Chinese-Australian sniper Billy Sing shot dead 200 during Gallipoli campaign
Billy Sing made his mark at Gallipoli during the first world war, despite officially being barred from joining Australia's armed forces
Billy Sing earned the nicknames "The Murderer" and "The Assassin" as a deadly Australian sniper who shot more than 200 Ottoman troops during the Gallipoli campaign in the first world war.
He was also part-Chinese and among thousands from non-European backgrounds, some of whom hid their identity, who joined the Australian Imperial Force to fight for their country despite being legally barred from signing up.
"He was a real Australian, an Australian at heart even though he had Chinese heritage," his great-nephew Don Smith, 62, said from the small town of Clermont in Queensland state where Sing was born in 1886, 1,600km north of Sydney.
"He put his life on the line for the rest of us so that we can have the life we have today, [like] all the guys that went to war."
Under Australia's 1909 Defence Act, "those who are not substantially of European origin or descent" were blocked from active service.
But some from minority backgrounds including indigenous Australians still stepped forward, trying multiple times despite being rejected.