The name Len Hall (1897 – 1999) has been associated with Fremantle’s annual Anzac tribute game since 1996, with Hall known to many as Western Australia’s last surviving Gallipoli veteran.
Saturday night’s game against Carlton will mark the 25th edition of the annual clash, and the first since 2019 with the past two cancelled due to Covid.
Hall lived an incredible life while surviving through a tumultuous period in world history.
He is also one half of one of the greatest Australian love stories, one that started at the wharves of Fremantle.
Hall played a crucial role in three great battles during World War I.
He was a machine gunner at Gallipoli, he rode in the Light Horse Brigade of the Desert Mounted Corps in the capture of Beersheba, Palestine, in 1917 and rode with Colonel Thomas E Lawrence - known as Lawrence of Arabia - to liberate Damascus in 1918.
Even more incredible is the story of how he met his eventual wife, Eunice.
At 16, Hall was a part of a group that was bound for Egypt from Fremantle in 1915.
Hall spotted Eunice from a crowd of people there to farewell the soldiers - he plucked an emu plume from his hat and gave it to her.
On his return to Australia in 1918, it was Eunice who found Hall during the welcome home march.
"Excuse me, sir, would you like your plume back," she asked.
Two years later they were married. They had two children, Frank and Leonore, and the couple were together for 74 years until Eunice passed away in 1995.
In Lawrence of Arabia's book, the Arab Revolt (1927), he wrote glowingly of the Australian Light Horse regiments, which included Hall.
“With no better horsemen available, I deployed these fearless Australians to the north and west of Damascus to lead the charge into the city ahead of the slower British, confident the Australians would force a surrender,” Lawrence wrote.
Despite living through the brutality of war, Hall passed an olive branch to his former foes when in Gallipoli for the 75th anniversary in 1990.
“I had nothing against the Turks. They are good people. I respect them,” Hall said.
“They were just defending their home ground. In fact, I would fight for them next time rather than fight against them.”
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