Fifteen descendants of veterans who took part in the Gallipoli campaign are following in the footsteps of their forebears to Turkey this week to attend commemorations marking the centenary of the Allied landings in 1915.
The group from the UK, all members of the Gallipoli Association, will take part in the Commonwealth and Ireland remembrance service being held on Friday April 24th at the CWGC’s Helles Memorial on the Gallipoli peninsula.
Among them is Lyn Edmonds, from Godmanchester in Cambridgeshire. She’s tracing the journey of her grandfather, Private Benjamin Hurt, who went ashore on the first day of the attack, April 25th 1915.
Despite being wounded a few weeks later, he stayed to fight on until January 1916.
Mrs Edmonds said: ‘It will be a privilege and emotional experience to be there in April to remember my grandfather exactly 100 years later and on the very spot where he landed under fire. He was so fortunate to have survived the terrible campaign and I will naturally be thinking of his many friends who did not return.”
Two of the group travelling to Gallipoli are descended from veterans who won the Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest award for gallantry in warfare.
Sir James Dunbar-Nasmith’s father, Lieutenant Commander Martin Nasmith, was decorated for his actions as a Royal Naval submarine commander.
Sarah Kellam will be honouring her grandfather, Lieutenant William John Symons, who served with the 7th Battalion Australian Imperial Forces, and was in the thick of the fighting during the August 1915 offensive at the Battle of Lone Pine.
All 15 descendants say they’ll be remembering not only their relations, but also the many thousands of men from Britain and its allies who fought and died at Gallipoli.
Captain Christopher Fagan, Chairman of the Gallipoli Association said: “It is a great honour for the Gallipoli Association to have been invited by the UK government to assist with this opportunity for British descendants to attend the service at Cape Helles.”
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Information supplied by Lyn Edmonds/The Gallipoli Association (Photo of Lieutenant Commander Martin Nasmith VC ,courtesy of Sir James Dunbar-Nasmith)
Posted by: Peter Alhadeff, Centenary News