[Anzac] Australians! … From a South African girl’s point of view.

[Durban : s.n., 1916-17]. Postcard, 90 x 135 mm; recto with lithographed patriotic poem titled Australians!, penned by a young Durban woman, mentioning HMAT Demosthenes, and with lines such as ‘the deathless name of “Anzac”, that thrills from Pole to Pole‘, ‘I’d rather a drunk Australian, than a wealthy Durban funk‘, and ‘We stand on the shore at Durban … And the glorious name of “Anzac” thrills us through and through!‘; verso with handwritten message addressed from an Australian soldier (either wounded and recuperating at Durban on his way home, or else en route to the Western Front or Egypt) to his sister back home: ‘…this is a card from a girl friend in South Africa, she composed this herself, she lives at Durban, and meets all parsports [sic] and gives fruit to the troops leaving the wharf. I get letters from Cape-Town, also the girls think there is no-one like the Aus[s]ie soldier. Frank, your ever loving brother.’; short tear at bottom edge, otherwise very good condition.

The complete poem was published in the Riverina Recorder (Balranald, Moulamein, NSW), 11 July 1917, with the following notice at the end: ‘Written by Miss Campbell, a Durban girl, who cannot do too much for our boys.’ This refers to Ethel Margaret Campbell, aka “The Durban Signaller”.

From the AusLit website:

‘Ethel Campbell was a South African author. As a young woman she had been a Durban socialite, however during World War I she devoted herself to the welfare of Australian and New Zealand soldiers who passed through Durban on troopships. She was awarded an MBE in 1919 in recognition of her war work. In 1923, accompanied by her parents, she visited Australia where she was feted at receptions organised across the country by the Returned Services League. Campbell’s younger brother was the South African-born poet Roy Campbell (1901-1957).’