The Courageous Life of Weary Dunlop

Surgeon, prisoner-of-war, life-saving leader and legend of the Thai-Burma Railway 

By Peter Fitzsimons

Published by Hachette Australia

RRP $49.99 in hardback

ISBN 9780733650284 

Peter FitzSimons is following in the footsteps of Sue Ebury, a noted biographer of ‘Weary’ Dunlop, whom he warmly acknowledges and credits with chronicling part of Weary’s story that would otherwise have died with him.

Author and subject have one thing in common: rugby union. Both men played representative football with the Wallabies.

What better way to begin the book than with a description of a 1934 game against the All Blacks at the SCG in which Dunlop excelled, notwithstanding that he was a Victorian.

FitzSimons attacks his storytelling with his trademark energy and vigour.

From the very beginning of the story, we get a strong sense of Weary Dunlop as a striking figure of a man, tall and built for rugby, who embraced the opportunity to put his newly acquired skills as a surgeon to good use in the service of his country, initially as a captain in the Australian Army Medical Corps (AAMC).

He was sent to the Middle East, serving in Palestine, Greece, Crete, Egypt and Tobruk.

By 1942, he along with over 3000 others sailed to Java to fight the Japanese, inevitably becoming a prisoner of the invading army.

At the No. 1 Allied General Hospital in Bandoeng, Weary put his body in front of Japanese bayonets to save his bedridden patients.

Throughout the long years of internment, Weary Dunlop was more than a beacon of hope for the other POWs.

He was practical, determined, unwavering and brave in the face of terrible oppression.

He died in 1993, aged 85.

His name became synonymous with courage, compassion and resilience.

With this new biography, a new generation can come to appreciate the stature of the man and what courage looks like.

VERDICT: FitzSimon’s book provides readers with a timely reminder of a man whose leadership and courage is an inspiration to us all.