Today is the 105th Anniversary of the Australian Evacuation from Gallipoli and Return to Lemnos

Australian nurses and soldiers witness the return of Allied troops to Lemnos, December 1915. Albert Savage Collection, SLNSW

105 years ago today the last Australian troops evacuated from Gallipoli, completing the evacuation of Anzac Cove and Suvla.

The last Australian to leave the front was Sub-Lieutenant Charles Hicks and 50 men of the Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train, who departed Suvla a few minutes after 4.30am on 20th December. So ended the service of the approximately 50,000 Australian troops who had served at Gallipoli.

Allied troops would not complete the evacuation of the whole peninsula until 8th January 1916, with the withdrawal of the last British forces, the last service personnel to leave being the British Royal Navy's Lieutenant Langton-Jones who was taken off at 4.30am.

The vast majority of the Allied troops returned to the northern Aegean Island of Lemnos, for greater or lesser periods of time, resting and recuperating, some to the many medical establishment there for treatment, some to be buried in the Allied war cemeteries on the island. Many would celebrate Xmas and New Year on Lemnos.

Lemnos would go on to perform a major role in the First World War, as an Allied naval base and as the site of the signing of the Armistice of Mudros, ending the war between the Allies and the Ottoman Empire in October 1918.

For more information on Lemnos' role in the evacuation of the Gallipoli peninsula please read my Lemnos and Gallipoli Revealed: A Pictorial Histroy of the Anzacs in the Aegean 1915-16.

Lest we forget.

Jim Claven, Secretary, Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee

2020 Albert Jacka Public Commemorative Service Cancelled

The following notice has been received from the City of Port Phillip:

"With regret, the City of Port Phillip will not be holding a commemoration ceremony for Albert Jacka next month due to ongoing uncertainty. To honour Albert Jacka’s memory, the Mayor will privately lay a wreath at the gravesite over the summer. The St Kilda Cemetery is open 365 days of the year, so regular attendees may visit the grave privately this year instead. We will be sorry not to see our regular guests in 2021, but we look forward to the 90th anniversary commemoration service in 2022."

The Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee has in recent years taken part in this event, recognizing Albert's service on Lemnos in 1915-16.

Jim Claven, Secretary LGCC

 

Wishing all our supporters and friends a Merry Xmas and Happy New Year

Dear all

2020 has been a particularly difficult year for all of us. The COVID19 pandemic has impacted on all of our lives to a greater or lesser extent. On the commemorative front, we were unable to participate physically in commemorative events in Greece this year as many of us have been able to. Many of us have learnt to use Zoom and other platforms to show our continuing commitment to honour those who served in war. Nevertheless we have much to be thankful for, most importantly our health. 

On behalf of our Committee, we wish all of our supporters and friends across the globe, a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year. We wish you all a great festive season and look forward to working with you all again soon.

The photographs on this years Committee Xmas Card are of the small northern bay on Lemnos' Turks Head Peninsula, with the causeway leading to Turks Head Island and the Chapel of St Nikolaos - an appropriate site for Xmas. It was to this bay that the Australian nurses landed in August 1915, as well as many of the 50,000 other Australian service personnel whose service brought them to Lemnos. The photograph at right is from the Savage Collection, State Library of NSW, depicting nurses and soldiers watching troops arrive, that on the left was taken by Jim Claven in 2018. Enjoy.

Yours sincerely

Lee Tarlamis OAM MP, President

Jim Claven, Secretary

Merchant Navy Day - Remembering Trimmer T Harbourne of the Southland - and his fellow merchant mariners buried on Lemnos

 

Today - 3rd September is Merchant Navy Day.

Merchant Navy Day is commemorated on the day the first British merchant vessel, SS Athenia, was torpedoed and sunk without warning by the German submarine U-30 only 10 hours after Britain’s declaration of war on 3 September 1939.

One of the best-known battles involving merchant mariners is the Battle of the Atlantic, which lasted almost the entire duration of Second World War and saw over 3,000 Allied merchant ships sunk and some 30,000 Allied sailors and merchant mariners lost at sea.

 Today we remember our merchant mariners and honour the some 800 Australians who tragically died serving the Allied cause during the First and Second World Wars. Lest we forget.

 The soldiers who served at Gallipoli and on Lemnos and the other northern Aegean Islands in 1915-16 were transported on ships to and from the battlefield, these included transports which were worked by merchant mariners from across the world. 

During the campaign a number of these were attacked by enemy submarines and torpedo boats, some damaged, others sunk. As a result a number of merchant mariners were killed during the Gallipoli campaign, and in the northern Aegean in the years up to the end of the First World War. It should be remembered that they served as civilians on these ships, into harms way, not as service personnel. Many of their families would not only have suffered the loss of a loved one but also they would not receive a service pension - for while they were killed in the war they didn't qualify as civilians.

A number of these are buried in the Commonwealth War Cemeteries on Lemnos. 

 One of these was a seaman serving on the HM Transport Southland.  T. Harbourne was a trimmer (or a stoker) in the engine room of the ship. He was killed when the Southland was torpedoed off Lemnos as it transport hundreds of Australian (and some other) troops to Lemnos on 2nd September 1915. He would probably have died as the torpedo exploded into the side of ship but he may have drowned as many others did. My photograph of his grave stone at Lemnos' East Mudros Military Cemetery is reproduced above. To read more about the Southland click here.

Another member of the merchant marine buried on Lemnos is Quartermaster H. Brown who served on the Fleet Messaenger Waterwitch (pictured below during WW1) This vessel plied the dangerous waters between Gallipoli and Lemnos, faicng enemy threat and attack from land and sea, delivering sick, wounded and weary soldiers to and from the battlefields. A number of personal diaries by Anzacs provide accounts of the service of the ship during the campaign. One of those was Private Henry Gissing who recorded sailing on the Waterwitch in Lemnos' Mudros Bay, as it transported him and his unit to a transport ship anchored in the Bay in November 1915. Another digger Lance Corporal William Lycett also wrote about the Waterwitch. To read more about the Waterwitch click here 

On this day we should remember merchant seaman like Trimmer Harbourne and Quartermaster Brown.

Here is a list of some of those buried at East Mudros Military Cemetery. The list is not be considered exhaustive and no doubt there are others buried at the other CWGC on Lemnos, the Portianos Military Cemetery. But this gives an idea of the scope of those who served and those who died serving with the mercantile marine on Lemnos and its surrounding waters during and after the Gallipoli campaign:

Storekeeper C.A. Leeman HMT Somali, Died 19th July 1915, Age 33, Thy will be done.
Fireman C. Graves HMT Minnehaha, 30th July 1915.

Chief Steward H Watson HMT Queensland, 20th August 1915.

Chief Steward J.L. De Souza, SS Baron Balfour, 22nd August 1915.

Cook E. Coverdale HMT Hindustan, 25th August 1915.

Fourth Engineer J. Kennedy HMS Minnetonka, 12th September 1915. 

Sixth Engineer A.W. Hall RFA Reliance, 11th September 1912, Age 22.

Fireman Arubrumayan Ali HMHS Karapara, 22nd December 1918.

T.H. Smith SS Baron Balfour, 5th October 1915.

Quartermaster H. Brown, MMR HM Fleet Messenger Waterwitch, 19th October 1915.

Fireman J. Brown HMT Moynune, 14th November 1915.

Skilled Labourer G. Frendo, HM Dockyard Malta, 3rd January 1917.

Steward J.F. Le Huquet MMR HMS Sarnia, 8th September 1915, Age 40, Dearly loved husband of Edith Le Huquet.

Able Seaman Winnal HM Dockyard Malta, 14th May 1916. 

Carpenter G Boake HMT Patani, 23rd January 1916. 

Ship's Cook  J. Thompson HMT Westmoor, 5th January 1917.

Boatswain L Forgoul RMT Raventazon, 26th January 1917.

Surgeon J.D. Rutherford HMS Theseus, 13th September 1917, Age 28, Shall we not meet as heretofore some summer morning.

Leading Fireman J.H. Sinclair MMR RFA Reliance, 22nd April 1918

A/Inspector of Engineer Fitters W.E. Armes RFA Reliance 16th May 1918

Seaman H Vesprey HMT Gothic, 2nd January 1918.

Fireman S. Stewart HMT Gothic, 29th December 1917.

Ablebodied Seaman J Glaze MMR MFA Brighton, 7th December 1917, Age 35.

Second engineer T. Hickey HMT Don Caeser, 22nd December 1918, Age 27, He died at duty Thy will be done None can take his place.

Greaser J. Platt MMR HMS Hazel, 29th November 1918.

Able Seaman E. Secluna HMT St Margaret of Scotland, 10th November 1918.

Fireman J. Nugend HMT Ivernia, 29th May 1915.

Baker J. Maguire HMT Massilla, 3rd July 1915.

Mate P. Williamson SS Tees, 13th May 1915.

Trimmer T. Harbourne HMT Southland, 2nd September 1915.

Legend:

HM - His Majesty's; HMT- His Majesty's Transport; HMHS - His Majesty's Hospital Ship MMR - Mercantile Marine Reserve; RFA - Royal Fleet Auxilliary; RMT - Royal Marine Transport (possible); SS - Steam Ship.

Lest we forget.

Jim Claven, Secretary, Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee