William McKenzie was a Salvation Army officer who ministered in some of Australia’s toughest mining and industrial towns around the beginning of the 20th century. With the outbreak of World War I, he was quick to volunteer to serve his country. Despite his evangelistic zeal and preaching against the vices enjoyed by many of the soldiers, he soon became well-known and loved by the men of the AIF, during their training camps in Egypt, on Gallipoli and then on the battlefields of France, as well as by many of the soldiers’ families back in Australia. On his return to Australia and for years after the war, McKenzie was mobbed by admirers wherever he went.
The Man the Anzacs Revered is both a work of careful historical research and a good story, written with respect for its subject and an understanding of the faith that drove him.