Watson's Pier

Stan Watson never claimed to be the last man to leave Anzac Cove. On 20 December 1977, sixty-two years to the day since he last stepped from the Gallipoli shore, Watson takes a slow train to visit his family for Christmas and fragments of the long-forgotten truth come together in his mind. When his family gather to listen to his story of Gallipoli, Watson tells his tale with the same steadfast clarity of purpose that helped him get through the war all those years ago.Leading a volunteer Signals Company, newly wed and with a young family, Watson felt compelled to enlist as soon as war broke out in 1914. Setting sail towards an unknown enemy, Watson trained for battle in Egypt while his wife expected their child at home. He was among the first ashore at the fateful landings at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915, surviving the hazards of battle, fear and disease to build the pier from which so many men later escaped. Facing an impossible mission, Watson was one of a handful of Anzac officers who together decided to get every man out alive. Through to the very end he played his part and became a hero.Watson's Pier is beautifully told, a mix of fact, fiction and veterans' stories reaching back across generations to trace one man's personal journey, and with it the history of a nation. It also challenges the historical record of the final moments at Anzac Cove and offers a new perspective on the meaning of Gallipoli.