WW1 - Origin of the term ANZAC

ANZAC is the acronym formed from the initial letters of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

This was the formation which the Australian and New Zealand soldiers in Egypt were grouped prior to the landings at Gallipoli in 1915.

General Sir Ian Hamilton, (commander of the British forces in the Dardanelles) and General Sir William Birdwood, (commander of the Australian and New Zealand forces at Gallipoli), both claimed a hand in the coining of the term ‘ANZAC’. However the most likely explanation of its origin is contained in the official War history by CEW Bean, who wrote;

“One day early in 1915 Major Wagstaff of the operations section of Birdwood’s staff, walked into the General Staff office and mentioned to the clerks that a convenient word was wanted as a code name for the Corps. The clerks had noticed the big initials on the cases outside their room-A.&N.Z.A.C., and a rubber stamp for registering correspondence had also been cut with the same initials. When Wagstaff mentioned the need for a code word, one of the clerks, Lt A T White, suggested how about ‘ANZAC’?" Major Wagstaff proposed the word to the General who approved of it.

Australian sergeants GC Little and HV Milligan were responsible for cutting the original stamp and Bean suggested that the first time the word was used was when Sgt Little asked Sgt Milligan to throw him the ANZAC stamp. ANZAC cove would become the name of the area where the Australians and New Zealand soldiers fought and the name for the soldiers themselves.

‍

‍