Eric Bush - Gallipoli

[Desmond7]

Got this for a TINY few pence in charity sale. 1975 edition, hard cover with dust jacket.

Started reading today in the inferno which was the Blackadder garden.

Romped through it .. but have to go back for secondary 'look' at certain sections.

I'm not a Gallipoli person but I found this book, by a midshipman who served at the straits, to be a thoroughly easy and understandable read with SOME points which I would like to debate later.

For its 'vintage', I reckon it was pretty good.

Opinions from those who know more about Dardanelles?

Des

[Orion]

...a thoroughly easy and understandable read with SOME points which I would like to debate later.

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Hi,

I don't necessarily know any more about the Dardenelles but do love to read about it, and welcome any discussion...

Yes, it is an enjoyable read. as with all good vintages they get better with time. Flipped through it some time ago but don't mind havin' another look!

For starters lets check out these two peculiarities:

see Afterwards p. 315-317

i) the bit at the end about Lieutenant-Colonel 'Dick' Doughty-Wylie who was awarded a posthumous VC at the landing from the River Clyde on V-Beach. Interestingly his is the only solitary War Graves Commission grave on the penninsula - his remains have never been disturbed and he still lies where he fell.

Why was Doughty-Wylie's left 'as is' while all others were not?

ii) His wife, Lilian Oimara, a member of the Union de Dame Francaises, apparantly was 'the only woman to put a foot ashore during the occupation', landed at Sedd el Bahr on 17th November 1915, laid a wreath on Doughty-Wylie's grave. She visited the grave again in 1919.

Interesting! I wonder if there are any other lines of evidence to support this?

Cheers,

Brian

[Jonathan Saunders]

i) the bit at the end about Lieutenant-Colonel 'Dick' Doughty-Wylie who was awarded a posthumous VC at the landing from the River Clyde on V-Beach. Interestingly his is the only solitary War Graves Commission grave on the penninsula - his remains have never been disturbed and he still lies where he fell.

Why was Doughty-Wylie's left 'as is' while all others were not?

Doughty-Wylie had spent some years before WW1 has a military attache in Turkey and I think fought with the Turks in the 1912 war. He was greatly reverred by them and their respect did not cease when due to a position of birth he became an enemy national.

ii) His wife, Lilian Oimara, a member of the Union de Dame Francaises, apparantly was 'the only woman to put a foot ashore during the occupation', landed at Sedd el Bahr on 17th November 1915, laid a wreath on Doughty-Wylie's grave. She visited the grave again in 1919.

I am not sure of the sources off hand, but there is strong reason to believe that either his wife or his mistress, they were both "in the area", (one as a nurse with French Red Cross I think), got on to the Peninsula with French assistance (V Beach by this time was part of the French sector) and visited the grave.

Any good guide book to the area will provide much fuller and more accurate details than I can recall off the top of my head.

[Orion]

... either his wife or his mistress, they were both "in the area", (one as a nurse with French Red Cross I think), got on to the Peninsula with French assistance (V Beach by this time was part of the French sector) and visited the grave.

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Woman’s visit to war hero’s grave still a mystery,

see New Zealand Herald article at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10120943

18.04.05

Ninety years ago, as Allied troops struggled to live through the bitter fighting on the Gallipoli Peninsula, talk of a visit to the battle zone by a mystery woman swept through the ranks.

Suddenly, said Hamilton author and historian Richard Stowers, they had something to talk about other than the war.

The identity of the woman was still a mystery 90 years later, he said.

Stowers said the woman’s visit to a war hero’s solitary grave was probably the only time a woman ever stepped ashore during the eight months of bitter fighting which cost more than 40,000 Allied lives.

At the launch last week of his book Bloody Gallipoli, the New Zealanders’ Story, at the opening of a Gallipoli display at the Auckland War Memorial and Museum, Stowers said the mystery woman may have been war hero Lieutenant Colonel Charles Doughty-Wylie’s wife or his lover.

She stepped ashore near Cape Helles on the southern end of the peninsula and without speaking to anyone marched up to his grave, knelt for some time, then stood, placed a wreath on the wooden cross, and left.

Doughty-Wylie, 46, from the Royal Welch Fusiliers, was awarded the Victoria Cross after he died on April 26, 1915, leading an attack on a Turkish position on Hill 161.

He died the day after the first of the Anzac troops landed at Anzac Cove, further up the peninsula.

Stowers said the news of her visit soon found its way around Gallipoli and gave the soldiers a topic of conversation other than the war.

Her identity was never discovered.

"She may have been Doughty-Wylie’s wife, Lillian, who was nursing with the French Hospital service in France.

"Or maybe she was Gertrude Bell, the English writer and historian, who was Doughty-Wylie’s lover."

- NZPA

So was it Lillian his wife, Gertrude his lover or still unknown?

Will dig for more proof

Cheers,

Brian

[MartinWills]

To return to the topic of the book itself I would suggest that it is one of those Gallipoli volumes which should form an essential part of any library on this theatre.

Bush eventually reached high rank in the navy but this reflects how young cadets at Dartmouth had their training cut short and were sent to sea as midshipmen. Bush was one of those chosen to steer one of the picket boats bringing the tows in at anzac (ostensibly because he was short and therefore more easily avoided turkish fire, His account of his part in the campaign is pretty honest, accurate and straightforward and makes for an excellent read. It is well worth buying even if you have to spend more than a few pence. Well done Desmond.

[spike10764]

Woman’s visit to war hero’s grave still a mystery,

see New Zealand Herald article at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10120943

"Or maybe she was Gertrude Bell, the English writer and historian,

Cheers,

Brian

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Just part way through reading Alan Moorehead's Gallipoli, and IIRC he claims Gertrude Bell visited the beach AFTER the war had ended in 1919 and knelt to pray on the sand, dressed in all black.