News
HRH commemorates the 90th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings
24th April 2005
The Prince of Wales joined representatives from Europe, Asia, North America and Australasia to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Gallipoli Landings.
The Prince joined a 20,000-strong pilgrimage to watch the sun rise over what is now known as Anzac Cove in Southern Turkey, where Allied troops came ashore at the start of the Gallipoli Campaign on 25th April, 1915.
Around 21,000 British troops were killed in the landings in 1915. However, the anniversary has particular resonance with the people of Australia and New Zealand.
The Gallipoli Campaign was the first time their nations lost significant numbers of young men in war, and so the landing spot has become known as Anzac Cove after the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.
A memorial service was held overlooking the inhospitable cliffs and crags in which the Allied forces suffered so many losses.
The Prince delivered the first reading at the dawn service, from Psalm 121: “ I will lift up mine eyes to the hills, from whence cometh my help.”
Also present at the service were Australian Prime Minister John Howard and New Zealand Premier Helen Clark, who both delivered addresses.
After the hymn Abide with Me, The Prince of Wales laid a wreath against the Memorial to commemorate those that had lost their lives during the campaign.
After an Act of Remembrance, The Prince laid a wreath at the Commonwealth Memorial which holds the names of 13,000 Commonwealth servicemen buried in unidentified graves and another 14,000 whose bodies were never found when the British were allowed back into Turkey after the end of the First World War.
Among the names on the monument is that of Corporal Orman Lankester, of Mistley, Essex. His niece, 55-year-old Hazel Smith, from Kettering, Northamptonshire, was at the service and laid her own personal wreath.
She said: “ I feel very proud but I also feel pretty sad.”
“When I look at the sheer face of the cliffs and see how there was absolutely no chance for them, they were just like lambs to the slaughter.
“I know that my father would be so proud that I am here.”
Since moving to Turkey, Ms Smith has learnt of another distant relative who died near Helles Point.
She took the opportunity to show The Prince of Wales the grave of Major John Henry Dives Costeker who, after being injured at Ypres, was sent to Gallipoli only to die in the notorious landing at “V” Beach. V Beach was the landing point for British and Irish forces on 25th April and the site of some of the heaviest losses.
A grass cemetery, the Lancashire Landing Cemetery, stands very close to the sea shore and lies between a cliff face and the ruins of an Ottoman fort.
The Prince of Wales visited the cemetery with Chaplain Geoffrey Evans, who has conducted many of the past services held on the Gallipoli Anniversary.
The Prince later received a warm welcome at special Australian, Turkish and New Zealand memorial services and took time to meet veterans from the Second World War and other conflicts.
He later attended a reception on board HMS Chatham, anchored off Gallipoli, and paid tribute to the crew for their recent efforts in the tsunami hit areas of Sri Lanka.