Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Kia ora coo-ee : the magazine for the ANZACS in the Middle East, 1918

Our Contributors. — " Twenty-Two"

Our Contributors.
" Twenty-Two"

George F. Sanders, parents Australian, was born in England, but he was in Aussie before his eyes were properly opened. When his mother died, his father returned to England, where "Twenty-Two" went to school and did very little but play football and swim; but growing to man's estate, he returned to the Southern land, where he has aunts, uncles, and cousins by the score.

Tiring of the provincial life around Mt. Gambier, South Aus., G.F.S. decided to wander around, and wandering he has been for the last ten or a dozen years. Was up in the Mallee one season; then on to Gippsland, where he indulged in the gentle art of sleeper chopping. Could chop anything, and to prove it, he chopped his foot open. Spell in the hospital at Sale, where he passed his time writing jingles for all the nurses. Leaving with his foot very tender, and deciding that chopping was not in his line, he migrated to New South Wales, where he had a variety of jobs—rabbitting, horse driving, and spelling. Took on the shearing; and, to have a look around, went to his first shed by road. From Wagga N.S-W., to Blackall, in Queensland was the jaunt, and about Bourke the traveller was caught in the rain, and left his bike hanging in a tree. He did the other couple of hundred miles per boot. From Blackall the tracks looked good, and he went off on a wandering, useless kind of trip. So long as there was something to eat and somewhere to lay down at night, he was satisfied.

"Twenty-Two" spent five years in Queensland at different occupations. He had a fencing plant on the Flinders, was looking after a selection on the Downs, went droving, shearing, wool-pressing; and all the time was accompanied by a camera and a quantity of paper and pencils. He did spasmodic scribbling for a number of periodicals in Australia, always under the protection of pen-names. He finished his Queensland days running some taxis in Rockhampton. A longing to do something else caused him to lose a lot of weight stoking fires on the "Zealandia", carrying wheat on the Sydney wharf, and other kindred jobs entailing plentitude of muscle. All the time he did not lose his interest in the printed words of writers of the past and present. He generally fell in for "School of Arts" jobs in the different sheds where he toiled.

On the outbreak of war, G.F.S. was removing the coats of the useful jumbucks in the Northern district of South Australia. Coming to Adelaide, he was informed that he had no experience. So he returned, cut out another shed near Port Augusta, then again applied at Keswick Barracks; but there was nothing doing. Going to Victoria, he had more luck, as he joined up and went out to Broadmeadows early in October. One of the original motor drivers of the 3rd. L.H.Bde., he came to Egypt early in '15; sweated and sorrowed at Mena and Heliopolis, and went to the Penin. in May. Was off for a month, owing to sickness; returned, and came off at the evacuation. Then another spell of the Desert. He came in to the ProvostCorps at the end of '16.

G.F.S. has had pretty well all the N.C.O. ranks going in the Army nowadays. He was at the recently finished Cadet Course, Zeitoun, and passed with a "D". Result is, he now carries a star. Most men know him by sight, if not personally, and all who don't, at least are well acquainted with the prose and verse of "Twenty Two".