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| The last British Union Flag to fly over occupied then Constantinople in 1923. Photo Sibel Baykut 2015 |
Last weekend - 7-8th November 2015 - a memorial service was held for Remembrance Day at Istanbul's Crimean Memorial Church in the Galata area of the city.
This Anglican Church is where Ballarat's George Devine Treloar and Kathleen May Douch were married in the Church on 31st December 1923, the Rev Father Borrough celebrating the marriage.
At my request, a good friend of mine and academic researcher in Istanbul, Sibel Baykut (she is a PHD student at Istanbul's Yeditepe University and International Affairs Coordinator for Istanbul's Bahcesehir University),visited the Church and was invited to attend the service.
She was able to photograph three of the famous historic darkened British military flags held by the Church. They hang in the nave of the Church but were brought down for a better viewing: a
shell-pocked standard from the Crimea, the last Union flag to fly over Allied-Occupied Istanbul in 1923 and an ensign from the escort vessel that took the
last Ottoman sultan into exile in 1924. Sibel and her husband Erkut's photos are reproduced below.
For more information on the Church and its connection to George Treloar, see my previous web post - Crimean Memorial Chruch and Major George Devine Treloar
Thanks to Sibel and Erkut for this research.
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| The last British Union Flag to fly over occupied Constantinople in 1923. Photo Sibel Baykut 2015 |
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| The British Navy Royal Ensign from the vessel that took the last Ottoman Sultan into exile. Photo Sibel Baykut 2015 |
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| A shell-shocked British Army standard from the Crimean War. Photo Sibel Baykut 2015 |
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| British service personnel at the Remembrance Day service, Crimean Memorial Church, Istanbul, 2015. Photo Sibel Baykut 2015 |
Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee
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