He was also
part-Chinese and among thousands from non-European backgrounds, some of whom
hid their identity, who joined the Australian Imperial Force to fight for their
country despite being legally barred from signing up.
"He was a real Australian, an Australian at heart
even though he had Chinese heritage," his great-nephew Don Smith, 62, told
AFP from the small Queensland town of Clermont where Sing was born in 1886,
1,600 kilometres (1,000 miles) north of Sydney. "He put his life on the
line for the rest of us so that we can have the life we have today, (like) all
the guys that went to war."
Under Australia's 1909 Defence Act, "those who are not
substantially of European origin or descent" were blocked from active
service. But some from minority backgrounds including indigenous Australians
still stepped forward, trying multiple times despite being rejected.
Of the 416,809 Australians who enlisted in WWI, more than
1,000 were Aborigines while about 400 were estimated to be of Chinese descent.
The Australian War Memorial has identified about 50 indigenous people who
served in Gallipoli.
"You had to enlist without saying you were of
indigenous background at all otherwise you might be turned away, and some were
turned away," Robin Prior of Flinders University told AFP, adding that the
majority of Australians at that time were of Anglo-Celtic heritage. "It
seems extraordinary now, but that was the law."
In 1917, with recruits harder to find, military orders
were relaxed so only one parent needed to be of European origin. The Australian Imperial Force's Europe campaign began on
April 25, 1915 when its soldiers landed at Gallipoli -- a peninsula in what is
now Turkey -- together with troops from Britain, France and New Zealand. It
proved to be a disastrous eight-month battle. Of the 60,000 Anzac (Australian
and New Zealand Army Corps) soldiers who fought, 11,500 died.
Kangaroo
shooter
Such skills, as
well as his early enlistment, may have helped him avoid some of the resistance
faced by other non-European men, researchers believe. Sing arrived in Gallipoli
in May 1915 with the 5th Light Horse Regiment. His sometimes
"spotter" Ion Idriess wrote of his comrade in his memoir 'The Desert
Column': "He is a little chap, very dark, with a jet-black moustache and a
goatee beard. A picturesque-looking man-killer. He is a crack sniper of the
Anzacs."
Sing was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, an
honour second only to the Victoria Cross, in 1916. A military despatch said
Trooper 355 killed 201 Turkish troops including his Ottoman counterpart
"Abdul the Terrible".
But the illnesses and wounds Sing sustained took their
toll and he was in and out of hospital. Recovering from a gunshot wound in
England in 1917, he married 21-year-old Scottish waitress Elizabeth Stewart
before returning to the Western Front. For his service at the September 1917
battle of Polygon Wood, he was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre.
Sing was
discharged in Australia in November 1918, with a medical report saying he had
been gassed in Belgium. His wife was not believed to have returned to Australia
with him. The war veteran was given land under a "soldier settlement"
scheme but failed as a farmer and turned to gold prospecting. He eventually
moved to Brisbane and died alone in 1943, aged 57, in a boarding house almost
penniless.
While Sing was buried at Brisbane's Lutwyche War
Cemetery, Smith said it was only in the 1980s that he and three others pooled
money to erect a headstone on his grave.
Equals
on the field
But for indigenous soldiers, the comradeship they
experienced during the war reverted back to the same discrimination they faced
before leaving Australia. They were denied access to the settlement scheme --
with only one soldier known to have been given land, and received no official
recognition until 2007.
In recent years, more Aboriginal and other troops from
multicultural backgrounds have been acknowledged for their sacrifices. As
Australia marks a century since the start of the Gallipoli campaign, Prior said
it was important to remember their contributions. "I think we should be
quite amazed that they would be prepared to fight for a country that really
discriminated against them," she said.
William “Billy”
Sing was born in 1886 to an English mother and Chinese father. He and his two
sisters were brought up in Clermont and Proserpine, in rural Queensland. Life
on the land was tough, and from a young age Billy had to help his parents with
their market garden and milk deliveries. He was also a talented horse rider and
skilled at shooting.
When war broke
out in 1914, Billy rushed to sign up. As one of the first to enlist, Billy was
not subjected to the degree of later resistance against recruiting non-white
Australians into the AIF, and he was accepted into the 5th Light Horse
Regiment. He was sent to Egypt in December 1914 and onto Gallipoli in May 1915.
Every morning
in the darkness before dawn Billy would find a place to hide and watch over the
Turkish soldiers in their trenches. Waiting patiently with a “spotter”, usually
Tom Sheehan, or Ion Idriess, he would wait for an enemy soldier to come into
view. To avoid becoming a target of the Turkish snipers, the Australians would
stay in their position until nightfall.
The ANZAC war
diary for 23 October 1915 states: Our premier sniper, Trooper Sing, 2nd L.H.,
yesterday accounted for his 199th Turk. Every one of this record is vouched for
by an independent observer, frequently an officer who observes through a
telescope. Billy’s fame spread beyond the soldiers at Gallipoli, and his tally
was written about in the Australian, British and American press.
The Turkish Army was also aware of Billy’s reputation. In
an effort to eliminate him, they brought in their own crack shot, a man known
to the Australians as “Abdul the Terrible”. It is thought Abdul came
very close to fulfilling his mission. In August 1915, a single bullet, fired
from the Turkish side, passed through Sheehan’s telescope and through his
hands, mouth, and cheek before hitting Billy in the shoulder. In the end, it
was Billy who shot and killed Abdul.
The Turkish
army immediately retaliated, aiming its heavy artillery at Billy’s hiding
position and completely destroying it. Fortunately for the Australian sniper
and his spotter, they had already evacuated to their unit trenches.
For his
efforts on Gallipoli, Billy was Mentioned in Despatches by General Sir Ian
Hamilton, and awarded the British Distinguished Conduct Medal in 1916 for: Conspicuous
gallantry from May to September 1915 at Anzac as a sniper. His courage and
skill were most marked and he was responsible for a very large number of
casualties among the enemy, no risk being too great for him to take.
The Australian
soldiers were evacuated from Gallipoli in December 1915, and Billy was sent
first for training in England and then to fight in France as part of the 31st
Battalion. The type of warfare on the Western Front, was different to that on
Gallipoli. It is unlikely that, as a sniper, Billy spent much of his time on
the battlefield, nevertheless, his skills were put to good use.
In 1917, he
was recommended for, though not awarded the Military Medal for his actions
leading an anti-sniper fighting patrol at Polygon Wood, in Belgium. He was
again Mentioned in Dispatches for gallantry, this time by the Commander of I
ANZAC Corps, General Birdwood, and in 1918, awarded the Belgian Croix de
Guerre.
Billy’s health
suffered during his service, and he was frequently hospitalised to treat
ailments ranging from serious infections to influenza. He was wounded on a
number of occasions, and one gunshot wound to the leg caused him problems for years.
Billy returned
to Australia in July 1918 as a submarine guard on board the troopship SS Boonah. Shortly afterwards he
was permanently discharged as a result of being unfit for duty due to ongoing
chest problems. He returned to Proserpine, Queensland, to a hero’s welcome,
which included the presentation of a purse of sovereigns from well-wishers.
Whether or not
Elizabeth had accompanied Billy back to Australia, they were permanently
separated by the time he took up a Soldier Settlement farm a few years after
his return. This venture failed, as did an attempt to strike it lucky in the
Miclere gold fields near his property in Clermont.
In 1942 Billy moved to Brisbane to be near his surviving
sister, Beatrice. A year later Billy Sing died of heart failure at the age of
57. All that remained of this one-time famous sniper was a miner’s hut (worth
around £20), and 5 shillings found in his room in a boarding house. There was
no sign of his medals or awards from the war. Billy was buried at Lutwyche
Cemetery in Brisbane.
His headstone
highlights his skills as a sniper, and reads: His incredible accuracy
contributed greatly to the preservation of the lives of those with whom he
served during a war always remembered for countless acts of valour and tragic
carnage.
