Brothers fought despite discrimination
Perth man George Gipp was leaving a trench at Gallipoli when shrapnel thudded into his head, opening a wound right down to his fractured skull.
It was May 21, 1915, and for the 22-year-old private from the 16th Battalion, the war was over.
He was taken to a military hospital in Egypt, transferred to England and then sent home with headaches and weakness in his legs.
By the time he reached Fremantle in October 1916, his younger brother was fighting on the Western Front and his elder brother had been killed at Pozieres at the age of 25.
They were three of some 200 men of Chinese heritage who volunteered to fight for Australia despite the discrimination they experienced at home.
Their great-niece, Victoria Park woman Gloria Taylor, will march in tomorrow's Anzac Day parade in memory of all Chinese-Australians who joined the Great War.
As the histories tell us, the First Australian Imperial Force was full of bronzed country boys and homesick Brits, but a closer look reveals an array of ethnicities.
Despite the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 and the Commonwealth Defence Act of 1909 - two pieces of legislation that protected Australia's "European heritage" - there was diversity among the diggers.
Chinese, Russians, Greeks, Romanians, Fins, Brazilians, Filipinos, Indians and about 1000 indigenous Australians ... the list goes on.
They were eager to fight for their country and many of them did so with distinction. Chinese Australians, for example, earned a disproportionately high number of gallantry medals.
Queenslander William "Billy" Sing, the son of a Chinese market gardener, was feared by the Turks at Gallipoli because of his uncanny accuracy with a sniper rifle.
He was awarded the British Distinguished Conduct Medal for his exploits, which were reported in the US and British newspapers of the day.
Ms Taylor, 75, said her great-uncles were humble cabinet makers whose father had migrated to Australia during the Gold Rush.
When her great-grandmother married their father in Victoria, she was cast out of the family, eventually settling in Perth.
The boys were forced to stamp their work as "Chinese made", regardless of the fact they were Australian-born.
"This is why I want to march on Saturday," Ms Taylor said.
"I'm sure there were more than three Chinese boys who stood up and went to war and we've got to stand up as a country and recognise them.
"I'm going to have my two daughters and three of my grandsons with me and I'll be thinking of them."
An estimated 120 indigenous men from WA served in WWI, including 13 who somehow slipped through the discriminatory enlistment process to serve at Gallipoli.
In October 1917, as the war dragged on and recruits were harder to come by, the government decreed that "half-castes" could be enlisted provided one of their parents was of European origin.
For many indigenous Australians, the war gave them a sense of equality they did not enjoy as civilians.
Ted Farmer is the descendant of four brothers from Katanning – Lewis, Larry, Kenneth and Gus – who were commemorated at a sunset service held by the Returned and Services League at Kings Park earlier this week.
The eldest of the four, Corporal Augustus Farmer, was posthumously awarded the Military Medal for his actions at Merricourt on the Western Front, where he was killed in action aged 32.
Larry and Lewis fought at Gallipoli with the 28th Battalion and then went on to serve in France.
Larry was killed at Pozieres in August 1916. Lewis was wounded in the same battle but he survived.
Mr Farmer said Kenneth, the youngest of the four, was determined to fight alongside his brothers.
He returned home after the armistice had been signed with multiple gunshot wounds to his face.
"(Kenneth) said he was 18 on his enlistment, but according to family he was 14," Mr Farmer said.
"To be with his family and be with his brothers was important to him, to go together and look out for each other."
Anzac Day commemorated from Gallipoli to Kings Park
