NOT only a Hero

Columnist Capt (Retd) AA JILANI remembers GALLIPOLI.

Every year on 25 April Australia and New Zealand commemorate the ‘Anzac Day’, the date of the first Gallipoli landings in 1915, as a day of remembrance to honour their war dead. The abortive Gallipoli campaign marks a dark episode in the annals of the British Armed Forces, the majority of whom were from Australia and New Zealand. History does not always repeat itself, because a quarter of a century later the disaster of Gallipoli was avenged when 35,0000 encircled troops were successfully evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk.

John Simpson Kirkpatrick died a hero in the Gallipoli carnage during the First World War when the Australian troops were struggling valiantly but unsuccessfully to get off the landing beaches on the Turkish peninsula. While his commanding officer wrote that - “he earned the Victoria Cross 50 times” by his forays into no man’s land with a donkey to rescue a total of 300 wounded soldiers, his heroic bravery went un-sung and un-recognised by the concerned authorities. Outside his home town of South Shields on Tyneside (UK) his name is hardly known in Britain, yet today in Australia he is acclaimed as a national hero and remembered simply as the man with the donkey.

Imbued with the spirit of adventure, John Simpson Kirkpatrick left South Shields as a teenager to go to sea and when the Great War broke out in 1914 he was shore-bound on the other side of the world in Australia. Feeling home-sick and conscious about the predicament of his far-off motherland, he felt an urge to play his role in the struggle against His Majesty’s enemies. He enlisted with the Australian Forces and at the ripe age of 22 years he found himself on the blood-spattered beaches of Gallipoli as a stretcher-bearer with the 3rd Australian Field Ambulance. Soon after landing he had borrowed his first donkey, probably recalling his childhood memories of the tourists riding donkeys on the beach at South Shields. Several of these animals were killed as also were some of the men whom he was trying to save. Against orders he joined up with an Indian unit which had good stocks of fodder, while his superiors turned a blind eye because he was so highly regarded for his indomitable courage under enemy fire. For full 24 days he and his donkey plodded continuously into no man’s land and back with wounded soldiers. Some Officers remarked that due to so many narrow escapes from death he had become rather fatalistic, telling his comrades that he was prepared for every eventuality. Then on 19 May 1915 the inevitable happened when he made a routine call at the post where he normally had his breakfast. Finding his meal not ready he strolled into the lines and quipped - “Never mind, have a good dinner ready for me when I return back”. A burst of enemy machine-gun fore hit him full in the chest on the 25th day of his unique exploits.

This year, to mark the New Millennium, he will at last be honoured when his image will be struck on thousands of badges to commemorate the ‘Anzac Day’ on 25 April 2000. For the 85th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings the Committee wanted something special, so it was decided to drop the traditional symbol for one year only which would be replaced by the badge showing a heavily bandaged soldier held on the back of a donkey by John Simpson Kirkpatrick. He epitomises the Anzac spirit of comradeship, courage and sacrifice - others before self. If one had to select one particular person to represent ‘Anzac Day’, John Simpson Kirkpatrick would certainly be that person. This decision to honour him has been widely welcomed in his home town of South Shields. The South Tyneside District Council tabled a resolution that the people of South Shields and the people of Australia share the view that he was the bravest person never to have been awarded the Victoria Cross. Although he is almost unknown throughout the rest of the country, but he is the town’s national hero having earned a special place in the hearts of the local people. There was great demand for a statue of him to be erected in the town square and this tribute was accomplished a few years ago. John Simpson Kirkpatrick now adorns pride of place in the town square.

His tale is one of amazing heroism which is taught to the students of Australian schools, yet some reactionary critics have tried to belittle his exploits by claiming exaggeration. He has thus become a victim of post-modernism’s killing of history. Research work has proved that he was known and admired by the highest Officers of the Australian Army, and General Sir John Monash declared that John Simpson Kirkpatrick was worth 100 soldiers. His statue has been erected at the Australian National War Memorial in Canberra, depicting a wounded soldier being carried back by him on the donkey. How rightly the headstone on his grave has been inscribed so simply”

“He gave his life to save others”

The name of John Simpson Kirkpatrick has enriched the history of the Australian war effort for the British Empire.