Finding “Fighting Mac“

My journey into the life of an Anzac legend

More than 10 years ago, I began looking for what I thought would be some of the untold stories about Christianity and the Anzacs. Having read the Anzacs were indifferent to religion, I was unable to find much more on that subject, for the Anzac legend itself was strictly secular. Yet a certain proportion of Australian men at the time were actively religious, so I expected religiously active men naturally formed an important minority in the Anzac story. I set out to find what I could, starting with the most obvious sources for religious accounts of the war: the diaries and letters of the Anzac chaplains.

Among the primary sources held in the Australian War Memorial Research Centre, I soon found a fat file of personal papers from William McKenzie. Soon I was trying to decipher his bold, urgent and untidy pen strokes across the pages of his diary and letters, and the fascinating story of this energetic, committed, resourceful and charismatic man emerged. His own writings were bursting with vitality and humour. I thought I would find some stories: I just didn’t expect them to be as huge as this.

On the suggestion of the pioneer historian in Anzac religious history, Michael McKernan, McKenzie’s youngest granddaughter Ann Zubrick had donated to the war memorial McKenzie’s Gallipoli diary and his letters to wife Annie and some of the letters to his children penned during his three-and-a-half years away in Egypt, Gallipoli and France. Unfortunately, McKenzie had been unable to keep Annie’s letters secure during the war years, so we have only his letters to tell the story, attempting to guess some of the stories going on at home from McKenzie’s replies.

Having finally read through the massive file of McKenzie papers, I then moved on to other sources. I found a few biographies of McKenzie, some useful, others from authors capable of believing and then exaggerating every tall tale told about him—and there were a few. I corresponded with a researcher in the army who had an interest in McKenzie —he wrote a chapter on “Fighting Mac” in his myth-busting book on Anzac. I took up investigating the myths and legends about “Mac” myself, trying to sort out what was true and what were the soldierly equivalents of fishermen’s tales. I eventually found that a good many stories were grossly exaggerated, if not downright invented, but I also found some of the myth-busting was also inaccurate, and that I could substantiate some of the remarkable deeds credited to McKenzie.

McKernan’s history of religion in Australia during the war and his book on Anzac chaplains were the next ports of call. Then there were trips to the Salvation Army heritage centres in Melbourne and Sydney. The Melbourne centre director, Lindsay Cox, proved to be wonderfully helpful, and his dry wit made the process of discovery even more fun. The main resource was the Salvation Army newspaper, War Cry, with an increasing number of articles on McKenzie, as well as excerpts from many of his wartime letters to Salvation Army boss James Hay, and even a good collection of articles penned by McKenzie.

From there, I searched further afield, eventually tracking down two granddaughters who were able to help fill in the personal family side of the story that naturally was lacking in articles and features about McKenzie. Zubrick was particularly helpful. An academic and researcher herself, she critiqued the emerging manuscript, challenging me to contextualise and fill out some bald spots in the narrative.

That amazing online resource, Trove, with its complete digitised collection of almost every imaginable Australian newspaper from the past, yielded news stories about the now-famous McKenzie once he returned from the war, helping me gauge his post-war social impact and reputation.

As the process evolved, I was asked by It Is Written Oceania, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific’s principal evangelistic television program, to write some Anzac-themed scripts and travel with the film crew to make some episodes. Eventually, nine scripts were done, and we filmed on location in Egypt and Gallipoli, and later France and Belgium. One of my favourite episodes was on “Fighting Mac,” and it was great to film where he had been, and to recount some of the awesome stories from his life while standing in the shadow of the pyramids where he had preached powerful sermons to the Anzacs, and to see the headstones in Gallipoli cemeteries of men he had buried with his own hands. We walked over the ground at Lone Pine, where he so bravely followed the Australian attack into the captured Turkish trenches and began helping the wounded even as the fighting swirled around him.

What I found was greater than I expected. I was amazed to find a man whose spiritual influence was pervasive throughout the Australian Imperial Force during the war. I did not expect that a humble (and for all of Mac’s larger-than-life personality and showmanship, he was genuinely humble) Salvation Army man would remain a crowd-drawing celebrity right across Australia for the next 20 years. Everywhere he went he received a hero’s welcome and drew crowds compared at the time to those following a Royal visit. This man was one of the great personalities of Australia between 1915 and 1939. His life and work impacted our nation in a way of which few others could boast. Once a household name; now virtually forgotten—something needs to change.

Having spent years compiling the raw material, I then needed extended time to sift through it all, shape it into a narrative and commit it to paper. The bulk of the writing was done in less than six months, during which time I also managed to crank out a dozen articles and film documentary scripts. Then it was a case of seeing it through the publication process, as editor Nathan Brown of Signs Publishing worked with me to improve the text.

I have published a few articles and books over the years. Usually by the time I hold the printed copy, most of the anticipation has gone, as I’ve seen so much of it from first tentative drafts through to endless proof copies. But this one was different, still exciting even weeks after I received my first hard copy. Maybe because I have enjoyed the journey on which McKenzie has taken me. Maybe because his spiritual vitality still resonates with me. There is something special about this man and his story.

I can recognise when I started on the journey to find “Fighting Mac.” However, I doubt I will be able to identify when that journey will end. Even now, after all the years of tracking every lead I could find, new people are coming forward with their McKenzie stories. Most repeat what is already known. But just occasionally, I wish I had heard this little detail or that special anecdote when I was still writing the book. So far, no new information has been a game changer, but the researcher in me still wants to be as complete as possible.