The Beach Cemetery

At that moment there came up the trench Captain Bage, a regular officer of the Australian Engineers, well known in the commonwealth as a member of Mawson’s Australasian expedition to the Antartic. “Here’s the man,” cried Bridges, and directed Bage to make the survey. To mark out such works (*) was a traditional duty of military engineers; it would

were directed upon them. Bage was hit first in the arm, then in the leg, and finally through the head, and killed; ...
... Bage’s body was left until dark, when at great risk one of the covering party, Lance-Corporal Joyce, and some men of the 11th searched for and brought it in.

"The story of Anzac", Volume II, (Sydney 1981), Charles E. W. Bean, p. 257

(*) the line of a redoubt/trench east of Bolton’s ridge

to have disregarded the challenge of one of his own sentries. The sentry shot him.

"The story of Anzac", Volume I, (Sydney 1981), Charles E. W. Bean, p. 599

This morning one of our chaps was firing through a loophole when a bullet came in, glanced along the barrel, then rico-chetted at an unfortunate agle and killed young Trooper Bellinger, one of the best lads in my troop.

"Love Letters of an Anzac" , Oliver Hogue (trooper bluegum), p. 115

Commander Cater, hoarse from shouting through his megaphone, directed the incoming barges to their proper piers and superintended the Anzac Beach parties in making them fast –no easy matter, while the only illumination for the whole bay and its foreshores was the light of the stars, or of a rare stable lantern swinging in the hand of one of the officers or tucked behind some stack of provisions where work was active.

On August 5 the gallant Cater was killed and Lt Cowan wounded in rushing out along the pier to steady the crew of a small steamboat which had been holed during a bombardment.

"The story of Anzac", Volume II, (Sydney 1981), Charles E. W. Bean, p. 352 & 357

eastern peg, when the Turks at the head of the same knuckle and also farther back on Lone Pine, 250 yards distant, opened fire. It had been establised that at least five machine-guns

wore monocles, but Kater’s was what would be known now as a king size one. The black silk ribbon attached to it was much wider than those normally used. There was a current story of some Australian soldiers who put their identity discs in their eye-sockets as they approached a British officer who was wearing a monocle. The officer looked at them, removed his glass, threw it in the air, and caught it neatly in the socket of his eye. “Do that, you blighters”, he said.I have no evidence that Kater was the officer concerned, but that is the kind of thing which he might well have done, although he would have used a stronger word than blighters.

"These Things Happened", (Melbourne 1975), F.F. Knight, p. 159-160

Ambulance north of Ariburnu early on the 25th April, but by the following day had established him-self as virtually an inde-pendent unit, leading a donkey carrying wounded from the front down Monash and Shrapnel Valleys to the beach. In the first three weeks of the campaign he became a familiar sight, always cheerful and oblivious of danger. He was killed by machine-gun fire near Steele's Post on 19 May. Although recommended for a Distinguished Conduct Medal and later the Victoria Cross, no single act of heroism could be isolated. He was, however, mentioned in Dispatches for gallant and distinguished service in the field. In 1967 Lord Casey, Governor-General of Australia, who had served at Gallipoli as General Bridges' aide-de-camp, presented Simpson's sister with the first Anzac Commemorative Medallion.

seen the sign of a Turk, but as we moved a little to our left we discovered a trench overlooking the beach and, fixing bayonets, we received the order to go for it but, unfortunately, the Turks had no desire to wait for us when the saw the bayonet. ...
... Col. Clarke who was about 20 yards to my right, called for a signaller, and commenced to write a report to Brigade headquarters but was shot through the heart and died at once ...

Lt Ivor Margetts (12th battalion AIF) quoted in "Gallipoli", (Sydney 2002), Les Carlyon, p. 139-140

Soon I came upon Col. Clarke and Lieut. Patterson and together on our hands and knees we climbed to the top of the first ridge (it was Russell’s Top). Up to this time I had not

A few hours after the first man landed, two special parties on the 2nd Field Company of Engineers, under Captain T.R. Williams and Lieutenant W. H. Dawkins, began to search the gullies for water. By nightfall they had two tube wells sunk at the mouth at Shrapnel Gully. Next day Dawkins, a Duntroon boy, moved to Dawkins’ Point – the seawards end of M’Cay Hill- and by the

On the CWGCs' website one can find the following information on Simpson :
Son of Sarah Simpson Kirkpatrick, of 14, Bertram St., South Shields, Eng-land, and the late Robert Kirkpatrick. Private J S Kirkpatrick served as Private John Simpson and became the legendary 'Man with the Donkey'. Simpson landed with the Field

On the evening before the battle I found the battalion’s officers gathered on the Parade Ground, their Colonel, E.S. Brown, in the midst discussing with them the final arrangements for the attack. …
… Within a few hours the Turkish trenches at Lone Pine had been captured, but nearly every officer that I had seen on the Parade Ground was killed or wounded –my brother and the Dean among the wounded, the Colonel among the dead.

"Gallipoli Mission", (Crows Nest 1990), Charles E.W. Bean, p. 67-68

…, I should like to pay a tribute to one of the men whom I admired most at Anzac Cove. He was not an Australian; he was a British naval officer, Lieut-Commander Kater. I think that he was the senior Naval Landing Officer. That title may not have been the correct one, but he was in fact responsible for all small craft coming in and going out of Watson’s Pier. It can be said with confidence that many hundreds of Australians who saw and heard him at work, admired his efficiency and sang-froid. His coolness under fire set a wonderful example and he seemed to bear a charmed life.
He was known amongst the Australians as “The bloke with the Eye-Glass”. Many British officers

In beach cemetery –one remade by the Turks- there stood in the centre the small bronze memorial tablet that had marked the grave of Captain Brain Onslow, Bird-wood’s fine young A.D.C. who was killed by a shell from Beachy Bill while sleeping on the roof of his shelter one hot night.

"Gallipoli Mission", (Crows Nest 1990), Charles E.W. Bean, p. 65

second evening he had sunk twenty shallow wells, which gave 20.000 gallons daily of good soakage water. Troughs were immediately erected there for 500 animals. Pipes had to be laid under fire. A most useful water service had been completed, when, on May 12th, the gallant Dawkins went over to cover one of his pipes. The first shell of the day burst low in front of him and he was killed.

"The story of Anzac", Volume I, (Sydney 1981), Charles E. W. Bean, p. 573

"Graves of Major Ellis and Lieut.-Col. Braund", picture reproduced from "Five Months at Anzac, A Narrative of Personal Experiences of the Officer Commanding the 4th Field Ambulance, Australian Imperial Force", Joseph Lievesley Beeston, (Sydney 1916)

avoid unplanned digging, and Bridges did not ask of Bage more than he himself would have performed. Nevertheless the task could hardly have been more perilous. At 3 in the afternoon Bage and Drake Brockman went out ...
... The two officers, holding a stretched cord between them, had fixed the southern face of the proposed redoubt and Bage was hammering in with a stone the