Anzac Sniper is also about the Dunsterforce WW1 campaign; and Stan Savige, Gallipoli veteran, WW2 General, and founder of the “Legacy” charity for returned soldiers. He is also the Great Uncle of a good friend and wargaming colleague.

The biography is written by Roland Perry who has authored a number of similar titles. He has the happy knack of being historically accurate as well as providing footnotes, excellent index, and an extensive bibliography to assist any further research that you may want to do on your own. His style is also very readable.

The book is about Stan Savige and not the Dunsterforce campaign although this does take up one of the six parts of the book.

We travel on Stan’s life journey from his role as a sniper at Gallipoli, to the great battles of Pozieres, Bullecourt, and Passschendale on the Western Front. There is an interesting story about the Melbourne war of 1923 that was likened to the Eureka Rebellion. Police were on strike there was rioting in the streets and the army was brought in. Monash, McCay and Savige formed part of the Citizen’s Protection Committee to restore law and order.

In World war two Savige was involved in North Africa, Greece and Syria where he was the Brigadier of the 2/5th Battalion. Due to petty jealousies he didn’t received the accolades he deserved for the capture of Tobruk.

Savige returned to Australia to assist in the defence of the country, being involved at Buna, the Owen Stanley’s and finally taking charge of the forces on Bourganville.

He accepted the Japanese surrender at Kanda in 1945,

Despite a decorate military career, including the DSO during Dunsterforce, in my opinion his greatest achievements are his involvement in saving thousands of Armenian refugees and his establishment of “Legacy” a welfare organisation for returned soldiers.

There is no better epitaph than Roland Perry’s final paragraph:

” In August 2006, 52 years after his death, Australian-Assyrian leaders from Melbourne and Sydney gathered to commemorate Sir Stanley Savige’s role in saving 70,000 Armenian and Assyrian refugees in 1918. The Mayor of Morwell, Lisa Price, unveiled a bronze bust of the general.

No individual in the nation’s history served it better in peace and war than Stan Savige”.

The book captures the sessence of this remarkable man very well, but the title concentrates on a very minor part of his life, and I think he would not be happy with it.