Billy Sing

Who was Billy Sing?

William Edward 'Billy' Sing, DCM was a part Chinese Australian soldier who served in the Australian Imperial Force during World War I, best known as a sniper during the Gallipoli Campaign. He took at least 150 confirmed kills during that campaign, and may have had over 200 kills in total. One contemporary estimate put his tally at close to 300 kills. Towards the end of the war, Sing married a Scottish woman, but the relationship did not last long. Following work in sheep farming and gold mining, he died in relative poverty and obscurity in Brisbane during World War II.

A biography by John Hamilton, Gallipoli Sniper: The life of Billy Sing, was published in 2008. A television mini-series based on this book, The Legend of Billy Sing, is in post-production as of 2010. The production has attracted controversy due to the director's decision to cast actors of European ancestry in the roles of Sing and his father, as Sing's father was ethnically Chinese.