Hell Without Harbour Views

“ANZAC day was a moving, but also very enjoyable day here. It was a privilege to celebrate it while on operations, but also to do it in this place. I think I’ve mentioned previously how stunning the geography is here in Tarin Kowt. We held the Dawn Service on high ground, with huge mountains as the backdrop. Dawn broke while an Irish bugler sounded the last post and reveille. Some of our engineers manufactured a massive iron cross for the occasion, inscribed with the names of the four Australian soldiers that died here last year. Tragically, 2 days later we added another name to that list.

Jason’s death has been an awful experience for a small group like ours. But it has also been unifying, as clichéd as that may sound. I have never felt so proud to be an Australian as I did on Sunday night, being a part of a group of blokes determined to keep getting the business done while honouring someone we’d lost. No one slept that night and no one complained. No one could do enough to help. And even while the melancholy was everywhere, you could still find the laconic humour of Australian soldiers I love so much. Only hours after Jason’s death, I was at the hospital with some of the other guys who were injured – one of whom had been shot in the backside. This was a bloke who had narrowly avoided death and had lost a close mate. Still, our conversation was dominated by the end of his alternate career as an nude model.”

I asked David whether I could reproduce this extract, and he reluctantly agreed. He wrote, “I definitely don’t want to be portrayed as anyone brave or important. I’m just a small cog in a big wheel over here.” 

So I won’t portray him that way. Instead, I simply wish to record that David joins a long list of members of the Bar who have served their country, and it is a privilege to know him.

Sometimes we can complain about the demands of a legal career, and  talented people write great accounts of the legal profession like Hell has Harbour Views. But few of us have the aptitude or the commitment to go as far out of our comfort zone as David McLure has done in recent months. Doing hard cases in front of unsympathetic judges and juries will come as a pleasant relief to David when he returns to the Bar. 

Peter Applegarth SC