Lemnos Heroes - Phillip Schuler - Melbourne Journalist and War Correspondent

Schuler, with binoculars and maps, watching the movement of Allied Shipping in Mudros Harbour from Mt Elias, Lemnos. Photo AWM

Phillip Schuler was one of Australia's pre-eminent journalists to cover the Gallipoli campaign, including the role of Lemnos in the campaign. Along with Charles Bean Keith Murdoch and the British correspondent Ellis Ashmead Bartlett, Schuler played a major role in crafting what would become Australia's Anzac legend. But he has been overshadowed by his more well-known peers.

A short biographical article by the The Age's Mark Baker seeks to correct the record. He argues that it was:

"Phillip Schuler's evocative, insightful and compassionate dispatches from Gallipoli that were the ones which most eloquently captured the horror and the heroism for Australian newspaper readers, and which first revealed the scandalous neglect and mistreatment of wounded Australian soldiers."

In 1916 he published the first account of Australia's role in the Dardanelles campaign - Schuler's 1916 book, Australia in Arms . And it was Schuler, the amateur, accidental photographer whose hundreds of images from the trenches remain our most poignant and precious archive of the era.

The son of the editor of Melbourne's The Age, Frederick Schuler, Phillip sailed to Egypt and Lemnos as the special correspondent of the paper. He sailed in the first troopship convoy, aboard the HMAT Orvieto - the troopship selected by the Victorian Govenrment as a focus for the 2015 Centenary of Anzac. 

Phillip Schuler, on the right, with Charles Bean (second left), c 1914. Photo AWM

Phillip Schuler, atop the Great Pyramid, Egypt, January 1915. Photographer Charles Bean. Photo AWM.

His observations and reports of the landings, the aftermath of battle, the lack of medical triaging, poor medical treatments aboard the hospital ships and the conditions the Anzacs were forced to live and fight in, played a key role in improving medical conditions for the Anzacs.

After Gallipoli, Schuler volunteered as a Private in the Australian Army Service Corps. In June 1917 and after being promoted to Lieutenant he was fatally wounded by shell fire near the front at Messines in Western France. He is buried in Trois-Arbres cemetery, France.

Lest we forget. Below are reproduced some of Phillip Schuler's photographs from the AWM archive.

Myrina (or Castro). Photographer Phillip Schuler 1915. Photo AWM

Australian troops practice landing procedures on Lemnos. Photographer Phillip Schuler 1915. Photo AWM

Lemnos. Photographer Phillip Schuler 1915. Photo AWM

Lemnos. Photographer Phillip Schuler 1915. Photo AWM

Pier at Mudros. Photographer Phillip Schuler 1915. Photo AWM

Pier at Mudros. Photographer Phillip Schuler 1915. Photo AWM

Merchant ships sunk as a break water Lemnos. Photographer Phillip Schuler 1915. Photo AWM

His evocative images of Lemnos are important elements in the Australian War Memorials archive - especially the images of himself and George Renwick (Correspondent for the Daily Chronicle) on top of Lemnos' great and scared Mount Ilias, watching the assembled mighty Allied fleet in April 1915 pictured above.

To read the article by Mark Baker in The Age click here.

George Renwick, watching the movement of Allied Shipping in Mudros Harbour from Mt Elias, Lemnos. Photographed by Phillip Schuler. Photo AWM

Captain Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean (C. E. W.) standing on a Pyramid, on New Year's Day. Beneath him is Mena Camp. Photograph by Phillip Schuler. Photo AWM

Jim Claven

Secretary

Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee

Lemnos Çanakkale Tourism Conference Supports Anzac Tourism Action

The view of the famous Sphinx formation, above Anzac Cove, at the Gallipoli peninsula, the scene of such bloody fighting in 1915. Hopefully tourists will soon be able to visit Anzac sites such as this and on Lermnos more easily due to the work of the Lemnos and Çanakkale authorities and businesses. Photo Jim Claven 2013.

All of us who support Lemnos' efforts to build commemorative Anzac tourism will welcome the outcome of the first Lemnos Çanakkale Tourism Conference, held at Çanakkale in Turkey last weekend, 19-20th January 2014.

Çanakkale from the ferry to Gallipoli. Photo Jim Claven 2013

A view of the famous "Narrows" separating the Gallipoli peninsula from Çanakkale - the site of famous naval battles in 1915, including the successful voyage of Australia's AE2 submarine. Photo Jim Claven 2013

The Conference brought together municipal government and tourism industry representatives from both Lemnos and Çanakkale in Turkey. The Lemnos Municipality was represented there (including the Deputy Mayor Demetri Boulotis) and tourism representatives from Lemnos (including Stelios Mantzaris, the manager of the major Varos Village Hotel and Resort).
The Conference participants resolved their main purpose in coming together: "The main purpose of this organisation is the development of  cooperation areas between Çanakkale and Lemnos in order to add economic and cultural value to both sides.  Doing so, joint development of tourism and trade and the exchange of education and cultural activities are the main point of interest. All and all, to build up a long lasting friendship of Turkey and Greece would be the core output"

Çanakkale town at night. Photo Jim Claven 2013

This new spirit of cooperation is to be commended.

The main outcome is a commitment to encourage tourism between Gallipoli and Lemnos in the run-up to the Centenary in 2015. They identify a range of things they want to progress so they can encourage Anzac tourism (as well as Turkish tourism to Lemnos and vice-verse). The specific measures adopted are: 

• Improved temporary tourism visa arrangements, with a visa office requested to be opened at Çanakkale and on Lemnos;
• The development of common tourism programs, including the facilitation of Anzac tourism and other tourism products (such as cultural tourism associated with the Ottoman era Niyazi Mısri Muslim scholar). The latter includes the establishment of a cultural centre and infrastructure restoration on the Niyazi Misri tomb;  
• Participation in each others festivals, including invitations to Imbros authorities to participate (with specific examples cited);   
• Educational exchange programs;  
• Request for 12 months continuous and stable transportation for mutual development of trade and cooperation on both sides, as well as air links between Lemnos and Çanakkale .  

The participants agreed to take action to further these proposals at a government and business level, and will meet again on Lemnos in 6-7th April 2014.

A copy of Conference Press Release is available in English by clicking here. And in Greek by clicking here.

This Conference and its outcomes is significant. Not only is it the first such conference but it has given a real commitment to economic cooperation between Lemnos and Turkey. It augurs well for Lemnos and hopefully it will benefit from tourism as other Aegean Islands near Turkey do - such Lesvos, Samos, Chios, Kos and Rhodes.

The current port at Plaka on Lemnos' north western coast, close to Imbros and Çanakkale . Could this be the location for a new fast sea transport connection to Çanakkale and Gallipoli? Photo Jim Claven 2013

Congratulations to the Lemnos Municipality, Lemnos Hoteliers Association and their Turkish counterparts in Çanakkale for creating this important initiative. And especially to the work of Demetri and Stelios - good friends of the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee.

Jim Claven

Secretary

Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee

New Lemnos Gallipoli Promotional Video Released

Varos Village, one of the major hotels and resorts on Lemnos, has released a short promotional video on the Lemnos Gallipoli link. It's great that a local Lemnians are actively promoting the link to Gallipoli in advance of the Centenery in 2015.
Stelios Mantzaris and Varos Village have always been strong supporters of the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee. A big thank you to Stelios from the Committee for your efforts!

Enjoy the video by clicking on the following link - Lemnos Gallipoli Promotional Video 2014

ANZACS in World War I - Centenery Promotion by NSW Archives

Anzac Day celebrations during the 1917 Railway Strike, Eveleigh Workshops. NSW State Archives

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign - in 2015 - State Records NSW will be highlighting a selection of State archives relating to NSW soldiers and nurses from throughout World War I that encapsulate the Anzac spirit!

For more information on the NSW Archives Anzac Centenery initiatives follow the following link -NSW State Archives - Gallipoli Anzacs