'Dear Australian Boys:
I don't know which of you will read this letter: I don't care, for you are all alike, dear and precious to every Australian at home. Every Australian woman's heart this week is filling with pride, with exultation, and while her eyes fill with tears, she springs up, as I did, and says, "Thank God I am an Australian!" Boys, you have honoured our land: you, the novices, the untrained, the untaught in war's grim school, have done the deeds of veterans! Oh, how we honour you! How we glory in your matchless bravery, in your yet more wonderful fortitude, which the war correspondent says was evinced so marvellously as your boatloads of wounded cheered and waved amid the pain as you rowed back to your vessels. What gave you the courage for that heroic dash to the ridge, boys? British grit, Australian's nerve and determination to do or die; a bit of primeval man's love of a big fight against heavy odds. God's help, too, surely, Who accompanied you through a veritable valley of the shadow of death.
Dear boys, I'm sure you will feel a little rewarded for your deed of prowess if you know how the whole Commonwealth, nay, the whole Empire, is stirred by them, and every Sunday now we are singing [a prayer for the safety of the soldiers] after "God Save the King".
God have you, living or dying, in His keeping. If any one of you would like to send me a pencilled note or card, I'll answer it to time by return —
Your countrywoman,
Jeannie Jobson'

(Reproduced from Helen Cotton: The History of Ballarat High School, 1907 - 1947. Ballarat, 1947, p.29)

When this letter was printed in Malta, where the wounded were being treated, many soldiers responded. The letter was later printed in The Times in London, and in Australian newspapers. For the rest of the war, Miss Jobson and other staff members maintained a correspondence with hundreds of soldiers.

To think about:

1. What are the main emotions expressed by Miss Jobson in this letter?
2. Why do you think the letter attracted such a large response from the soldiers themselves?