The true story of two Tasmanian soldiers caught up in the horrors of World War I

Using long-lost letters sent home from Australian soldiers at Gallipoli and on the Western Front, author Hugh Jones has pieced together a tale of remarkable friendship between two men separated by half a world during the First World War. 

The book tells the story of young Tasmanian teacher Ivor Margetts, a popular and talented footballer good enough to represent Tasmania at the 1914 Australian National Football Carnival in Sydney, and his military mentor and landlord Major Charles Simmons.

As a lieutenant with the 12th Battalion, Margetts was one of the first Australians ashore at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. Too old to enlist, militia stalwart Simmons was hastily appointed to run the dilapidated Hobart gaol, with fateful consequences.

Margetts became one of Tasmania’s best-known and loved soldiers. Simmons was lost to history.