Imbros & Gallipoli Revealed Exhibition - The Story of Imbros and its Gallipoli Connection - Launch and New Locations

The Imbros & Gallipoli Revealed Exhibition - some of the display panels. Photo Jim Claven 2023

Over the past few months it has been my pleasure to work with the Melbourne's Imvrian Society on a beautiful new project. The Imbros & Gallipoli Revealed Exhibition is a new pictorial and historical display telling the story of the role of the northern Aegean Island of Imbros in the Gallipoli campaign. It reveals this story through not only the Island’s role as a military and naval base for the campaign but how this role impacted on the people of the Island.

This story is told through the display of 21 large panels, each explaining the different ways the campaign impacted on the Island and the various stages of the campaign’s impact on the Island. A further explanation of these themes and stages, as well as reproduction of some the panels themselves is set out below. The Exhibition project is supported by a complementary new publication, authored by myself, which will be launched in coming weeks.

From Imbros Over the Sea - Imbros & Gallipoli Revealed - The book - to be launched soon. Photo Kostas Deves 2023.

The Exhibition was sponsored by the Imvrian Society of Melbourne Inc with the funding support of the Victorian Government’s Veterans Council, the City of Council and community fundraising. The Society supported the project due its wish to raise awareness of the role of their Island in the Gallipoli campaign and Australia’s Anzac story.

The Exhibition was curated by myself, drawing on my extensive research into the impact of the Gallipoli campaign on the Island’s of the northern Aegean (especially Lemnos, Imbros and Tenedos) as well as field visits to the Island. New research identified important new archival photographic and documentary source materials which have proved essential to the Exhibition. I acknowledge the work and support of the Society’s project officer George Xinos who was a fellow participant on the journey and who played a key role in the design of the panels.

After months of research, writing, image sourcing an selection and finally production, the result is this important pictorial and historical exhibition. It is the first pictorial and historical exhibition to depict and explain one of the main connections between the northern Aegean Island of Imbros and its inhabitants and Australia, through its connection to the Anzac story and the Gallipoli campaign.

The launch of the Imbros & Gallipoli Exhibition at Parkdale, June 2023. Photo Jim Claven 2023.

The Exhibition was launched to a large crowd by the Imvrian Society of Melbourne Inc in Parkdale in June 2023. Some images from the launch at reproduced below. To read the story of the Exhibition launch click here.

Some of the dignitaries who attended the Imbros & Gallipoli Revealed launch. Photo Jim Claven 2023

Jim Claven (left) with Ann Holland the descendent of Sapper Alec Holland who came to Imbros and painted a view of the Island from Suvla Bay. Photo Jim Claven 2023.

Jim Claven (left) and George Xinos (right) at the launch. Photo Jim Claven 2023.

The Exhibition is now available for display in other locations through the engagement of like-minded community organisations. This post explains how these organisations can access the Exhibition.

The Exhibition – Telling the Imbros & Gallipoli Story

This Exhibition commemorates the role of the northern Aegean Island of Imbros in the Gallipoli campaign of 1915-16.

It does so through the reproduction of many of the archival photographs from the time, displayed as part of the key themes of that role, all placed in context with a specially commissioned historical overview explaining the various elements of Imbros’ role in the Gallipoli campaign, accompanied by modern photographs of the island, revealing the continuing visual connection between Imbros, Gallipoli and Australia.

Drawing on the historical record, the Exhibition explores a series of themes on this connection - from its pre-Gallipoli story to its naval and military role in the campaign, including some important Australian or Anzac connections. My research reveals that Imbros performed an essential role in the Allied effort throughout the Gallipoli campaign.

Exhibition Panel with maps of Imbros and its Allied bases. Photo Jim Claven 2023.

Located opposite the Gallipoli Peninsula, the Island was an ideal location for an advanced base for the coming military and naval operations. The Island would host the Allied Headquarters for the whole campaign, with an impressive guard which included Australian soldiers brought from the Peninsula.

Allied Headquarters, Kephalos Bay, Imbros, 1915-16. IWM Collection.

HMS Arno in Kephalos Bay, 1915-16. Pollard Collection/Cross & Cockade Archive.

Its harbours – especially the great Kephalos Bay with its large open entrance protected by specially sunken ships as well anti-submarine boom - would provide safe anchorage for the hundreds of Allied shipping required by the campaign (from the world’s first purpose built aircraft carrier to battleships, supply ships and all manner of other craft). The Island's infrastructure would soon be transformed as the military and naval base took shape, with piers, roads and buildings being erected around Kephalos Bay.

An aerial view of the piers and part of the Allied camp at Kephalos Bay, Imbros, 1915-16. IWM Collection.

Its shores would be home to supply depots, field medical services and importantly major bakeries that would feed the weary troops fresh bread. Its valleys would host huge army camps as troops made their way to and from the Peninsula, as well as prisoner of war camps.

Aerial view of Allied camp at Kephalos Bay, Imbros, 1915-16. AWM Collection.

Australian field bakery at Kephalos Bay, Imbros, 1915-16. Pollard Collection/Cross & Cockade Archive.

One of the aerodromes at Kephalos, Imbros, 1915-16. Pollard Collection/Cross & Cockade Archive.

Its flatlands would be home to various Allied aircraft (from airships and seaplanes to traditional military aircraft) with these supplemented by balloon ships harboured at Kephalos and the waters surrounding the Island. Imbros was thus an essential part of the Allied aerial war over Gallipoli and the surrounding waters.

Airship base at Kephalos Bay, Imbros, 1915-16. Pollard Collection/Cross & Cockade Archive.

It was also the place of final rest for a number of Allied personnel who would be buried on the Island in a newly created Allied war cemetery located to the immediately to the north of Kephalos Bay. While the dead were mainly British, the cemetery was also the location of a number of Australian graves.

Allied war cemetery, near Kephalos Bay, Imbros, 1915-16. Pollard Collection.

War correspondents Charles Bean and Ashmead-Bartlett riding on Imbros, 1915-16. AWM Collection.

 

It would also be the home for many months of the Allied war correspondents, including Ashmead-Barlett from England and the Australian Charles Bean. It was these writers who wrote their accounts of the Gallipoli campaign as it unfolded, keeping an eager public back home informed as best they could given the constraints of military censorship. They would name the house in which they lived the Villa Pericles, a nod to their own classical education and the overwhelmingly Hellenic population and ancient history of the Island. It was on Imbros that the famous Anzac Book – a best-seller during the war – the soldier contributions were initially compiled by Bean and his team for publication. And it was from here that the details of the famous Murdoch letter made its journey into history, revealing the failures of the whole campaign.

Villa Pericles, Imbros, 1915-16. AWM Collection.

But most importantly it reveals how the Gallipoli campaign brought together the Island's overwhelmingly Hellenic population and the tens of thousands of Allied service personnel - including Australians - impact on both their lives. The residents visited and worked at the Allied camps on the Island, some sailing out to the Allied ships at anchor in its bays offering the Island’s fresh produce to the eager troops.

Australian soldier resting on a hillside above the Allied camp at Kephalos Bay, Imbros, 1915-16. AWM Collection.

Australian and New Zealand soldiers with locals on Imbros, 1915-15. AWM Collection.

The service personnel wandered the Island, riding hired donkeys or walking its tracks, visiting its churches, villages and towns, staying in its inns and enjoying the hospitality of the Islanders. Some would write about their experiences in poetry, in letters and diaries, recording their impressions for posterity. Others – like British Royal Navy aerial photographs Bill Pollard - would take photographs leaving us an amazing visual archive. They rested on the side of its mountains, gazing out over the Aegean or swam in its waters. And they attended local village celebrations.

Australian soldiers playing with village children, Imbros, 1915-16. AWM Collection.

Imbros was for many service personnel a haven from the stresses and dangers of war.

The major military and naval role of the Island would end with the evacuation of the Gallipoli Peninsula in January 1915 but it would remain an Allied base throughout the war and coming to prominence again as the war drew to an end with the naval battle fought in its waters in 1918.

Imbros clearly played a major role in the Gallipoli campaign and beyond – a story that has now been told vividly through this Exhibition and accompanying book.

The Exhibition – The Display Panels

This story is brought to life through the Exhibition's 20 large panels, AO (84 x 119 cms) size panels, produced on light-weight form board for ease of display. They can be displayed either on stand-alone easels or on wall space directly through various means.

Each panel reproduces numerous archival and related modern photographs, explained by authoritative text and new maps created from archival sources held in Australia and overseas. The panels have been created in such a way that they can either be displayed in total or as a selection, depending on the available display space.

The themes and titles of the panels are as follows: Welcome to the Exhibition - From an Ancient Land to the Gallipoli Campaign; Key Maps of Imbros & the Northern Aegean in 1915-16; The Allied Fleet at Imbros; Imbros Transformed – Creating the Military & Naval Base; The Campaign Headquarters and its Australian Guards; Feeding the Troops – The Australian Bakery on Imbros; Medical Help Comes to Imbros; The Army Rest Camps of Kephalos; The Correspondents Camp and the Anzac Book; Air War over Imbros; Prisoners of War on Imbros; The Great Storm; Discovering Imbros – Meeting the Locals; Evacuation; The Dead of Imbros; The Artists of Imbros; After Gallipoli – Remembering Imbros

To give and impression of the nature and content of the Exhibition panels, a number of panels are reproduced below (all photographs by Jim Claven, 2023).

My Imbros Journey

I had become aware of Imbros and some aspects of its role a few years ago. I had seen Imbros many times from the eastern shores of Lemnos and read about some of its role in Gallipoli in the historical records. During the Centenary of Anzac in 2015 I visited Imbros, walked its landscape and villages, meeting its people, all guided by my own historical research into its link both to Gallipoli and Australia's Anzac tradition. This resulted in my article published in Australia's Neos Kosmos newspaper. You can read the results of this early visit to Imbros by clicking here.

Since then I have continued my research into Imbros and published historical articles on aspects of its link to Gallipoli - I held the view of Imbros from Suvla Bay painted by Australian engineer Sapper Frank Holland and treasured by his descendants in Melbourne (read about Frank Holland by clicking here), I read about the visit by a former Victorian Governor and his famous suffragette wife to Imbros during the Gallipoli campaign (read about Lord and Lady Brassey and Imbros by clicking here) and of the Hellenic sailors who assisted the Allied cause at Gallipoli on the communications vessels plying the waters of Imbros and Gallipoli (read about the sailors of the Cable Ship Levant II by clicking here). 

All of this intimated to me that there was another Gallipoli story - that of Imbros, its people and the role of the Island in the campaign. 

Jim Claven on Imbros, with the Island of Lemnos on the horizon in the distance. Photo Jim Claven 2015.

The Imvrian Society of Melbourne Inc & Acknowledgements

Melbourne's vibrant Imvrian Society is a community organization representing those who migrated to Australia from Imbros or their descendants and who live in Melbourne. They remain connected to their Island and are keen to bring its story to a wider audience. The Imbros & Gallipoli Exhibition is an important aspect of this desire, telling both the role of Imbros in the Gallipoli campaign and Australia’s connection to the Island through the Anzac story.

In undertaking this project, the Imvrian Society acknowledges the support of the Victorian Government’s Veterans Council, the City of Kingston and other community funding,

Imbros & Gallipoli Revealed – Telling the Story

I have worked with the Imvrian Society of Melbourne to create this Exhibition to stimulate awareness of the important role of Imbros in both the Gallipoli campaign and Australia’s Anzac story.

We believe that the Exhibition is only the beginning. The display only scratches the surface of the experience of the Island and its inhabitants of the Gallipoli campaign. Hopefully new research both in Australia and overseas will show more light on this often overlooked aspect of the Gallipoli campaign.

Our dream it spread awareness of Imbros and its role and Gallipoli. We can do this through displaying the Exhibition and making presentations. Imbros’ role in Gallipoli could also be recognized in appropriate memorials, whether on Imbros or at locations connected to the story. A memorial trail could be created for Imbros, identifying and linking the various locations connected to the Gallipoli campaign (either physically, online or both). These are some of the new concepts we are working on. Watch this space.

That's why are encouraging like minded community organization's to display the Exhibition in their own communities across Australia (and potentially overseas). These organization's can purchase a set of the light-weight panels which will be sent to them directly for their display. This will be offered at the cost of production and transportation. Other display costs such as easel hire or a-fixing to walls is at the host organization's expense.

How to Access the Exhibition

Organization's seeking to partner with us by accessing and displaying the Exhibition should contact the Imvrian Society’s project officer, Goerge Xinos via email - georgexinos@gmail.com 

An Appeal - Donations and Fundraising

All these initiatives will require funding and support. Join us on this journey to tell a forgotten story connecting Imbros and Australia. If you or your organization would like to support our ongoing work through making a financial or in-kind contribution as well as hosting a fundraising event, please contact the Imvrian Society of Melbourne’s project officer, George Xinos via email -georgexinos@gmail.com 

Jim Claven, Secretary Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee & Curator Imbros & Gallipoli Exhibition