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One of Australia’s deadliest weapons at Gallipoli, sniper Billy Sing, will finally be honoured with a memorial in Brisbane

• by: GRANTLEE KIEZA
• The Courier-Mail
• April 23, 2014

ONE HUNDRED years after Billy Sing left north Queensland to become the most feared triggerman of World War I the Australian Government will honour the fabled “Gallipoli Sniper” with a $50,000 monument in Brisbane.
Sing, one of the most fascinating characters of Australian military history, died of a ruptured aorta in 1943, alone and virtually penniless. He had been a broken man for years, haunted by the 300 enemy soldiers he killed with his steady hand, eagle eye and deadly accurate .303 rifle.
On the side of a building at 304 Montague St, West End, in Brisbane’s inner south, which was once a run down boarding house and Billy Sing’s last home, a plaque already commemorates Sing for the way he “skilfully carried out unenviable duties as a sniper and other hazardous activities with incredible distinction”.
“Let us be grateful that Billy Sing was one of ours,” it says.
Ray Fogg, the Brisbane branch president for Sing’s old Battalion, the 31st, is organising the 180cm high monument near Sing’s grave in Lutwyche Cemetery.

Billy Sing being given a hero's welcome to Proserpine. Supplied by Pan Macmillan. Credited to Don Smith/Proserpine Historical Society.
“The marker on Billy’s grave says that he shot 150 men but his commanding officer (Major Stephen Midgely) always said it was 300,’’ Fogg said. “They simply stopped counting at 150.

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Billy Sing talking to General Birdwood. Supplied by Pan Macmillan
“Billy said he never lost a minute’s sleep over his assignment but he would have had massive conscience problems. When he came back from the war there was no such thing as dealing with post traumatic stress.
“He was given a soldier settlement block near Clermont but it was poor country and he went off prospecting for a while. Eventually he drifted down to Brisbane and became a labourer. He sank into poverty and ill health and died a pauper.’’
Sing was born at Clermont in 1886. His mother was English and his father from Shanghai. He became a deadly marksman as a boy, shooting the curly tails off piglets from 25m and as a young man he became a never-miss kangaroo shooter.
He was the champion of the Proserpine Rifle Club and enlisted there in October 1914 just a few weeks after World War I broke out.

World War 1 sniper Billy Sing’s memorial plaque at West End.
Ray Poon, of the Chinese-Australian Historical Association, says Sing endured racial prejudice to serve his country.
“In 1914 the recruiting officers had the right to knock volunteers back if they weren’t ‘European’ enough,’’ Poon said.
“Many Chinese Australians were rejected at their first try. But Billy was taken into the army straight away because of the reputation he had as a great shot.’’
Fellow Queensland recruit Ion Idriess, later one of Australia’s leading writers, described Sing as: “a little chap, very dark, with a jet-black moustache and a goatee beard. A picturesque-looking mankiller. He is the crack sniper of the Anzacs.’’

Sniper Billy Sing Source: Supplied


Billy Sing with his wife, Elizabeth Stewart. Supplied by Pan Macmillan Source: Supplied
Sing was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for gallantry at Gallipoli and the Belgian Croix de Guerre for his bravery on the Western Front and his exploits made him infamous around the world. He survived being shot on three separate occasions but was left with lingering health problems after he was gassed in Belgium.

While recuperating in Edinburgh in 1917, he married a Scottish waitress and brought her home to Clermont in western Queensland after the Armistice. The marriage did not survive, and plagued by the horrors of war, Sing drifted from one failed endeavour to another.
He lay in an unmarked grave at Lutwyche Cemetery for 50 years until historian Brian Tate revealed his fascinating story in The Courier-Mail on the eve of Anzac Day 1993. A marker paying tribute to the Gallipoli Sniper was then placed on his grave and a book was later released detailing his extraordinary life.
Retired Clermont truck driver Don Smith, 61, is the grandson of Sing’s sister Beatrice.
“I’m glad that Billy is receiving the recognition he deserves,’’ Smith said. ``He died a forgotten man.
“But Clermont now has a statue honouring him and there is not only a marker on his grave in Brisbane but soon there will be a monument nearby paying tribute to the role Billy played in fighting for Australia.’’