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Hero image for Great War Stories 3 - Alexander Aitken

Great War Stories 3 - Alexander Aitken

Television (Full Length Episode) – 2016

Hilary Barry presents this episode from the third series of Great War Stories. The subject is Alexander Aitken, a veteran of World War l who would later become a world-renowned mathematician. Aitken wrote an acclaimed war memoir (Gallipoli to the Somme) which a student reads from at Aitken's old school, Otago Boys' High, on Anzac Day. The story of the violin he kept by his side at Gallipoli is told, and a musical arrangement of Aitken's is played. The short documentaries were made for the centenary of World War l, and screened during TV3’s nightly news. 

More than once I felt like throwing the violin away down the streambed, but members of the section took turns with me in carrying it up the slope.
– Alexander Aitken, in his 1964 memoir Gallipoli to the Somme: Recollections of a New Zealand Infantryman

Key Cast & Crew

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Peter Metcalf

Editor

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Hilary Barry

Presenter, Narrator

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Anna Cottrell

Director, Writer, Producer

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Kerryn Pollock

Research

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John Patrick

Sound Recordist

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David Filer

Research

See all 10 credits

Produced by

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AC Productions