Writers @ Stanton: Peter FitzSimons

As a shy lad growing up in country Victoria, no one in the district had any idea the man Albert Jacka would become.

Albert 'Bert' Jacka was 21 when Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914, and soon enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force and was assigned to 14th Battalion D Company. By the time they shipped out to Egypt he'd been made a Lance Corporal.

On 26 April 1915, 14th Battalion landed at Gallipoli under the command of Brigadier General Monash's 4th Infantry Brigade. It was here, on 20 May, that Lance Corporal Albert Jacka proved he was 'the bravest of the brave'.

Jacka's extraordinary efforts at single-handedly holding off the Turks full-scale frontal attack saw him awarded the Victoria Cross, the first for an Australian soldier in World War I. He was a national hero, but Jacka's wartime exploits had only just begun: moving on to France, he battled the Germans at Pozieres, earning a Military Cross. Then at Bullecourt, his efforts would again turn the tide against the enemy.

The Legend of Albert Jacka is an unforgettable story of the bravery and sacrifice of one extraordinary soldier that takes us from the shores of Gallipoli to the battlefields of France.

About the author

Peter FitzSimons AM is Australia's bestselling non-fiction writer, and for the past 38 years has also been a journalist and columnist with the Sydney Morning Herald and the Sun-Herald.

He is the author of a number of highly successful books, including Breaker Morant, Kokoda, Ned Kelly and Gallipoli, as well as biographies of such notable Australians as Sir Douglas Mawson, Nancy Wake and John Eales. His passion is to tell Australian stories, our own stories: of great men and women, of stirring events in our history.

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