Richard Fidler

They were extremely laudatory.

He couldn't go anywhere in Victoria without being mobbed by former soldiers.

There were ex-servicemen who were paying the fees of his children in Geelong Grammar.

He was still deeply, deeply respected and well honoured across all of Victoria.

And he tried to become a chaplain again in World War II.

He wanted to be a chaplain to British internees in Nazi Germany.

It tells me that the flame is still alive.

He's still got this passion, this ambition to do things.

And now that his kids are grown up, he thinks, I can do these things.

Yes, people did want to forget the war.

But again, he was widely celebrated and especially after his death, the tributes pour in.

But after a while, men like Dexter were easily forgotten.

Other great chaplains like the Salvationist William Mackenzie, who was a genuine celebrity in Australia for 20 years after the war.

now virtually forgotten.

And I put it down to probably that the Anzac legend has trouble fitting a devout clergyman into its narrative.

And yet there they were.

They were extremely popular with the troops, but not very popular with us who want to remember Anzac.

Absolutely.

They started reading the papers that he'd left behind, his letters, his diaries.

They realised that they'd actually lived with an extraordinary man and not known it.