The Advertiser of Monday, 31 March, 1997 had a front page article
on an “ANZAC Day School Pack” which has been devloped by the Federal
government and the Australian Army for use in schools on the eve of ANZAC
Day 1997. A key part of the pack is an “ABC” of key words designed
to “encourage young people to remember and appreciate the sacrifice
of veterans”. As a counter to the patriotic, uncritical and even absurd
government-sponsored list I have prepared my own list (which is NOT to be
recited in class but read and reflected upon in private).

The government’s list was modelled on the original 1916 ANZAC Book which I have online and on which I wrote an “illustrated essay” a short while ago. The soldiers who published that book drew up the original “ANZAC Alphabet” in two different versions, one by Henderson and one by “Ubique” (see below for the image of these lists). As I wrote in my illustrated essay on this <Art/WarArt/AnzacBook/index.html>:

An ANZAC Alphabet” by Henderson is one of the best loved illustrations in the ANZAC Book (pp. 115-18). It is a 4 page rhyming poem based upon the letters of the alphabet with rather crude illustrations of each letter of the alphabet along with a two line poem which illustrates various aspects of the soldiers’ life at Gallipoli. This was not the only ANZAC alphabet which appeared in the ANZAC Book. A second one “Another Attempt at an ANZAC Alphabet” (by “Ubique” [Latin for “everywhere”])  appeared a few pages later (pp. 146-47) but it was not illustrated and is less well known. It takes a roughly chronological approach to relating his experiences at Gallipoli and focuses more on the everyday hardships and fear faced by the soldiers.