Moray Man Remembers WW1 Hero Dad

A Moray man is among 15 descendants of Gallipoli veterans joining the Prince of Wales and Prince Harry at a centenary commemoration event in Turkey.

Sir James Dunbar-Nasmith, from Findhorn will commemorate his father, Lieutenant-Commander Martin Nasmith RN.

The Churchill-backed attack in 1915 attempted to knock one of Germany's main allies, the Ottoman Empire, out of the war.

But it failed, despite more than half a million Allied servicemen pouring in to the area, at a cost of around 58,000 lives either in battle or from disease.

The debacle led to Churchill being sacked from the War Cabinet, and was at the time the most deadly campaign of the First World War.

The descendants who will pay tribute at a ceremony at the Helles Memorial on April 24 are members of the Gallipoli Association.

Its chairman, Captain Christopher Fagan, said: It is a great honour for the Gallipoli Association to have been invited by the UK Government to assist with this opportunity for British descendants to attend the service at Cape Helles.''

Charles and his youngest son will be at the ceremony, and a dawn service the following morning, Anzac Day.

The Gallipoli Campaign is of great historical importance to Australia and New Zealand, and stories of their soldiers' heroics in the face of horrific conditions including heat, flies and lack of supplies have become part of their national identities.

But the British contribution - not least the 29,500 British and Irish lives lost - must be honoured in the Gallipoli commemorations, the descendants felt.

Lieutenant-Commander Nasmith was recognised with a Victoria Cross.

He received his VC as a submarine commander who led three patrols through the Dardanelles into the Sea of Marmara and Constantinople Harbour, in the course of which he sank 97 Turkish ships, blew up a railway viaduct, and fought a troop of Turkish cavalry on a cliff.

Sarah Kellam, from Taunton, Somerset, will be honouring her grandfather, Lieutenant William John Symons, who served with the 7th Battalion Australian Imperial Forces (Anzac) and was awarded the VC for defending Jacob's Post on his own in the thick of the fighting during the August offensive at the Battle of Lone Pine.

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) worked with the Gallipoli Association to offer the opportunity to 15 of its members to attend the Commonwealth and Ireland Service on April 24.

Many members of the Gallipoli Association were interested in attending and the 15 selected will be paying for their own travel to Turkey.