The real John Simpson
On 19 May 1915, John Kirkpatrick, a young Geordie from South Fields in England took a machinegun bullet in the back, died instantly, and became a legendary Australian hero.
Few Australians would recognize this reference, because Kirkpatrick enlisted in the Australian Army using his middle name. He became Private John Simpson, ‘the man with the donkey’, selfless hero of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign.
Simpson typified the ANZAC soldier: he was young, he fought courageously … and he didn’t last long. Simpson was 22 when he landed at Gallipoli on April 25, and managed to survive just 24 punishing days.
Simpson the hero – and deserter
As a stretcher bearer in the 3rd Field Ambulance, he inspired awe in the ravaged troops and won the hearts of the Australian people. On landing, Simpson commandeered a donkey and carried hundreds of wounded men to safety, oblivious to the rifle fire raining down on him from the Turkish position at the top of the cliffs.
He courted death from the moment he stepped from the landing barge. As second man over the side, he witnessed the instant death of soldiers on either side of him. He staggered ashore among a litter of bodies and immediately became a lone agent, abandoning his corps and ignoring his commanding officer. He found the donkey “Duffy” and began his remarkable solo rescue mission. For the first four days he was classed as a deserter, until his commanding officer saw the work he was doing and took no further action.
Kirkpatrick’s childhood in England
It was as if Kirkpatrick’s short life had been a preparation for this single historic moment. The Medical Journal of Australia records that, at age twelve, he left school to support his family by delivering milk with a horse and cart. Each summer, he worked with a donkey ride concession at Murphy’s Fair and developed a great love for the animal that was to feature in his act of heroism.
He left home at seventeen to travel the world in the Merchant Navy. For the next four years, he would regularly send money home to his mother. Fate determined that, stuck with a bad voyage on a bad ship, the Yedda, he would jump ship at Newcastle, Australia.
Simpson enlists in Australia
There commenced Kirkpatrick’s four-year sojourn in Australia, where he worked as a cane-cutter, boundary rider and, finally, boiler stoker on board another steamer. Jumping ship for the second time, Kirkpatrick enlisted in the 3rd Field Ambulance as John Simpson, probably fearing, as a Gallipoli House account asserts, that a deserter from the Merchant Marine would be refused.
Simpson hated Australia
Ironically, this much-loved Australian hero enlisted principally because he was fed up with Australia, was home-sick for the Tyne and eager to see his family again. His frequent letters to his family reveal that he believed he would get free passage to Britain for basic training, where he thought he would be able to see his family before being sent to France. Instead, his troopship was diverted to Egypt, the staging place for the Gallipoli offensive.
Thus, fate turned a disaffected English deserter into an Australian Gallipoli legend, whose story is reverently aired every ANZAC Day.
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