Last week, against the background of Anzac Day, we introduced Hugh Jones’ about-to-be-released book Two Good Soldiers, One Great War’. Here’s a synopsis of Hugh’s book ahead of its launch in Hobart on May 15.
Setting the Record straight: an Anzac story
By Hugh Jones ©
Two Good Soldiers, One Great War tells the true story of two Tasmanian friends during World War I. One would die a hero on the Western Front while the other would be kept at home in a job he hated, sadly falling victim to over-zealous bureaucracy.
Ivor Margetts was a champion footballer, known throughout the state for his talent on the field as a giant but beanpole ruckman – he played senior football as a schoolboy. Charlie Simmons was a public servant, the son of a prominent religious leader in Hobart. Despite an age difference of some 20 years, the two men bonded over their love of walking, music and the military, serving together in the Derwent Regiment, the volunteer militia.
Originally from Launceston, Ivor moved to Hobart to play football for Lefroy Football Club and teach at The Hutchins School. He boarded with Charlie and his wife Amy – the son they never had. When war came, Ivor was among the first to enlist but Charlie was overage. Unexpectedly, he was appointed Superintendent of Hobart’s grisly and unloved gaol, a sad remnant of Tasmania’s convict past. Charlie’s war would be fought on home soil, but no less brutal.
Margetts was among the first to step ashore at Gallipoli on April 25th 1915 where his heroics that day became legendary among his battalion. Later he wrote poignantly about the brave actions of his men, as he did again after the bloody battle of Lone Pine four months later. When the troops were evacuated at the end of the year, Margetts was the only Australian officer who had spent the whole campaign on the peninsula, being neither wounded nor ill.
At the same time in Hobart, Charlie Simmons was plagued by a succession of prison escapes and the disinterest of the government in doing anything to improve conditions at the gaol. His pleas for help to various boards of enquiry were ignored. Transportation was more than 60 years in the past but Tasmanians still had no pity for those kept behind stone walls. After yet another escape at the end of 1916, he was sacked. Charlie, too, would suffer a premature death.
Pieced together from dozens of previously unknown letters the two men exchanged until Ivor was killed, and many more from other military figures at the front, this small story helps build the fabric of Tasmanian history.
It reveals more of Margetts, already well known in Tasmania as a war hero, and highlights the pitiable history of the Hobart gaol which, at the time, was still suffering the legacy of the state’s convict past.
Author Hugh Jones is a former journalist who started his career in Launceston, and this book is more journalism than history. Charlie Simmons was the father of Hugh’s grandmother and he grew up hearing stories about Charlie’s sad life and the aura of Ivor Margetts.
You can contact Hugh Jones [email protected]
Two Good Soldiers, One Great War will be launched at:
Hobart Convict Penitentiary, cnr Campbell & Brisbane Sts, Hobart
Wednesday 15 May 2024, 5.30pm
Part of the 2024 National Trust Australian Heritage Festival
RSVP by 13 May: email [email protected] or phone 6243 1003
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Good luck with the launch, Hugh
Congratulations, Hugh. This looks like a cracking read.