ANZAC LANDING

Southland Times, Issue 22207, 27 December 1933, Page 4

ANZAC LANDING

THE FIRST MAN ASHORE. RECORDS IN AUSTRALIA. Sydney, December 14. The first man ashore at the Anzac landing is named in the supplementary preface to the Official History of Australia in the Wai, which has just been issued. On the latest evidence it was Lieutenant Chapman, of the 9th Battalion, who was later killed at Poizieres. According to a letter received by Dr. C. E. W. Bean, the official historian, from Mr F. Kemp, formerly scoutsergeant, who enlisted in the 9th Battalion under the name of Coe, and was, at the time of writing, a farmer in outback Queensland, the boat he was in at the landing reached the' shore before the firing started. The letter goes on: “We touched shore and Lieutenant Chapman was the first ashore. I followed him and we all got ashore. Wilson, of the scouts, was taking my pack off when the firing started. A shot rang out; then a pause, and then seven more shots. . . .”

“There is ample evidence,” comments Dr. Bean in his preface, “that at the time when the first shot was fired, most of the boats were at least some yards from the beach, and no case has been heard of in which a boatload had already reached the shore and the men begun to throw off their packs. Until such evidence is received it may be justifiably assumed that Lieutenant Chapman was the first Australian to land at Anzac. He was killed 15 months after at Poizieres.”

Dr. Bean supplemented his preface by saying that the mention of the first shots was the most significant part the new information. The “single shot was generally accepted as the hi st shot to lave been fired. It was usually conceded also that the 9th Battalion were the first to reach the shore. “mu e 6 Official History it is stated: Ihe first bullets were striking sparks out of the shingle as the first boatloads reached the shore. Three of the boats near the point had become so locked that only those on the outside could use tneir oars. One of those, containing men of the 9th Battalion and Captain Graham Butler, their medical officer and a boat of the 10th Battalion, with Lieutenant Talbot Smith and the scouts ot the battalion, were among the first at the point.

Much of the difficulty in determining ■S Wa ? fi J st man t 0 land a t Anzac is due to the fact that the landing was made before the dawn. The evidence relating to Lieutenant Chapman will be ? ded ?n the main text in the third edition of the volume to be issued, probably next year. In the meantime the historian will be grateful for any other evidence that might be available.