Len Hall

In what is my first ever "blog" I have decided to start it in a positive note. I am sure that through my upcoming rants you will hear the anger and rage that keep me awake for 21 hours a day and get to know, only to well, what I think about anything and everything. It is important to me however, that the public see I am a positive person, a happy person, a person who could even be called content at certain times. This is why I am starting my ranting career on a positive note, about an Australian hero, Len Hall.

I only came to read about Len Hall, due to me wondering what the lyrics in a song by The Herd were. The song was The Metres Gained for those of you playing along at home. I choose to do some reading because the line "if he had to do it again, he'd fight for the Turks" aroused my interest.

Len Hall was a soldier from WA in WWI. He was heard playing the Bugle by an officer when he was 16 who asked him to enlist as the 10th Light Horse needed a bugler. he lied about his age and went off to Gallipoli. When Len arrived at Gallipoli, his bugle was replaced with a maching gun and he was one of only 33% to survive his landing day. He survived some of the most devestating battles of the war, and went on to ride with Lawrence of Arabia to liberate Damascus. As I thought, he was one of the brave, resilient ANZAC soldiers that we Australians are so proud to be associated with.

When Len returned to Fremantle after the war, he was handed a feather by a girl. The feather he had given to her four years earlier on the docks at Fremantle awaiting his departure. They were married 2 years later. Len then went on to work as a Postmaster after the war (this I found interesting as it is the same career path as my own Grandfather) Then when WWII broke out, he went back to the military, but as a radio operator this time (again, much the same as my Grandfather).

After Len retired he returned to Gallipoli, where he said in an interview for the ABC, "I had nothing against the Turks. They are good people. I respect them. They were just defending their home ground. In fact, I would fight for them next time rather than fight against them.” Len nursed Eunice in her last days and eventually died aged 101 in 1999.

I don't have a point, I am just ranting on, but if more people know about this, maybe more people will think about making their life more valuable and not just about looking after their own narcicistic needs.

Keep an ear to the ground and a fist in the sky.

<3 Ranting Man