by Tom Luke and Bob Bolitho
ed by D.P.G. Sheridan
Sydney Bolitho was born in Orange, New
South Wales, Australia, in 1889 to Walter and Annie (nee Eades) Bolitho. He served
in the Great War with the 6th Battalion A.I.F. At the age of 26, he
saw action at Gallipoli, and while fighting in the trenches at Gaba Tepe on the
25th of May, 1915, he wrote his only known poem, ‘Gallipoli’. This
was the same day as the sinking of the HMS Triumph. The German submarine U21,
under the command of Lieutenant Commander Otto Hersing, torpedoed and sank the
battleship HMS Triumph as the ship guarded the ship-to-shore transports
off Anzac Cove. General William Birdwood, commander of the Anzac Corps, wrote
that the Triumph 'suddenly turned just like a fish diving, and went straight to
the bottom. It was really rather an awful sight and most solemn'. This was part
of the action just after the Turkish counter-attack on the 19th of
May. The attack lasted until the 24th, when a temporary truce was
agreed in order that the Turks could collect and bury their dead from No Man's
Land. The very next day, HMS Triumph
was sunk, and as a result, Admiral Sir John de Roebuck recalled the British
battleships to the comparative safety of Mudros harbour. British war
correspondent Compton Mackenzie wrote:
The sense of abandonment
was acute … every man had paused to stare at the unfamiliar emptiness of the
water … it is certain that the Royal Navy has never executed a more
demoralising manoeuvre in the whole of its history.
Having
witnessed the events in the harbour, and experienced the Turkish
counter-attack, Sydney Bolitho sat in his dug out at Gaba Tepe and penned his
poem ‘Gallipoli’ on the 25th of May. Shortly after this, he was
seriously wounded in both legs and sent back to England to recover. However,
his wounds were bad enough to end his war, and as a result, he would take no
more part in the fighting. Tragically, while recovering back in England,
complications developed and he contracted tuberculosis, which ultimately caused
his death on the 1st of May, 1919, nearly 4 years to the day of his
writing ‘Gallipoli’. He was buried at the White Hills cemetery in Bendigo,
Victoria, Australia.
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