The Oxford University Society of South Australia
President: Rita Coleman
Secretary: G.R. Sandford
Oxford University Society (SA Branch)
Second Public Lecture 2015
“Watson’s Pier – the evacuation of Gallipoli”
A lecture by the author, Josh Funder.
(Full details given on page 2 below)
Naval, Military & Air Force Club, 111 Hutt St, Adelaide
Please take the garden path and enter via the “Imperial Room door”
(The northern door on the eastern face of the building)
Thursday 8th October 2015
5:30pm – 8:00pm
(6:45 to 8:00pm, book signing, serving of drinks and food)
Limited numbers
RSVP: acceptances with payment should be returned before Friday, 2nd October 2015
Bookings can only be made through the Oxford Society of South Australia;
payments on the day cannot be accepted
Telephone:
8369 0991 (Home)
E-mail:
Geoffrey.Sandford10@gmail.com
Mail:
Secretary, OXFORD UNIVERSITY SOCIETY
*
**
0427 795 511 (Mobile)
11 Bray Avenue, Klemzig, SA 5087
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Secretary Contact:
geoffrey.sandford10@gmail.com
Mobile: 0427 795 511
WATSON’S PIER – THE EVACUATION OF GALLIPOLI
The novel is based on Stanley Watson’s story of the evacuation of Gallipoli. Joshua Funder is Stanley
Watson’s great grandson and lives in Melbourne with his wife and two children. Both are Rhodes Scholars.
The book is fiction which also sets out to correct the historical record.
Below is the background material, and endorsement.
Watson’s Pier
The story of the campaign that almost destroyed the Anzacs and the escape that saved a nation.
Stan Watson was among the first ashore at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, and survived battle, fear and disease
to build the pier at Anzac Cove from which so many men later escaped. He faced what seemed like an
impossible mission: to get every man out alive. Watson never claimed to be the last man to leave Gallipoli,
but through to the very end he played his part and became a hero.
Sixty-two years to the day after he stepped away from that fatal shore, Watson takes a slow train to visit
his family for Christmas and decides to finally share (tell) his life story.
A beautifully told mixture of fact and fiction, Watson’s Pier traces not just one man’s journey, but the
history of a nation. It also challenges the historical record of what happened in the final moments at Anzac
Cove. In doing so, it offers a new perspective on the meaning of Gallipoli.
Reader’s endorsements
‘How to renew our understanding of Gallipoli? How to enrich and renew the telling? Well, just do what
Joshua Funder has done: call on the inherited history of that terrible campaign as it found its graphic
resonance in one significant man, and create an intimate re-experience of the last, cold days on that
peninsula in Turkey, and use a range of genres as tools to a remarkable re-creation. It is specifically by
such creative means the real Gallipoli now emerges, and the extraordinary withdrawal Stanley Watson
engineered and participated in, the chief success of that entire calamity we find it impossible to forget.’
Tom Keneally
Post script:
There are two further Adelaide connections with Stanley Watson.
His nephew and godson, himself a former Red Beret, will probably be in attendance.
The secretary’s friend had an uncle who served in the Signals Corps under Watson. He left a daily diary
and detailed notes of the signals network at Gallipoli. These will be available for viewing at the event.
Secretary Reply: Geoff Sandford:
Geoffrey.sandford10@gmail.comMobile: 0427 795 511