The Boy Colonel: Lieutenant Colonel Douglas Marks, the Youngest Battalion Commander in the AIF

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In 1914 Douglas Marks went to war a lanky, teenaged bank clerk. He returned a hero: the youngest battalion commander in the AIF, a leader of cool courage and a future captain of industry. Landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula on the second day, he remained until the evacuation in December 1915. Marks was at Pozières, Mouquet Farm and Bullecourt on the Somme, and around Ypres in Flanders. Back on the Somme in early 1918, he fought at Villers-Bretonneux, Le Hamel and in the Battle of Amiens, where finally the ride turned in the Allies' favour. Wounded twice, and much Mentioned in Despatches, Marks was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, made commander of his battalion and decorated with a Military Cross, a Distinguished Service Order and the Serbian Order of the White Eagle. Tragically, he drowned while trying to rescue a swimmer, in January 1920 at Sydney's Palm Beach. Though no hell-raiser, Marks did break the rule against keeping diaries. Respected author and historian Will Davies skilfully shares Marks' own words, making the young officer our eyewitness to history. Davies guides us - in Marks' footsteps - through the conflict in which Australia matured as a nation, as Marks attained manhood. Book jacket.