Weary

Australians proclaimed Sir Edward 'Weary' Dunlop a national hero, much honoured and greatly loved, when he died in July 1993.A brilliant student and sportsman, qualifying as a pharmacist and surgeon and representing Australia at rugby, Weary turned his back on a surgical career and volunteered immediately when war broke out in 1939. He joined the 2nd AIF and served in Palestine, Greece, Crete, Tobruk and Egypt before sailing to Java with his medical unit in 1942.Captured by the Japanese, he spent more than three years as a prisoner-of-war in Java and on the notorious Burma-Thailand 'Death Railway'. His care for men under his command and his defiance of his captors in the face of brutality, starvation and death made him a legend in his lifetime.Sue Ebury's meticulously researched biography, written with Sir Edward's total co-operation, gives a rare view of a reticent man who lived by old-fashioned values, yet retained a wild streak which gave fire to his character and lifted him above his fellows.