Anzac Diaries

Diary of Trooper Spencer Foster

28th May 1915

Dear Diary

I am very choked up about missing my family, but knowing I have one gives me hope and a warm feeling in this cold weather.
I was shot today, but only in the arm, so it was not fatal. Murphy and Duffy saved it from infecting so I gave them each a biscuit.
I have a lot of friends here, namely John. He is one of the strongest men here, he also got shot in the leg, but he kept on fighting the Turks.
The weather here is cold and rainy, I haven’t worn dry clothes in weeks! Wet clothes are so uncomfortable.
We went swimming today and the Turks shot at me, but the missed miserably. We saw dolphins today and that was pleasant. Some came close so we swam with them.
Never will I have an adventure such as this. Many of our men are as good a shot as the Turks, but they have the better position up on the cliffs. I never get sleep at night with all the gunshots from above.
I am very frightened by the Turks. Every time I hear a shot I think I have been…

By Spencer



Diary of Private Bauchop 1915

Thursday 29th May 1915

Dear Diary

Gunfire rolls overhead, as it always does in the trenches. The mud and grime splatters up above me and onto the blood-caked walls.
My feet are throbbing and swollen with trench foot. My best mate is dead and I have no friends to comfort me.
Life here is like ever-going murder and hatefulness. I feel like getting up and yelling at them to stop it!
A few days ago a Turk came yelling and screaming to the edge of the trenches. He fell. His neck cracked and he went still. A soldier looked over the edge and grinned. “We got him!” he yelled. Then a sound of metal on flesh, and his grin faded. His head flopped against the side of the trench.
They give me the shivers. I hope my fortune allows my life so I may write in you tomorrow.

By Pippi

Diary of Jones 1915

Dear Diary

This is the worst mistake of my life. I could only wish now that I could get out of this. The soggy clothes, all the mud in my boots and my stinky socks make me feel sick. I was not surprised when the second line of defence came down with trench foot.
I have already seen enough lives lost for my eyes. All my dreams are about just going home and living in my cottage on the farm with my wife and three children. Just raising the cattle and sheep with my two sons. It would be a dream for me, but when I wake up all I hear is crying and gunfire and moans for the dead.
I have always been cold around winter, the smell of dead bodies makes me sick, but the food is the worst. Most is off, and the biscuits are so hard jam does not make them any softer. Every biscuit I take I end up eating three flies with.
Every day I wake up with terror.

By Te Ari

Diary of Trooper Robinson 1915

Tuesday 9th

I am feeling ever so unwell.
We are in the same clothes all the time. Over fifty men are currently suffering from trench foot and I am not too far away from it either.
The smell is just dreadful, must be all the dead bodies lying around. All I ever hear is shooting, people dying and wounded men. And on top of that the food tastes horrible too.
The smell here is absolutely rotten, being all crammed together in a dirty trench with dead bodies and blood. It’s a ghastly sight, everywhere there is rotten feet and blood!
I miss my family so much. I wonder how my wife Kathy is doing with our three children. Belinda will have started school last week and little James will turn two next month. As for Danielle, Oh I hope she’s been behaving herself, considering she turned fourteen a few months ago.
Oh I would do anything to be back home.

By Kezia

Diary of Trooper B. Lovelock 1915

16th July 1915

The weather here is beginning to get stormy and it’s getting worse every day. Troops are dying by the second. The only good thing about this place is that we get a day off to bury the dead or have a swim. But burying the dead isn’t that great because the smell is horrendous, and going for a swim isn’t good either because there is more chance of getting shot!
My sleeping hours aren’t good. It is extremely uncomfortable and I’m always getting only one or two hours sleep every night. Every night I have terrible pain in my stomach, this is because I am usually so hungry.
I wish I could leave this terrible place, but I can’t because I have to help the other troops to not get hurt.
I am writing in this diary so I can keep busy and have less chance of getting shot.
My best friend passed away today. First he ran into one of the donkeys that was carrying a wounded soldier and tripped on a rock breaking both his legs. While he was on the ground calling for help a Turk soldier came up and shot five bullets in his face. At least I’ll beablt to bury him tomorrow but once again the smell will be terrible.
I hope I can see my family soon.

By Ben

The Diary of Soldier William Oakes 1915

28th May 1916

Dear Diary

I was up all night and day because of all the screaming. The ships came and the Turks got more shells and they’re starting to get higher. I think in the morning we will have to dig the trenches deeper.
My friend Roger Hewitt died yesterday of food poisoning, he died while sleeping. Tomorrow I am going to bury him. This afternoon I am going to carve a cross out of limestone for Roger. . I am really upset he passed away only being 16 and so lovely. I found the limestone yesterday, on the side of the trench.
If I don’t survive I want to be buried.
Today is my seventeenth birthday, but at the moment it could be my last day alive. I am on night duty with Harrison Upbright.
This diary is starting to get full. We’ve got a big load of Anzac biscuits but I don’t want to risk it like Roger. I wonder how long till we go back to the beach again. It has been about a month.
I can smell rotting bodies everywhere. Most people are injured and some are just ill. It is hard for me to walk because someone shot through the trench and hit my leg.

By Mhairi

Diary of Lieutenant Chalmers 1914
8th Battalion

Wednesday 28th May

I hate this place. All that training and yet here we are falling like dominoes! I’ve been looking forward to this and now I don’t know what I’ve been waiting for. We’ve been given orders to dig in, but we are losing more men than ever!
I’m covered in blood and not just mine. This place is hell. The sea is littered with floating bodies, among them I can see four of my bodies. I’ve got to get out of this place.

After hours of work it’s finally nightfall. The fighting has calmed down a bit. I headed over to my tent for a drink and some rations just to find four bullet holes in my tent and a dead soldier. As I carried out the body I thought this has to stop. It just has to. There was dead everywhere, we ran to our trenches, the firing had already started.
Right now I am sitting in my tent with a bandage around my leg catching up on some diary. I know I’ll get sent back when they find me here but at least I can have some time to grieve.


By Oscar