Gallipoli Remembered

Yesterday marked 100 years since the botched campaign at Gallipoli led by hapless British commanders. 131,000 troops died in the campaign, known as one of the bloodiest of WWI.  Among those who perished were 25,000 British, troops, and one of them was my grand-mother's uncle John "Jack" Maxwell (1869 - 1915).

At the time, Jack was a Corporal in the Fife and Forfar Yoemanry, with the Household Cavalry and Cavalry of the Line regiment.  The FFY was first created to protect against a possible invasion from France in the 18th century.  Its long history stretches into the present day.  

The FFY embarked for this campaign at Devonport on the HMT Andania.  It was a rush to get everyone and the cargo packed on board and they left on September 8, 1915 for Africa.  Interesting that this was after the main British force landed at Gallipoli in August, which perhaps accounts for their sense of urgency.   The FFY skirted enemy submarines and hugged the North Coast of Africa as they made their way to Alexandria, from where they would continue on on foot to embark at Mudros Harbour.  They would be shepherded on ships for a night landing at Gallipoli.  

Suvla

They landed at Suvla Bay on September 26.  The landings at Suvla were the final British attempt to break the deadlock at the Battle of Gallipoli.  An account of the FFY portion of the campaign by Major Ogilvie gives us a very good sense of what Uncle Jack ran into when arriving in Turkey at Suvla:

Highland Barricade at Suvla

Imagining the whole Suvla plain and its surrounding hills to be a horse-shoe, you might say the Turks held round three parts of the shoe, leaving us with the two heels at Caracol Dagh on the north and Anzac on the south, and a line between these two points across the plain. This plain was practically bare, but Caracol Dagh was thickly covered with dwarf oak and scrub, and Anzac with a good undergrowth of rhododendron, veronica, and other similar bushes. At Sulajik (the centre of the horse-shoe), and immediately to the north of it, and also round the villages in the Turkish lines, were numbers of fine trees, but nowhere that we could see was there anything that could be called a wood. As regards the soil, the gullies at Anzac on the spurs of Sari Bahr were quite bewildering in their heaped up confusion, partly rocky, but mainly a sort of red clay and very steep. In the centre it was a yellower clay with patches of sand and bog, and on Caracol Dagh it was all rock and stones, so that digging was impossible, and all defences were built either with stones or sandbags.

The view looking back to the sea from almost any part of our line was glorious. Hospital ships and men-of-war, and generally monitors and troop-ships in the Bay, and on the horizon the peaks of Imbros and Samothrace reflecting the glorious sunrises and sunsets of the Levant.

A trench kept intact today to remember
the battle

Early days in Suvla were focused on digging trenches and avoiding strafing from enemy troops.  In between shifts, soldiers bathed on the beautiful beach.  Soon enough the FFY ran into the heavy fighting and casualties, but the worst of the vicious trench warfare and heavy casualties was yet to come.  

Jack lasted barely a month on the shores of Turkey.  On October 18, he and two others of the FFY were killed, and two more wounded.  But the suffering had barely begun for the FFY and other allied troops.  Torrential rainstorms flooded the trenches, causing trench fever and making it near impossible to get to the front line.  The bitter cold made things much worse, and the evacuation in December came far too late for many, including Uncle Jack.

Beautiful monument to the fallen

Today there is a very moving memorial to all soldiers on both sides of the war at Gallipoli.  When I was in Turkey in the 90s, I didn't know about Uncle Jack and his role in the campaign.  I wish I had.  The names of all of the fallen can be found at this international memorial.  Yesterday, people from around the world gathered there to mark 100 years since that awful campaign and terrible loss of life.  I shall remember Jack.

Ataturk's words to commemorate all of those who fought

http://thaneofife.org.uk/ffy-ww1.html 

The Fife and Forfar Yoemanry, by Major D.D. Ogilvie http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18468/18468-h/18468-h.htm 

The William Allison Left Behind… or not

Researching Allisons who did not leave Northern Ireland with our ancestors is tricky.  Being sure they are related to our ancestors is particularly complicated since Northern Ireland didn’t undertake a proper full census until 1821.  As our direct descendants had long since left their second home in Londonderry by then (their first home likely being Scotland), we have to look to all manner of other records to help us out.  Fortunately a keen interest in Northern Irish history has led to the creation of a marvelous site: PRONI (the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland).  I have a hankering to some day spend time there and look around. 

From here in Canada I can search the database, and many of the records are actually digitally recorded, and free of charge!  It’s painstaking detective work though, and fraught with misadventures and meanderings.  Sometimes you are certain you have stumbled on some juicy family story, and then it turns out you either can’t confirm the characters in the story are related to you, or you confirm they are not. 

I am going to recount a little something which I am now convinced is unrelated to our branch of the Allison family tree, but is pretty interesting nonetheless.  You should probably know, first of all, a little about the Abercorns.  They were a rather wealthy Scottish family with significant holdings in Ireland, Scotland and England.  Indeed, the First Earl of Abercorn was a promoter of the Ulster Plantation (you might remember that we surmise our first known ancestors to have emigrated to Ireland as a result of this effort by England to take over the economy of Ireland, along with Irish hearts and minds, the former being successful, the latter not so much).  The deeds for the Abercorn family all appear to relate to Northern Ireland.  This is important in order to create a family link, however tenuous, to the following story I found while browsing the PRONI database.

You may recall that our ancestors left Ireland in 1769, sailing to a new life in America, but landing accidentally, or perhaps fortuitously, in what was then Nova Scotia.  As far as I can tell, Joseph left behind a brother William (I will expound on the wonders and terrors of naming conventions in an upcoming blog).  This was not, however, the only William Allison to be found in the records of Northern Ireland.  The subject of the following correspondence to the then Earl of Abercorn is likely not our William, but is also likely, somewhere in the distant past, related to us.

In a letter dated February 19, 1773, James Hamilton writes to the Earl of Abercorn about his holdings in Northern Ireland.  He details the usual business: payments, disposals of goods, happenings of the leaseholders and so on.  He recounts that an old man named William Allison who had “lossed his eyes about three years agoe and is every way very much reduced” had seven years previous married the daughter of John Cummins.  The deal William had struck with John was to leave the daughter (unnamed) 40 pounds at the time of his death.  However, William, unable to manage the house and grounds, wants to sell his lease and live off the proceeds.  John Cummins claims this amounts to William reneging on the deal.  William counters that “his wife of late has neglected him” and he can no longer manage the property.  Cummins argues that he will work the land for Allison.  William Allison, in fact, advertised his land for sale without the landowner’s knowledge.  Cummins’ complaints put a stop to that.  The writer of the correspondence, Hamilton, promised to write to his Lordship to settle the matter.

There is undoubtedly a lack of trust between the families, and Hamilton can’t seem to decide on who is the more truthful:

Allison says if he has leave to sell, that his wife shall share with him while he lives, and have all at his death, but Cummins thinks that when he has converted all into money, that he will go away and live with some of his relations; Allison declares against that, and says what induces him to sell is, that should he outlive his lease, that he will not then be found a fit tenant for it; the land would sell for about 25 Pounds and from what I hear he is not worth 10 pounds beside.

Correspondence moved slowly in the 18^th century, and it wasn’t until the end of March that things were settled.  Hamilton acknowledges receipt of the Earl’s decision on the matter:

I will let William Allison…know that he may sell without paying a fine and that the purchase money is to be lent for the benefit of his wife, if she survives him, and that he is to have the interest of it for his life.

It’s pretty clear there’s no love lost between Allison and his father-in-law.  Cummins had offered to pay Allison three pounds a year for the rest of his life if he would live “separate from his wife”.  Further, Cummins would take care of the farm, and demand nothing further from Allison.  Hamilton is clearly on Allison’s side though, describing the old man as “blind and helpless and as he will scarce have what his farm will sell for clear, probably he will have little to leave.”  Hamilton even tried to convince Allison to live with his father-in-law, but “he was quite against that.”  I guess!

  

Sources:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/help/history.html

http://www.proni.gov.uk/   

http://www.proni.gov.uk/introduction_abercorn_d623.pdf

The Dresses

I promised in the wedding post to transcribe the descriptions of the dresses worn by the bridal party.  While the attire sounded sumptuous, I am simply too fashion ignorant to appreciate what was written.  So, for the benefit of those who understand these things better than I,  here it is, from the newspaper report of the wedding of Joseph Ringen  Allison and Norma Grace Hayward, June 1, 1935.

Edward Molyneux - English fashion
designer

The bride, who was given in marriage by her father, wore a Molyneaux gown of ivory furro satin made on fitted lines with a long train.  The bodice had a large quilted bib extending over the shoulders and was caught with two large satin buttons at the waist in the back, from where it lengthened into a long widening court train.  The sleeves were long and tight fitting and finished at the wrists with tiny satin covered buttons.  Her veil of ivory tulle fell from a Marina coronet of matching corded satin and was caught at the sides with knots of orange blossoms, from where it fell in soft folds beyond her train in the back.  Her shower bouquet was of butterfly roses and lilies-of-the-valley.

Jeanne Lanvin - French fashion designer

Miss Margaret Hayward, sister of the bride, was maid of honor and Miss Ruth Hayward, also a sister, and Miss Mavis Peat were bridesmaids.  They wore Lanvin gowns of Margaret Rose mousseline de soie with large overcheck of jubilee blue over taffeta slips.  The gowns were made on long flowing lines with rows of upturned self-pleating on the skits and bodices having detachable capes at the neckline, caught in the front with nosegay anchors of taffeta.  The maid of honor's gown was work over pale pink and the bridesmaids' slips were of palest blue.  Their hats were halo models of Tuscan Milan straw with taffeta trims tied in the front in a small tailored bow.  Their bouquets were old-fashioned nosegays.
 ...
After the ceremony a reception was held at the home of the bride's parents, Queen Square, where the guests were received by Mr. and Mrs. Hayward, Mr. and Mrs. Allison and the wedding party.  The drawingroom and halls were decorated with a profusion of snapdragon and sweetpeas.  In the dining room the bride's table had in the centre a tiered wedding cake surmounted by a miniature bride and bridegroom; small silver vases of sweetpeas in the pastel shared and ivory tapers in silver candlesticks completed the decorative scheme.

...

The bride traveled in an ensemble of beige imported French wool and linen tweed.  The swagger coat of self material was lined throughout with matching crepe and the flare stitched cuffs were finished with large brown buttons.  The vest of the suit had an Ascot scarf after Schiaparrelli.  Her hat was of matching stitched felt with contracting band, and she wore brown shows and accessories.

Mrs. Hayward, mother of the bride, was wearing a becoming gown of Mousseline Madonna in Corsaire blue.  The bodice had accentuated sleeves, hand-embroidered with crystals and rhinestones after Ardanse.  Her girdle was cerise and her hat was of blue straw darker than her gown.  She wore a corsage of deep pink roses.  Mrs. Allison wore a dress of cornflower blue lace with an American beauty velvet belt.  The bodice had a hip length cape shirred on a yoke and she wore a hat of American beauty leghorn straw trimmed with a rosette of matching grosgrain ribbon.  Her corsage was of red roses.  Little Miss Joan Hayward, sister of the bride, wore a dress of peach crepe with smocked yoke. her hat of natural colored straw was trimmed with wheat.  Mrs. James V. Russell, sister of the bridegroom, wore a dress of turquoise blue chiffon, the bodice having large sleeves trimmed with serpentine bands of taffeta and a taffeta sash of the same shade.  Her hat was of natural colored straw and her shoes and gloves were brown.

Norma Grace Hayward wearing Molyneux and looking fabulous