Some stories are so amazing that they deserve to spoken of time and again. So it is with Soldier Boy the celebrated true story of Jim Martin the youngest Anzac. Written by Anthony Hill and first published in 2001 it won the NSW Premier’s Award (Ethel Turner Prize) the year of publication and has since been lauded as one of Australia’s most celebrated biographies.

The premise of this real life story is a simple one. Jim Martin, eager for adventure told a great lie and went to war. Whatever his papers said, Jim was in fact only 14 years and nine months when he died on board a hospital ship – so far as we know the youngest Anzac, and almost certainly the youngest Australian soldier to die when he succumbed to typhoid during the Gallipoli campaign. He was one of 20 Australian soldiers under the age of 18 known to have died in the First World War.

In the late afternoon of 25 October 1915, a young Australian soldier – Private James Martin, aged only eighteen so his papers said – lay desperately ill with typhoid aboard a hospital ship, anchored of Anzac Cove, Gallipoli. He was wracked with fever and his thirst was terrible. ‘Water…’ Jim Martin pleaded through swollen lips. ‘Please… more water….’ But his voice was as weak as he was, and at first nobody heard him.

Soldier_Boy_smallSo begins Soldier Boy.

At the outbreak of The Great War, Martin (3 January 1901 – 25 October 1915) enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 12 April 1915, against the wishes of his family, his parents only agreeing when he made it clear that he would sign on under an assumed name and never write to them if they did not consent. He gave a false date of birth to the recruiting officer, claiming to be 18, when he was actually 14 years and three months. The fact that he was tall for his age and of mature appearance no doubt helped his ‘great lie’.

Jim’s story is one that retraces those fatal steps, from enlistment and his family’s tortured agreement, to the long trip abroad. In late August, he was sent to Gallipoli and en-route his ship was torpedoed by a German submarine. Eventually he was rescued having spent hours in the water. The historical accuracy of the work comes from the primary source material that the author Anthony Hill painstakingly gathered. Letters, diaries and an initial visit to Gallipoli all lend itself to a truly memorable work. This is, however, just as much the story of Jim’s mother, Amelia Martin. It is the heartbreaking tale of the mother who had to let him go, of his family who lost a son, a brother, an uncle, a friend.

Martin served in the trenches on Gallipoli and during this time he wrote to his family asking them not to worry about him and giving positive updates, unfortunately he never received any letters from home and was much upset by this. There was a breakdown in the mail system.

Following a period of cold temperatures and heavy rain Martin contracted typhoid and although he refused treatment for what were initially mild symptoms he was eventually evacuated to a hospital ship on 5 October 1915 after he developed diarrhea. He died of heart failure that night.