Helles Memorial

Gallipoli, Turkey

Pictures courtesy of Brian Budge

Visiting Information: The Panel Numbers quoted at the end of each entry relate to the panels dedicated to the Regiment served with. In some instances where a casualty is recorded as attached to another Regiment, his name may alternatively appear within their Regimental Panels. Please refer to the on-site Memorial Register Introduction to determine the alternative panel numbers if you do not find the name within the quoted Panels.

The Anzac and Suvla cemeteries are first signposted from the left hand junction of the Eceabat- Bigali Road. From this junction travel into the main Anzac area. Follow the road to Helles, opposite the Kabatepe Museum, at 14.2 kms. take a right turn at the 'T' junction and at 14.3 kms. take the left fork. After a total of 22.8 kms, take a right turn to the memorial along a rough track 500m long. The Helles Memorial stands on the tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula. It takes the form of an obelisk over 30 metres high that can be seen by ships passing through the Dardanelles.

IX Corps. Panel

The eight month campaign in Gallipoli was fought by Commonwealth and French forces in an attempt to force Turkey out of the war, to relieve the deadlock of the Western Front in France and Belgium, and to open a supply route to Russia through the Dardanelles and the Black Sea. The Allies landed on the peninsula on 25-26 April 1915; the 29th Division at Cape Helles in the south and the Australian and New Zealand Corps north of Gaba Tepe on the west coast, an area soon known as Anzac. On 6 August, further landings were made at Suvla, just north of Anzac, and the climax of the campaign came in early August when simultaneous assaults were launched on all three fronts. However, the difficult terrain and stiff Turkish resistance soon led to the stalemate of trench warfare. From the end of August, no further serious action was fought and the lines remained unchanged. The peninsula was successfully evacuated in December and early January 1916. The Helles Memorial serves the dual function of Commonwealth battle memorial for the whole Gallipoli campaign and place of commemoration for many of those Commonwealth servicemen who died there and have no known grave. The United Kingdom and Indian forces named on the memorial died in operations throughout the peninsula, the Australians at Helles. There are also panels for those who died or were buried at sea in Gallipoli waters. The memorial bears more than 21,000 names. There are four other Memorials to the Missing at Gallipoli. The Lone Pine, Hill 60, and Chunuk Bair Memorials commemorate Australian and New Zealanders at Anzac. The Twelve Tree Copse Memorial commemorates the New Zealanders at Helles. Naval casualties of the United Kingdom lost or buried at sea are recorded on their respective Memorials at Portsmouth, Plymouth and Chatham, in the United Kingdom.

Number of Identified Casualties: 20839

VICTORIA CROSS:

BROMLEY, Major, Cuthbert, VC, 1st Bn. Lancashire Fusiliers, 13/05/1915, aged 36. Won the award on the 25/04/1915.

MILBANKE, Lieutenant Colonel, Sir John Peniston, VC, Nottinghamshire Yeomanry (Sherwood Rangers). 21/08/1915, aged 42. Won the award 05/01/1900.

O'SULLIVAN, Captain, Gerald Robert, VC, 1st Bn. Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. 21/08/1915, aged 26. Won the award 1st/2nd July 1915.

STUBBS, Serjeant, Frank Edward, VC, 1506. 1st Bn. Lancashire Fusiliers. 25/04/1915, aged 27. Won the award 25/04/1915.

TISDALL, Sub-Lieutenant, Arthur Walderne, VC, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. 06/05/1915, aged 24. Won the award 25/04/1915.

 

The memorial seen from the west side and a memorial to the Officers and men of Hawick in Scotland

 

 

446 Lance Serjeant

George Rosie

7th Bn. Royal Scots

28/06/1915.

Panel 26 to 30

Short Biography

 

 

Second Lieutenant

David Stuart Spence

"A" Battery, 66th Bde. Royal Field Artillery

13/12/1915, aged 23.

Son of William Sinclair Spence and Susanna Thomson Spence,

of Graham Place, Stromness, Orkney. M.A. (Edinburgh).

Panel 21 and 22.

Short Biography

 

9863 Private

James King Moodie

1st Bn. King's Own Scottish Borderers

26/04/1915, aged 26.

Son of James and Margaret Moodie, of Schoolhouse, Broughstone, Sanday, Kirkwall, Orkney.

Panel 84 to 92 or 220 to 222

Short Biography

 

Pictures courtesy of Brian Budge

2086 Serjeant

James Bridge

1st/5th Bn. Manchester Regiment

04/06/1915

Panels 158-170

 

Picture courtesy of granddaughter, Carole Moorhouse

 

 

 

Tyneside Z/1493 Able Seaman

John Walker

Hawke Battalion, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve

24/12/1915, aged 19

Panel 8-15

 

"Remembered" by nephew John George Walker and Great nephew John Walker

 

Killed in action 24th December,1915 at Gallipoli. Although killed in the trenches he has no known grave. He was the youngest of four brothers who volunteered for service in the war and the only one of them to be killed. He cheated his age to enlist and was 19 years old when killed.  John and his brothers were all born at Ashington, Northumberland, a mining town.  The Hawke Battalion was made up almost to a man of north country miners. They were used extensively at Gallipoli for sapping, mining and digging trenches.
He is remembered by his nephew John George Walker, aged 89 years who is named after him, and by me his great nephew also named John Walker.

 

 

Picture courtesy of John Walker

 

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