ONE HUNDRED years after WWI Digger Jack Wall Christie took part in the landing at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, his son Bruce, 84, will follow in his father's footsteps.
Mr Christie, 84, of Bundeena won two ballot tickets to attend the 100th anniversary Gallipoli dawn service and will make the trip with his son Christopher and daughter Jenny.
Bruce's father Jack enlisted at 24 as part of the 11th Australian Infantry Battalion, one of the first infantry units raised during World War I for the First Australian Imperial Force.
The battalion sailed to Egypt, where it undertook four months of intensive training. In April 1915 it landed at Anzac Cove for the Gallipoli campaign.
"It is with great pride that I will follow in my father's footsteps on the 25th of April and perhaps walk the same ground that he did 100 years ago," Mr Christie said.
"It will be an exciting and moving ceremony and having read Peter FitzSimons's book, Gallipoli, I now have a greater understanding of the terrible conditions, the impossible terrain, the often flawed leadership and horrors they had to endure.
"My father told the story that at one point, barely able to walk, he collapsed and fell asleep, not caring if he lived or died. On waking he was told that he had rolled over in his sleep and a bullet had hit where his head had previously been.
"The sentry told him that if he made it back to Australia alive he should buy a ticket in Tatts (Lottery), which he did some years later and won enough money to buy our family car, a 1930 Morris Cowley, which was his pride and joy for the next 25 years."
Jack Christie was eventually evacuated to the island of Lemnos. He came back to Australia, enlisted in WWII, and was stationed in Darwin.
After WWII he joined the merchant navy. He died at the age of 85.
Bruce Christie followed his father into the armed forces, as a signalman in the Royal Australian Navy.
He recalls marching in dawn services with his father and every year he and Christopher attend the dawn service at Bundeena RSL. This year they will make the journey to Gallipoli in honour of Jack.