The Anzac Centenary Commmemorations in Greece - The LGCC Report Released

The Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee has released its report documenting the Anzac Centenary Events held in Greece in April 2015.
The Centenary of Anzac events held in Greece were the most extensive ever held. They included many events held on the Island of Lemnos - the forward base of the Gallipoli campaign in 1915, where Australia's nurses served throughout the campaign and where 148 diggers remain buried - as well as on Anzac Day itself in Athens.
The Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee assisted in organizing and actively participated in many of these events. Many of our members and supporters traveled to Greece to take part in the events held in April 2015.
We worked with other Australian commemorative groups - including Liz Kaydos of the NSW-based Lemnos 1915 committee - to help the Lemnian and Greek authorities in planning their commemorative activities.
It was a pleasure to work with the Australian Embassy in Greece, the Embassy of Canada, the Royal Australian Navy and HMAS Success, Commonwealth War Graves Commissions, the Athens War Museum, Hellenic Navy and the Lemnos Friends of Anzac.
Our Report outliens the all the major events held to commemorate Lemnos and Greece's link to Aistralia's Anzac story. These included:

• The unveiling of the new nurses memorial at Portianos Military Cemetery, the result of much lobbying and effort by his Excellency Robert Peck, ambassador of Canada to Greece, along with the work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• A viewing of Australia's Anzac Girls docu-drama at Portianou
• The involvement of the ships crew of the Royal Australian Navy's HMAS Success, including a sunset service in Mudros Bay - the first visit of an Australian warship into the bay since 1918.
• Major wreath-laying ceremonies at east Mudros and Portianos Military Cemeteries, as well as at the Anzac Memorial at Mudros harbour, with representatives of our Committee laying wreaths at these event
• A major military and community parade at Mudros
• The historic re-enactment of the famous 1915 football match on Lemnos - re-enacted by teams from HMAS Success and the Hellenic Army based on Lemnos
•  he presentation by Lemnos 1915 to the Lemnos authorities of a reproduction of the famous painting – The Lemnians by Sir William Russell Flint– held by the Art Gallery of NSW
• A folkloric event by folk dancers from the village of Agios Dimitrios on Lemnos, held at the Myrina Theatre, representing the dances of Asia Minor refuges who came to Lemnos after WW1
• Our assistance to the Canadian Embassy and the descendents of the 3rd AGH's Matron Grace Wilson in touring of the key Anzac sites 
• Anzac Day dawn service on HMAS Success at Piraeus, Athens
• Anzac Day Wreath-laying ceremony at Phaleron Military Cemetery, Athens, followed by a reception at the Australian Embassy
• Anzac Day Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committed photographic exhibition and presentation at the Athens War Museum.

Read about and view the many photos of these events and more in the attached Report.

Congratulations to his Excellency Robert Peck for his success in having a new memorial erected to the nurses of all countries - including Australia and Canada - who served on Lemnos in 1915. And to the Captain Justin Jones and the ships company of HMAS Success who actively participated in all the commemorative events on Lemnos and Greece, as great ambassadors for Australia. One hopes that this is the first of many future visits by Australia warships to Greece as part of future commemorative events.
Our President has placed on record the appreciation of our Committee of the work of our Committee Executive member, Ms Christian Despoteris, in helping organize the events on Lemnos and in Athens - especially the commemorative event held at Portianou on Lemnos and the Anzac Day function at Athens War Museum. Both involved the presentation of our specially curated photographic exhibition and presentation by myself on the Lemnos and Hellenic link to Anzac. Gifts were made of the photographic exhibition - on Lemnos by Malama Varvaras on behalf of the Lemnian Community of Victoria and in Athens by our Committee. Christina traveled especially to Greece in advance of the events and played a great role in bringing these events to fruition. Thank you, Christina.

Lets hope that the events held in 2015 are only the beginning of a renewal of the commemorative connection between Australia and Greece.

To download and read a copy of our report on these events, including many photographs of the Centenary events in Greece, click here - LGCC Report - Anzac Centenary Commemorations in Greece 2015

Jim Claven
Secretary 
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee

Today Show supports the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee!

When the Today Show recently (1st July 2015) came to Oakliegh's Eaton Mall to do a live broadcast - look what the host Karl Stefanovic was wearing - our Lemnos Gallipoli pin!
Well done to whoever sold him this badge! Thanks to Paul Soug for sharing this story with us.
If you would like to support our projects by buying one of our pins or selling them for us - please contact our President, Lee Tarlamis on 0411 553 009.

JimClaven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee

Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial Unveiling Announced - Neos Kosmos story

Neos Kosmos today published the story of the forthcoming public event for the unveiling of our Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial. If you are unable to purchase a copy of today's paper, you can read it here.
Alternatively, you can download it by clicking  here.
Thanks to Neos Kosmos for again promoting our Lemnos Gallipoli projects.

Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee

The Anzac Nurses - Centenary Article by Jessica Gadd in the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Journal

Jessica Gadd has wrote a lovely piece on the Anzac Nurses on Lemnos for the April 2015 edition of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation Journal.
Note that the ANMF - both Victorian Branch and National Office - are proud and major financial supporters of our Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial statue.
Download Jessica's article by clicking here here.

Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee

Lemnos Hero - WA Nurse Olive Hall, Lemnos and Gallipoli

Sick sisters of the 3rd Australian General Hospital, enjoying some air. Savage Collection. State Library of NSW

Staff Nurse Olive Goldridge Hall served under Matron Grace Wilson at the 3rd Australian General Hospital on Lemnos in 1915.
Olive was born in 1887 at Geraldton, WA. Prior to the outbreak of World War 1 she lived with her mother Ellen Margaret Hall on George Road. She trained at Perth Public Hospital. At the time of enlistment she was a trained nurse, 28 years old and unmarried. She enlisted in North Perth as a Staff Nurse in the 3rd Australian General Hospital Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) on 6 August 1915 and left from Fremantle on the RMS Orontes on the 11th of August 1915.

Olive's Service Record. NAA

Olive arrived on Lemnos on 4th September 1915 and served there with the 3rd Australian General Hospital. In  November she was admitted to the hospital with influenza. After returning to duty, Olive was evacuated with the rest of the 3rd Australian General Hospital from Lemnos in January 1916.
She also saw service in Egypt and on the Western Front, Olive returned to Australia in October 1918.
She was awarded the 1914/18 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
She died in Perth in 1974 aged 87.

The transport ship - RMT Orontes - that Olive sailed from Perth to war in. Pictured here in 1016 leaving Port Melbourne. AWM image

The following story was written by Helen Hewitt, a descendent of Nurse Olive Hall. This is the story of her visit to Lemnos in 1985 and met a local villager who remembered the Allies on Lemnos. This is her story.
Thank you to Helen for sharing this with us.

Jim Claven
Secretary 
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee

Lemnos and Gallipoli

A rocky, mountainous outcrop in the north Aegean close to the Turkish coast and the Dardanelles, the island of Lemnos has been settled and used as a stepping-stone since 5000 BC when Neolithic people lived here. A pre-Hellenistic temple lies in ruins on a windy northern promontory from which both the Turkish coast and Mount Athos can be seen on the hazy, dissolving horizon. A rambling Venetian fortress stands over the harbour capital, Myrina. Ottomans and Germans have occupied the island.

The island was liberated from Turkish domination in 1912, and was used by the Allies as a base during World War I. Soldiers sailed from the horror of Gallipoli into the safe harbour of Mudros on the south-east coast of Lemnos. My great-aunt Olive Hall was an Australian nurse at the military hospital there. Back in 1985, while I was visiting the island with my then husband, a Lemnian Australian, we made the trip to Mudros to see what remained from that time.

The town was quiet with many of the stone buildings boarded up and tumbling down. Many Lemnians left the island in the diaspora following World War II; some 5000 came to Melbourne. We had a coffee at the dusty wind-swept harbour taverna and asked about the military hospital, which, we learned, had never been anything more than a few tents. We were directed, however, to the British Military Cemetery on the outskirts of town.

Getting lost for about the fourth time (there were no road signs on Lemnos at that time) we stopped to ask an old man leaning on a fence watching his sheep. Shrewd blue eyes surveyed us from beneath his battered straw hat. Yes, he would come with us and show us the way, my husband interpreted.

Triandafilo (a popular old-fashioned name that means ‘Rose’), was born in 1903 and remembered the Allied base well. As a boy, he and his mates watched the soldiers come off the boats: British, French, Russian, Gurkhas, Singhalese, Egyptians, Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians. Those who could, rode donkeys through the town to their country’s camp. The badly wounded and dead came up in carts and litters to the ‘hospitals’ in each camp which were large tents.

Low bare hills surround the cemetery. They were all covered in tents then, Triandafilo said, sweeping his arms. Twenty-five thousand Russians, with their families and servants, their furniture and samovars; the more Spartan British camps, and the Hindu and Moslem camps, all fascinating to the village boys. The Indians did not bury their dead, they burned them in a great pit; the Moslems would not put headstones to their graves. The boys liked the Australians, who were always laughing and joking. As Triandafilo talked, phantoms rose in the dry, empty landscape where a few goats nibbled at the trees around the cemetery walls.

A large obelisk in the cemetery commemorates those ‘who died for the Empire Dardanelles Campaign 1915-1916’. Inscriptions on some of the Australian headstones testify to that imperial ideal: ‘He Died for King and Country’; briefly, ‘Did his Duty’. More than one hundred Australians lie buried at Mudros, mostly teenagers. ‘Only Beloved Son.’ ‘Our Peter.’ ‘Buried Hopes.’ 

My great-uncle, Captain Tom Hewitt, fought at Gallipoli and came to Mudros following the evacuation of the Allied troops on the nights of 18 and 19 December, 1915. He wrote home from Egypt:

‘We had a good rest in Lemnos but were quite content to leave it. It is an extraordinary little island – all hills and harbour, all the rough places cultivated – wooden ploughs pulled by shaggy little bullocks – all the people living together to protect themselves from the Turkish raiders who come every now and then to replenish their harems. There are no women on the island between sixteen and forty years old. The last raid was two years ago.’

Tom died in action at Pozieres several months later.

Triandafilo took us to his spotless little stone house, built by him in the 1930s. His wife matched him in looking as if she had been moulded out of the local elements. Bread, feta, tomatoes, cucumber, olives, potatoes and ouzo appeared, all their own produce. After a few thimbles of ouzo Triandafilo began to dance, and then showed us photos of himself as a fierce moustachioed young man in the Greek Army, when all Greek soldiers wore the traditional costume of skirt, sabre, fez-like hat and pom-pom shoes, now seen only on the guards in Syntagma Square in Athens, performing their elaborate slow-motion rituals. Another photo showed a tall, handsome brother who had emigrated to Melbourne in the 50s, and had died dancing.

According to myth, Zeus hurled Hephaistos, the lame god of fire and metal-workers, from Olympus to Lemnos,  where man first forged weapons out of fire and metal. Today, the roar of fighter jets periodically shatters the calm. Lemnos is Greece’s second-largest military base. The island has played a strategic military role during thousands of years, while the islanders, continuing to live quietly and self-sufficiently, have watched and suffered the repercussions of the rise and fall of empires time and time again.

Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial Unveiling Announced - 11am 8th August 2015 Foote Street Square Albert Park - All Invited

Our Lemnos Gallipoli nurses face. Photograph Jim Claven 2015

The Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee today announced the details for its forthcoming unveiling of Australia’s newest Gallipoli memorial – The Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial.
• The event will take place at 11.00 am on Saturday, 8th August 2015 – one hundred years to the day that Australia’s nurses arrived on Lemnos to care for the sick and wounded from the terrible fighting across the Aegean at Gallipoli.
• The event will take place at the Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial site – Foote Street Square, Albert Park. The location is diagonally opposite both Albert Park Secondary College and the Gasworks Arts Village Precinct.
• The Memorial Statue will be unveiling in the presence of a number of descendents of nurses and diggers who served on Lemnos in 1915
• The unveiling is a public event and all members of the public are welcome to attend.

Peter Corlett's signature on our Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial. Photograph Jim Claven 2015

The Memorial has been created by Australia’s pre-eminent commemorative sculptor, Mr Peter Corlett, OAM. Mr Corlett has created some of Australia’s most endearing and moving commemorative sculptures, such as Weary Dunlop in Melbourne’s Domain gardens, Cobbers at Fromelles in France, the Bullecourt Digger in France, Simpson and his Donkey 1915 in Canberra and the Australian Light Horse Memorial at Beersheeba, Israel. Information on these works is contained on Peter’s website - http://petercorlett.com/memorial.html

Memorial sculptor Peter Corlett OAM, with Lee Tarlamis, LGCC President, at the foundry with our scuplture. Photograph Jim Claven 2015

The Memorial Sculpture consists of two statues - one of a nurse and one of a sick or wounded digger – standing and resting on a stone plinth, that has been etched with the names of the villages on Lemnos visited by the Anzacs in 1915 as well as Lemnos and Gallipoli, in Greek and in English. The Memorial statue site is complemented by an information board and flagpoles, the latter for commemorative events.

Our Lemnos Gallipoli diggers face. Photograph Jim Claven 2015

A detail from the Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial's stone plinth. Photograph Jim Claven 2015

In designing the Memorial Sculpture, Mr Corlett has been informed by his passion for classical sculpture and the story of Lemnos and Anzac, assisted by historian Jim Claven, Secretary of the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee.
The Committee has today announced that the creation of the Memorial Statue is now on schedule for unveiling as planned on the 8th August 2015. Photographs of the bronze statues in development and details of the plinth are reproduced here and below. The sculptures are in the final stages of production.

A detail from our Lemnos Gallipoli nurse. Photograph Jim Claven 2015

Mr Lee Tarlamis, President of the Committee, said that this was a proud moment not only for the Committee but all interested in the further recognition of the role of Lemnos in the Gallipoli story and specifically the role of Australia’s nurses.
“For too long this aspect of Australia’s Gallipoli story has been either ignored or lightly treated.
The vital role played by Lemnos as the forward base for the Gallipoli campaign, the care of Australia’s nurses and other medical staff for the wounded brought to the Island in great numbers from the peninsula and the support of the local population for the Anzacs and other Allied soldiers, has deserved better recognition.
Our new Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial Statue will form a long overdue lasting tribute to this service and the sacrifice of those 148 Australian soldiers who remain buried on Lemnos in its two Commonwealth War Grave Cemeteries.”

Another detail of our Lemnos Gallipoli diggers face. Photograph Jim Claven 2015

Mr Jim Claven, Secretary of the Committee, said that it was fitting that the Memorial was being erected in Albert Park.
“Nearby Princes Pier witnessed the departure of the thousands of nurses and diggers for Gallipoli one hundred years ago. Its location near the waters of Port Phillip Bay resonates with the nurses and soldiers who served and were cared for on the shores of Lemnos’ great Moudros Bay.
And Nurses like Matron Grace Wilson and Nurse Clarice Daley who both served on Lemnos in 1915 have strong connections to the local area. Clarice returned to live in Elwood after the war with her husband Sergeant Ernest Lawrence, to whom she was married while on Lemnos. Corporal Albert Jacka, Australia’s first VC winner, served on Lemnos and returned from the war to serve as Mayor of nearby St Kilda.
Some associations are not so happy. Corporal George Knight, a local electrician, and Driver Ralph Berryman, a South Melbourne-born warehouseman, both of whom departed from this area only to sadly die and be buried on Lemnos.”

Our Lemnos Gallipoli digger's slouch hat detail. Photograph Jim Claven 2015

Mr Claven added that the Committee was particularly glad to welcome the descendents of a number of nurses and diggers who served on Lemnos in 1915, including those of Matron Grace Wilson, Nurse Daley and Sergeant Lawrence – amongst others.

 

A detail from the Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial stone plinth. Photograph Jim Claven 2015

In proposing and completing the Memorial, the Committee has received the financial support of the Australian Government, the Victorian Government and the City of Port Phillip, as well as a range of other organisations and many individuals. The Committee is particularly grateful for the support its has received from the City of Port Phillip.

Many of our Committee and supporters reviewing an earlier stage of the creation of our Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial. Photograph Jim Claven 205

The Committee
The Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee is a not-for-profit community organisation founded in 2011 that has been working to raise awareness of the role played by the Greek Island of Lemnos in the Gallipoli campaign and its connection to Australia’s Anzac story. It has representation from Australia’s services community, historians, the Greek community, nursing organisations, political representatives and the general community.
Further Information
To download a copy of our media release, click here.
For further information on the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee, the Memorial project, Lemnos’ connection to Anzac or for high resolution images of the photographs for this media release, please contact the Committee secretary, Jim Claven – E jimclaven@yahoo.com.au or 0409402388.
For further information regarding the Memorial Statue unveiling event on 8th August 2015, please contact Committee Executive member, Ms Christina Despoteris – E: christinad25@live.com

Another detail of our Lemnos Gallipoli diggers face. Photograph Jim Claven 2015

Memorial sculptor Peter Corlett OAM with Jim Claven LGCC Secretary and our Lemnos Gallipoli nurse. Photograph Jim Claven 2015

A detail from the Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial's stone plinth. Photograph Jim Claven 2015

A detail from the Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial's stone plinth. Photograph Jim Claven 2015

Memorial sculptor Peter Corlett OAM, with Lee Tarlamis, LGCC President, at the foundry with our scuplture. Photo Jim Claven 2015

Our Lemnos Gallipoli digger. Photograph Jim Claven 2015

Nurses Exhibition features Lemnos and Salonika Nurses

The recent Red Cross and WW1 Nurses exhibition held at Geelong's Osborne House was well worth the visit. Put together by the Osborne House Geelon and the Osborne Park Association Inc, this exhibition shows just how rich the link between Australia and Greece was in the First World War.

The exhibition was well put together and assembled. It featured a series of panels telling the stories of many of the nurses with connections to the Geelong area who served in WW1. These were illustrated with photographs.
Some of the nurses stories included were:
Nurses who served on Lemnos - Sister Violet Blanch Duddy, Staff Nurses Victoria Wakley, Staff Nurses Edith Avice Watson, Sister Evelyn Davies, Sister Ida Mary Mockridge and Sister Catherine (Kit) McNaughton.

Nurses who served on Hospital Ships at Gallipoli -Sister Hilda Samsing, Staff Nurse Mina Alice Bromley, Staff Nurse Bernice Loughrey and Staff Nurse Leonora Millicent Allender.

Norwegian-born Sister Hilda Samsing who served on the Hospital Ship Gascon during the Gallipoli campaign.

Nurses who served on the Salonika Front (Greece and Serbia) -  Staff Nurse Eva Gladys Moule, Sister Ethel Maud Biggs, Sister Ethel Giddings, Sister Ethel May Gillingham, Sister Ellen Barnett Issacs, Staff Nurse Alice Hartridge, Staff Nurse Edith Eileen Malcolm, Staff Nurse Daisy Florence McIntyre, Staff Nurse Olive Winifred Petersen, Staff Nurse Caroline Hanah Sheldon, staff Nurse Laura May Appleton and Sister Laura Beatrice Begley. Also Doctor Mary De Garis.

Staff Nurse Edith Malcolm, who served on the Salonika Front, with other members of her family who served in WW1. Source AWM

The exhibition also included an impressive display of medals awarded to individual nurses. Of special interest were those of NurseVictoria Wakley Born in Melbourne in 1893 and trained at the Melbourne Hospital, she was one of the 130 Australian nurses who served on Lemnos. Also displayed are the medals of Sister Winifred Jane Smith who was also trained at the Melbourne Hospital and was awarded the Royal Red Cross Medal (2nd Class). Sister Smith's medals are reproduced below.

Below are some photographs I took at the exhibition.
For those who didn't make it to the exhibition in Geekong, the good news is that parts of the echibtiion will be on display at the Nurses Memorial Centre in St Kilda Road Melbourne in coming months. Watch this space.
It is interesting to see the wealth of material and information that is available to tell the often overlooked story of Australia's nurses in WW1. Our major institutions - like the Australian War Memorial - could learn a lot from such exhibitions and finally provide some improved recognition of the service of our nurses in WW1.
Thanks to Arlene Bennett of the Nurse Memorial Centre for alerting me to this great exhibition.
Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee