But when he died in 1987 aged 90, he left behind some poignant photographs, taken with his Box Brownie, documenting the horror but also the lighthearted and richly human nature of the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign. Some are now held by the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

Now, 28 years after his death and on the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing, three generations of the Rose family will gather for the dawn service at Anzac Cove to remember their ancestor.

Alick's son, Alan Rose, 84, a retired Melbourne doctor, and grandson, Campbell Rose, 50, are two of the 70 people aboard Le Soleal, an APT-chartered Anzac cruise ship, with ballot tickets to the 100th dawn service.

They will be ferried ashore on April 24 at the Dardanelles port of Kepez, and taken to Anzac Cove, where they will meet two more members of the Rose family – another of Alick's grandsons, Philip, 48, and great-grandson, Nicholas.

Together they will remember Alick, not as a victim but as a survivor, who went on to lead a rich life, producing, with his wife Myrtle, one son, five grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

"I remember Papa very well," Campbell Rose says. "He was a character, a laugh a minute and the life of the party. We had a lot of fun together. He had sayings, like 'Don't be a gunna, whiskey before five makes me frisky and rum puts hairs on the polar bear's bum'."

But it was his resilience his family remembers, a quality that allowed him to return from war and live a full life. Alick loved sailing and fishing, he officiated at two Olympic Games – Helsinki and Melbourne –, was involved in the RSL, was commodore of the Royal St Kilda Yacht Club and a bank manager. A single, lighthearted memento tucked into a suitcase reflects how Alick Rose chose to remember his war – a red slipper he souvenired from the Folies Bergere in Paris, while on leave.

Alick enlisted at 18, giving his age as 21 years and six months to avoid getting his reluctant father's permission. Being shortsighted, he also persuaded another recruit to take his eyesight test. He arrived at Anzac Cove on September 4, 1915, and saw action at Lone Pine and Quinn's Post, before being evacuated to a British Malta Hospital with dysentery and tonsillitis.

His deeply human, often personal, photographs include scenes from his shore landing, front-line trenches, bursting shells over Lone Pine, swimming at Anzac Cove, delousing and washing, mincing bully beef for rissoles, as well as stark shots that included one of the graves he had dug for his comrades.

Alan Rose has put together a biography of Sapper Alick Thomas Rose of the 23rd Battalion of the 2nd Division of the Australian Imperial Force. With its detailed documentation, Dr  Rose hopes it will not only provide a valuable insight into World War I history, but also "give perspective to the so-called glories of war and reveal some of its awful horrors".

Alick saw horror aplenty after Gallipoli when he was sent to the Western Front in 1916, at Ypres and The Somme. Of this, he said nothing. Dr Rose believes what his father experienced, saw and documented in Belgium and France was even more shocking than Gallipoli.

"It is not surprising he kept silent, given the closeness of death, the numbers slaughtered, armaments used and the terrible weather during two terrible winters," Dr Rose says.

"This also explains why in Australia there have been attempts to 'deglorify' Gallipoli and 1915 in favour of the Western Front and 1917 to 1918. Certainly, the latter is regarded as a victory and the former as a defeat.

"But it was Australia's spirit, role, achievements and sacrifices at Gallipoli which brought our infant federation into adulthood. Australia 'left home' from the old British Empire, to become an independent partner of the British Commonwealth of Nations."

Alison Stewart is aboard Le Soleal as a guest of APT.