Publisher's synopsis
The little-known story of Reg Saunders, the first Indigenous Australian to become an officer in the Army, retold in action-packed graphic format. Reg Saunders MBE (1920–90) not only survived the World War II battlefields in the Middle East, North Africa, Greece, Crete and New Guinea, but excelled as a military leader. He was recommended for officer training and, in 1944, returned to New Guinea as a platoon commander – the first Aboriginal Australian to serve as a commissioned officer. What happened during the war to transform a determined young man from country Victoria into a war hero – one who would go on to serve with distinction in the Korean War, and become a pioneering figure for Indigenous rights?
Awards
- Winner, 2015 Educational Publishing Award in the Secondary Student Resource – Junior category.
Hugh Dolan is a storyteller with a keen interest in Australian history. He is the author of a number of books on major Australian events, and now prefers to use the medium of graphic novels — or factual comics. Two of his latest titles — Gallipoli: The landing and Reg Saunders: An Indigenous war hero — won the educational publishing award for junior secondary student resource. Hugh prefers the medium of the graphic novel because he feels he can catch more readers this way.
Hugh is the first to admit that at school he had difficulties reading, and was in the bottom set for maths, science and every class at school. It was through comic books like Asterix The Gaul and Tin Tin that Hugh first ventured into a library. Hugh served in the Royal Australian Air Force after graduating from a degree in history at Oxford University. He is now retired and writes part-time.
Photo courtesy of UNSW Press
Adrian Threlfall is a lecturer in history at Victoria University, Melbourne, and a member of the education team at the Shrine of Remembrance, Victoria. A former infantryman in the Australian Army Reserve, he is the author of Reg Saunders: An Indigenous War Hero (2015) and Jungle Warriors (2014), which explores Australia’s role in jungle warfare in World War II.
