Anzac girl: the war diaries of Alice Ross-King by Kate Simpson and Jess Racklyeft
Allen and Unwin, 2020. ISBN: 9781760637019. 32pp.
(Age: All) Highly recommended. Interspersed with telling and
informative illustrations the diary entries of Alice Ross-King give
a gruelling account of what she saw and suffered during World War
One in France. Leaving from Melbourne in 1914, the young patriotic
Alice was first stationed in a hospital in Cairo where she attended
the many wounded and dying from Gallipoli. She was shocked, as were
all the staff at the numbers and severity of their wounds. She was
transferred along with the hospital to France early in 1916. Here
many thousands of Australian troops were wounded at the Battle of
Fromelles, her fiancee Harry one of the dead. She found it hard to
carry on with this overwhelming news, but did so, eventually being
transferred to a clearing station near the front. Here she spent a
frightful night sheltering in a bomb crater after checking that her
patients were all okay.
At Rouen many were convinced that the Germans were breaking through,
and Alice's diary reflects her sombre thoughts and saddened state.
But suddenly Armistice was signed: everyone was able to go home over
the next few months.
This involving story, revealing the depths of despair and jubilation
that Alice felt as she plied her trade amongst the worst
battlefields of Europe will be easily read by the youngest of
readers as well as bringing understanding about war and its
brutality to older readers. The pages bristle with history, from the
postcards and drawings of the men and the battles they fought, to
the photographs and maps, letters and newspaper accounts. Between
these illustrations are excerpts form Alice's dairies, bold, clear
and unflinching. They allow us to view her life, one lived in the
most straightened of circumstances beyond our experience but her
words give us a glimpse of the world at the time and the sacrifices
people made, many without question.
The almost naive illustrations by Rackyleft are amazing:
unsentimental, unambiguous and revelatory. They enhance the text as
it shuffles between the author's writing and the diaries of her
great grandmother, the use of sombre colours making a clear
statement about the situation Alice and her peers are in. Themes:
Australian history, World War One, Nursing, Fromelles.
Fran Knight
