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South Shields 'Man With The Donkey' Remembered in song

A South Tyneside Gallipolian has recently been immortalised in an epic song - The eight-minute track tells the story of a South Shields-born soldier John Simpson Kirkpatrick who quickly became an Australia hero as many of us know. The newspaper story from the Shields Gazette, just forwarded by one of our members, is reproduced below.

A South Tyneside war hero has been immortalised in an epic song.

The eight-minute track tells the amazing story of brave South Shields-born soldier John Simpson Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick saved the lives of many fellow soldiers while serving as a stretcher bearer in the Gallipoli campaign during World War One.

He became known as 'the man with the donkey', after using his faithful animal to bring wounded soldiers to safety. Now the story of the heroic borough soldier has been set to music by Newcastle-based band White Fire Sky. Starting from his humble beginnings, the song - Shadow On The Shore - charts Kirkpatrick's early life, including leading children on a donkey in summer rides on the beach at South Shields.

Kirkpatrick later became his family's sole breadwinner, before making his mark on military history while serving with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during the Gallipoli campaign. The brave borough soldier and his donkey saved many lives before Kirkpatrick was killed, aged just 22, in May 1915.

Victoria Siddoway, of White Fire Sky, said: "It was certainly a challenge trying to keep the length of the story down, while trying not to miss any details of Kirkpatrick's amazing life.

"He really was a hero and this is a story that we love telling."

Fellow band member Craig McDearmid added: "Real lives are being lost as we speak. It is all over the news, and this song serves as a reminder that when it comes to war, there really aren't any winners."

The song called "Shadow on the Shore" and associated YouTube video has been added to the Gallipoli Association sites Film Library, see /films

SOURCE: http://www.shieldsgazette.com/lifestyle/entertainment/war_hero_immortalised_in_song_1_3522758

On This Day...

Monday, 17 May 1915

GALLIPOLI - Flight Commander Reginald Marix and his observer Charles Samson were involved in an interesting mission on 17 May 1915. That morning Marix....

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GALLIPOLI - Flight Commander Reginald Marix and his observer Charles Samson were involved in an interesting mission on 17 May 1915. That morning Marix had noticed an unusual degree of activity at the port sighting four transports and several smaller craft visibly unloading stores and troops at the small port of Ak Bashi Liman.

Aerial Samson
Photograph: Taken by Squadron Commander Charles Samson on 17 May.

He also saw a large camp filled with soldiers further inland. He returned in the afternoon with Samson as his observer. They took the opportunity to try out a new aircraft as Samson would later recall.

"On May 17th Marix had his big Breguet ready for action. As our principle objective with this aeroplane was an attack on Constantinople, we had to test it out well before allowing the attempt to be made, so in order to see what it could do I made one of my infrequent trips as passenger. We carried no less than one 100-lb and fourteen 20-lb bombs, and also a Lewis gun, a pretty formidable amount for those days. Off we set with the idea of giving Ak Bashi Liman a look-over. Arriving there, we found the place a scene of great activity. We let go all our bombs and created complete panic, and also did a lot of damage. I have since talked with Turks who were actually on the spot at the time, and they all said that we put a complete stop to work for two days, as the labourers fled to the hills. The loss of life was severe, thirteen killed and forty-four wounded. Marix and I came back delighted with the Breguet; but rather doubtful if the engine was reliable enough as it was missing fire most of the time." (Squadron Commander Charles Samson, No. 3 Squadron, Royal Naval Air Service)

The two then carried out a more detailed reconnaissance and when their reports reached the GHQ it was concluded that a new Turkish division (it was the 2nd Division) was in transit and would be launching an attack on Anzac in the near future. Warnings reached the trenches on 18 May and as a ressult the Turks would be slaughtered when they launched mass attacks on the early morning of 19 May.