The Four Words That Embody The Spirt Of The Anzac

Courage, Endurance, Sacrifice and Mateship are the four words that embody the spirt of the Anzac. A person who deserves to be regarded as “legendary” and shows all 4 of these words is William “Billy” Sing. Born, 1886 in a small town of Clermont he grew up to be a legendary sniper. He showed courage while signing up for WW1, Sacrifice in his family life, and Mateship in his snippers and endurance during every day. Through Billy started his training in the local “Proserpine Rifle Club”. He enrolled into the war October of 1914.In addition was accepted into the 5th light horse.
Courage is a characteristic that Billy Sing displayed. Courage is the ability to do something that frightens one, Billy showed courage as he signed up for war knowing that he could possibly die. He also was brave enough to stay in the war and survive and fight till the end. Billy eventually received the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his bravery. During the War Billy would have had to make lots of
Sacrifices he, and every other soldier of war, made included his family life, friends, education and physical and mental health. Billy was shot several times, in the shoulder by Abdul (the Turkish sniper), and at least once more in the leg leaving him with an on-going injury. Sacrifice is a trait of war that cannot be avoided by any soldier, however another characteristic they couldn’t do without was mateship.

Mateship was an important value to have in war. Billy would have had to have a close relationship with his 2 spotters, Tom Sheehan and Ion Idriess - a sniper needed to work closely with his spotters to achieve the objective set. Ion Idriess was so close with Billy that later in life he write a book about Billy and Abdul’s sniper duel. His nickname was “The Murderer, yet he was a man with a sense of humour, a man who’d dig people in the ribs to share a laugh”. Mateship was a quality required to endure the terrible conditions of