help getting his body up, but Billy said, “No, he’s mine!” Refusing aid, he got down in the shell hole, picked up the massive corpse and carried it balanced over one shoulder back into the darkness. There is much poignant pathos in a battle, for those with seeing hearts!100

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