Current Information:

Age-22

Born-St Giles

Enlisted-London 

Gallipoli 1915

On 25 April, 1915, British, Australian and New Zealand forces landed on the Gallipoli peninsula. The plan was that these forces would soon defeat a demoralised Turkish army, knock Turkey out of the war, open up the Mediterranean to the Russian navy and threaten Austro-Hungary from the south. None of these things were achieved despite nine months of hard fighting in terrible conditions. It was a heroic failure.

The 29^th Division and the Royal Naval Division landed at five separate beaches around Cape Helles.  Some were not defended, others were fiercely contested. Some ground was gained but within days the familiar pattern of trench warfare had set in. A similar pattern emerged further north where the ANZACS landed. The Turkish soldiers were much tougher fighters than had been given credit for and they were of course fighting an invasion of their homeland. The terrain, a series of steep rocky ridges and deep gullies made the fighting much more difficult and during the hot summer of 1915, the flies arrived in biblical proportions. Another seven British divisions were sent to Gallipoli during the summer but little or no progress was made. In the end, a new Commander was appointed and plans to evacuate the entire force were drawn up. By January 1916, all British, Australian and New Zealand forces had left Gallipoli, leaving only behind the dead, over 56,000 of them.

By 1^st May, 1915, after two quiet days, the British and French held a line, about three miles long, that stretched across the southern part of the Helles peninsula. That night the Turks launched an attack along the whole of this line for which they had been ordered not to load their rifles but to use the bayonet. At 10pm the Turkish artillery opened up and a few minutes later their infantry poured into the attack. A fierce and confused battle followed and the allied line was broken in two places. One of these was the British line astride Kirte Dere, a gulley running down the middle of the peninsula, where 1^st Royal Munster Fusiliers and 1^st Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 86 Brigade, 29^th Division were holding the line. So severe had been the losses of these two battalions on 25^th April that they had been temporarily formed into a composite battalion, “The Dubsters”. The Turks managed to penetrate a section of their line but their success did not last long. A company of 2^nd Royal Fusiliers, moved up and helped regain the lost trench. During this action George Skinner of 1^st Royal Munster Fusiliers was killed.