The Anzac hero who saved not took life
Associate Professor Daniel Reynaud
Dean
Faculty of Arts and Theology
Avondale College of Higher Education
Captain William McKenzie.
Ask Australians to name the most famous Anzac of World War I and most will probably answer, “Simpson, the man with the donkey.” While Simpson is a household name, the soldiers who fought in the war would give a different answer: Captain William McKenzie.
McKenzie served as chaplain of the 4th Battalion. An enthusiastic Christian minister who stood for evangelism and against booze, brothels and bad language, he might seem an unlikely candidate for most famous Anzac of the Great War. But in 1920, McKenzie’s popularity reached its zenith—it would take him more than three hours to reach Sydney Town Hall from his office on Goulburn Street, just three blocks away. People mobbed him just to shake his hand.
A Scottish-born Salvation Army officer, McKenzie’s tireless energy on the soldiers’ behalf earned their respect, while his charismatic personality won their love. He was a born leader with a tremendous sense of humour, a childlike innocence, integrity and constant cheerfulness.
In Cairo, McKenzie not only preached against the brothels but also went to the red-light district at night and literally dragged men out, putting them on a tram back to camp. He expected a knife in the ribs from the brothel owners for ruining their business.
On Gallipoli, McKenzie won the undying respect of the Anzacs. Like other chaplains, he conducted burial services, often under shell fire. But he went further, finding chocolates for each man, or cutting steps into a steep part of a track at night.
At the Battle of Lone Pine, McKenzie should have been in the rear trenches, but he followed the charge, carrying just a spade. He needed it: over the next few weeks, he sorted the living from the dead and buried 450 men. For his actions, McKenzie received the Military Cross.
McKenzie led something like 2000 to 3000 men to Christ during the war. This is what one of his letters, written in Egypt, records: “I realise the nearness of His presence and something of the sweetness and power of His great salvation. I confess that I cried myself to sleep last night or in the early hours of the morning after long meditation over the sacrifices and death of the Christ of God. This I think helped me to read the scriptures and preach the truth better at this morning’s parade . . . when for half an hour some 2000 of us there sang of the Cross and its meaning and pondered over the story once again.”
When McKenzie returned to Australia in 1918, thousands came to see him in every town and city he visited. In Sydney, his feet never touched the ground from the train to the town hall. In following years, at Anzac Day parades, his hand bleed from the sheer number of handshakes he gave.
Some have said the Anzacs were not religious. Perhaps, but McKenzie noted on Gallipoli that many showed an interest in God. He said: “Men realise as never before that the most manly thing to do is to worship and glorify God.”
Wanted: agents of change
Thursday, May 3, 2012My visit to Tonea School in India
Chelsea Mitchell
Bachelor of Arts student
Avondale College of Higher Education
No roads lead to Tonea. The boarding school in the state of Jharkhand has 357 students and although well-established by Indian standards, there are still cracks. One of the cracks: lack of child sponsorship. Sponsorship funds the child’s education—not just the cost of tuition but of board, bedding, food, books and uniform, too. Credit: Chelsea Mitchell.
What you see first are children. To your left and to your right. Children in matching clothes, with matching hair styles, yet with very different stories. The second thing you see is their modest bows and pressed palms. One after another, in a 200-metre domino effect, they greet you in this way. The third thing you see is a banner. It reads, “We love you!” You can’t help but adore them, too. Welcome to Tonea School.
We’re in the state of Jharkhand in eastern India. We’ve driven five hours from the capital, Ranchi, and we’ve reached the end of the road. We’re lost, again—there are no roads into Tonea. The boarding school has 357 students and although well-established by Indian standards, there are still cracks.
The first: staffing. The school employs 11 teachers, only four of who are qualified to teach. Funding for the school is at a low level, so the school struggles to attract qualified teachers. One of the few ways to increase funding is through sponsorship. Not-for-profit Christian organisation Asian Aid, which partners with Tonea, is working to improve the quality of education.
The second: infrastructure. Asian Aid has installed two pumps to ensure the students have access to clean water. It has also built a girls’ dormitory and furnished it 40 bunk beds. But there were more boarding students than beds. Students had been sleeping four to a bed or on a blanket on the concrete outside until November 2011, when Avondale College of Higher Education’s student mission club COSMOS raised enough money to fund the building of a boys’ dormitory.
The third: sponsorship. Only 83 students at Tonea are sponsored.
You, too, can be an agent for change at Tonea.
The school needs more bunk beds. It needs a new dormitory to accommodate all the girls, rather than half of them. And it needs a new shower block for the girls, who currently wash under disjointed tarpaulins.
Asian Aid also needs more sponsors. Sponsoring a child through Asian Aid funds the child’s education—not just the cost of tuition but of board, bedding, food, books and uniform, too. And education is one of the most powerful tools of change in the world.
The students at Tonea are desperate for you to respond.
Chelsea travelled with four of her International Development and Poverty Studies classmates and lecturer Brad Watson to India and Nepal at the end of 2011.
www.asianaid.org.au
Tags: Asian Aid, Chelsea Mitchell, Commentary
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