2015 $1 Unlikely Heroes - Animals in War PNC - 2015 Issue 19

2015 $1 Unlikely Heroes 

ANIMALS IN WAR
A Century of Service

Mules and donkeys have provided indispensable service as pack animals during Australia’s wartime engagements. The most famous was that of Englishman Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick of the 3rd Australian Field Ambulance, Australian Army Medical Corps. After the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 and using one of the donkeys (known variously as Duffy, Abdul or Murphy) brought in for carrying water, Simpson bravely transported wounded men by day and night from the fighting in Monash Valley to the beach on Anzac Cove. On 19 May Simpson was killed by machine-gun fire while carrying two wounded men. The valiant little donkeys were remembered in a ceremony held at the Australian War Memorial on 19 May 1997, when, on behalf of Murphy and Simpson’s other donkeys, a mascot donkey named Simpson received the RSPCA Purple Cross for bravery and fortitude in the service of humans.

Stamp design: Lisa Christensen, Australia Post Design Studio
Cover design: Sonia Young, Australia Post Design Studio
Photographs: Syria, 1942, AWM 024164, and WWI, National Library of Scotland (stamp); An unidentified Australian signaller of the 54th Battalion leading a mule, Cartigny, France, 1918, AWM E03318 (cover); Private DW Jones of the donkey team supply column, Khiam, Lebanon, 1941, Damien Parer/AWM 008196 (card)

2015 Issue 19
This postal and numismatic cover is limited to 10,500