Ballarat men at Gallipoli 3

Eric William Tulloch in the uniform of
the 86th Infantry (West Australian Rifles)

Eric William Tulloch (1883-1926) was born in Ballarat into the Tulloch brewing family, his grandfather having established Ballarat Brewing Company.  Eric was educated at Ballarat College and Melbourne Grammar School, were he represented the school in football and rowed in the first eight and four. In 1901-02 he won the Victorian Champion VIII's title for the Albert Park Rowing Club and in 1902-04 represented the State in the victorious interstate eight-oared crew.

He was apprenticed at Foster Brewing, and later worked at R. Marks and Co. in Maldon, and then worked as head brewer in Perth at the Swallow Brewery.

He served in several Citizens Militias and was captain in the 86th Infantry (West Australian Rifles) by 1913.  He joined the Australian Imperial Force in January 1915.  He was specially selected to land with his battalion at Gallipoli.

That fateful day, after bringing his company over the Sphinx and past the Nek, Tulloch, with Lieutenant Mordaunt Reid, pressed on with 60 men over Baby 700, toward the Third Ridge, with the intention of reaching Battleship Hill as per their orders.  It was about mid-morning when the party reached the south-east shoulder of Battleship Hill, from where they were actually able to sight the Narrows. But they were repelled by enemy fire.  Tulloch’s advance was as far towards the heights of Chunuk Bair as any Anzac came on 25 April 1915. In 1919, Charles Bean found an Australian water bottle with a bullet hole on Battleship Hill, evidence that this was where Tulloch and his men had reached.

He was injured as they retreated, and was sent to recover in Australia. In October 1917 he was posted to France where he was gassed in the second battle of Passchendaele, and fought on the Somme. On 23 August 1918 near Chuignolles he commanded two companies and captured Froissy Wood; on 18 September at Hargicourt, he rushed a German trench, armed only with a revolver, and overpowered and captured the crews of two enemy machine-guns, taking 6 prisoners. He was awarded the Military Cross and Bar for these actions, and given command of the 12th Battalion.

In February 1919, still in England, he was appointed officer-in-charge of the rowing section, sports branch, and coached the A.I.F. crew which won the King's Cup at Royal Henley.

On his return to Australia Tulloch took up a senior position at the Victoria Brewery where he worked until his strange death: early on the morning of 8 May 1926 he disturbed an intruder in his room at the boarding house where he was staying after a rowing regatta. During a struggle Tulloch was fatally shot. No motive for the killing could be established and the identity of the murderer was never  discovered. Tulloch's funeral was conducted with full military honours. After a service at Melbourne Grammar chapel, the procession, more than a mile long, proceeded to Brighton cemetery by way of St Kilda Road which was lined by thousands of people.

Ballarat men at Gallipoli 2

Alexander Henry White (1882-1915) was born in Ballarat  in 1882 to Alexander White a maltster originally from Scotland and his English wife Eliza. He was educated in Ballarat at Grenville College and after finishing school joined his father, brother and grandfather in the family malting business.  His grandfather was Joe White who owned Joe White Maltings in Gregory St, Ballarat. Young Alexander was an active member of Wendouree Tennis Club, Ballarat Yacht Club, Ballarat Golf Club and the Ballarat Caledonia Society.

He had also served in the Citizens Forces since 1899, and by 1914 was a major in the 5th Light Horse Brigade.  He was appointed Commanding Officer of the 8th Light Horse Regiment which he took to Gallipoli in May 1915. Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander White was wounded at Walker's Ridge on 27 June, but was not evacuated.

White gallantly led the first wave of his troops forward at the Battle of the Nek on 7th August and was immediately killed on leaving the trench, sustaining a bullet wound to the head. Alexander White was posthumously Mentioned in Dispatches for his Gallipoli service and is commemorated on the Lone Pine Memorial

One of his fellow officers described White as one of the finest men he had ever met.  "He was one of nature's true gentleman and his men would do anything for him."

He left behind a wife and son.

Lt. Col. Alexander Henry White. Courtesy of the Australian War Memorial

Ballarat men at Gallipoli 1

William Kinsey Bolton -
National Library of Australia, nla.pic-an23251721

William Kinsey Bolton, CBE, VD (1860-1941) was born in Cheshire in England.  He migrated to Victoria in 1868. 10 years later he joined the Southern Rifles, a militia group.  He received a commission in 1891, and led the officers' rifle team to victory during the Federation celebrations in 1901.  By the outbreak of the First World War, Bolton was Commanding Officer of the Ballarat based 70th Infantry, and in August 1914, he was appointed commander of the 8th Battalion, which was largely recruited from Ballarat and country Victoria. He was already an older man and not in great health, but he was determined to go to the War.  Unfortunately after participating in the early ANZAC battles, including in particular, that at Krithia, by 22nd May 1915, Bolton's health had deteriorated to such an extent that he was replaced as Commanding Officer by Lieutenant Colonel Charles Brand. There is a rather tragic letter written by him, included in his service records: the strenuous work of the last 3 weeks has been too much for a man of my years...I am broken in body and mind: the horrors at Aitchi Baba [sic] were more than I could stand... As the first CO of the 8th Battalion, Bolton established the standards which were to carry the battalion through later campaigns, and also achieved the enduring reputation of being a CO forever solicitious of his troops' welfare. (1)

Bolton returned to Australia, and received a hero's welcome in Ballarat.  Later he was elected to the Australian Senate, serving from 1917-1923.  In 1918 he was awarded the CMG, and retired from the Army with the rank of Honorary Brigadier-General.

He was the first President of the Ballarat branch of the RSL (Returned Sailors and Soldiers League) and the founding Federal President of the RSL, a position he held from 1916 until 1919.

There is a more detailed biography at the Australian Dictionary of Biography of Bolton, indicating the positives and negatives of his career.  He was accused of cowardice at Gallipoli, but he was able to refute all those claims.

(1) Austin, Ron Cobbers in khaki: the history of the 8th battalion 1914-1918

Gallipoli Evacuation

Percy Lay, from Ballan, kept a diary during the whole of his WW1 service.  A copy was published in 1983, and we have a copy in the Australiana Research Room if you would like to read it.  We are going to let Percy tell of the evacuation:

December 11 and 12 1915.

Went up into the front line. 5th and 6th Btns. went off the Peninsula. Where and why they were going was a bit of a mystery. Heard that they had gone to Imbros because there were too many troops on ANZAC.

December 13, 1915.

Heard we were to evacuate ANZAC but would not believe it.

December 14, 1915.

Started to shift stores and ammunition as fast as possible.  We could get almost anything just for the asking. It seems as though we really are going to leave the peninsula.

December 15, 1915.

Spent the day destoying picks and shovels and emptying out rum casks and burying explosives. It seems a shame.

December 16, 1915.

Carted bombs down to the beach. Our planes up all day over their lines. It was reported we had captured a Turkish spy in our lines.

December 17, 1915.

Tipped out about 500 gallons of rum but while on this working party we got a lot of their very best stores. Tipping rum seems a terrible waste of good stuff.  There were strict orders that nobody was to touch a drop of it.

December 18, 1915.

Heard that we were to leave the same evening and left things so that they would be no use to the Turks.  We also blew up a few of our guns.  Left the trench at 5.15pm and had a quick trip to the beach. Troops started evacuating and everything going very smoothly.  Not much stuff left for the Turks.  "Beachy Bill" [Turkish gun at Gaba Tepe] only fired three shots. A bit hard on us old chaps, sneaking away like rats, having to leave so many of our old mates buried there, and then finding that our efforts were no good.  We had sandbags on our boots and our bayonets covered. In fact we were like criminals sneaking away.  We embarked on the "Abbessiah".

December 19, 1915.

Went off "Abbessiah" on the "WINIFREDAN" in Mudros Bay to await a boat to take us ashore on Lemnos.  Disembarked and went to our old camp at Sarpe and found most of 1st Divn. there.

December 20, 1915.The last of the die-hards arrived.  They got away without a shot being fired at them.

The Department of Veterans Affairs website Gallipoli and the Anzacs, has an overview of the Evacuation, if you wish to read further

Breaking up rum cases on North Beach on 17 December 1915 prior to the evacuation. [AWM G01276]

Gallipoli Diaries

The Gallipoli ordeal is almost over.

We've been looking at some diaries written by men who were there.  You can just google "Gallipoli Diaries" and a number of results will lead you to various State Libraries and other websites where you can read digitised copies or transcripts.  The Australian War Memorial is still the best source, however.  We've been reading the 1915-16 diary of John Kingsley Gammage, a soldier from Cootamundra, NSW, who sailed from Sydney in April 1915 aboard the Argyllshire.  He survived the First World War and returned to Australia.

Gammage landed at Gallipoli on 26 June 1915. He was wounded in the left leg during the battle of Lone Pine in August 1915 and was sent to Mudros for treatment and recuperation. He re-joined the 1st Battalion on 25 September 1915. After the evacuation from Gallipoli, Gammage returned to Egypt with the Battalion but was transferred to the Imperial Camel Corps on 29 January 1916. He served with the Corps in Libya and Palestine. 

There isn't much evidence of a legend in the making, reading his diary. He writes of reinforcements arriving, and how shocked they are by the appearance of the men they are relieving - worn, weary and emaciated. He writes of tiredness and weakness, hunger and overwork, and is scathing of officers and their petty requests. He also notes how hard it is to know what is happening overall, and says this diary can only be his own account of his own Company.

You can read the original diary at the AWM site, but there is also a typed transcript. Although the transcript is far easier to read, it is very emotive to read Gammage's own handwriting.

Harvey Broadbent, Turkish language expert and author of Gallipoli books

If you only read one book about Gallipoli this year, we suggest you make it one of Harvey Broadbent’s.  

Harvey Broadbent is a Turkish language expert, and he spent five years in Turkish military archives unearthing the Turkish side of the Gallipoli story. He was granted access to an extensive collection of previously unresearched documents, ranging from official government records to military and personal diaries and correspondence of soldiers. The result is the fullest possible, most comprehensive account of the Turkish defence yet produced, and this fills a huge gap in the history of the Gallipoli campaign.

He has produced two books about Gallipoli – 

Gallipoli, the Turkish Defence is the primary academic publication arising from his research. It is a very readable reference book for details of the Ottoman Turkish military operations and the personnel involved. It is illustrated with maps, some of them original, and archival photographs and quotations from historical documents.


Defending Gallipoli, the Turkish Story is a condensed version, designed to appeal to the general reader interested in learning about the other side of Gallipoli. It relates the Turkish story at Gallipoli in an engaging style.  Maps are included that help explain the troop movements, especially some reproduced field maps.

Assoc. Prof. Broadbent writes “As a historian, you strive to find out the truth about history. For something as important to Australia as the Gallipoli campaign has turned out to be, it is essential to find out the facts, and we’ve never had a comprehensive account.

“What we’ve known of the Turks so far has been general and superficial, from limited sources. Even the Turks haven’t transliterated most of their own documents (from the archaic language of Osmanlinca to contemporary Turkish), so we’re really breaking new ground by doing that – both for Australia and Turkey.”

Both Turkey and Australia appreciate the importance of the Gallipoli Campaign in their national identities and ideals. These books give a factual account of events not previously given in Gallipoli accounts.  They provide understanding of how the Ottoman forces at Gallipoli affected the outcomes that led to the Allies failure, and show how the Turkish commanders and their troops responded to the invasion of their homeland and were able, under great pressure, to resist, persevere and ultimately succeed. 



Reading the accounts of the Gallipoli landings from the Turkish point of view is simply astounding. The initial ANZACs were held off by so few. Mustafa Kemal, that brilliant tactician, features, as do other commanders, such as those facing the Australians at the Nek. The Turkish soldiers are humanised – no longer just ‘Johnny Turk’ – but named, and shown to be suffering as all did at Gallipoli, especially conscripts.  


Assoc. Prof. Broadbent’s work was made possible by a partnership between Australian and Turkish organisations to mark the centenary of the Gallipoli Campaign. We have all of Assoc. Prof. Broadbent’s books in the City of Ballarat collections, and they are available for you to borrow.

Meanwhile, back on the Peninsula

The 8th Battalion, with many Ballarat and district men in its ranks, has been resting on Lemnos Island, away from Anzac since early September.  Now it is time for the men to return to "have another shot at 'Joe Turk'". First the men were marched out and embarked on the Abbassia, but as the piers at Anzac Cove had been damaged in a storm, and there was nowhere to land them, they disembarked and returned to camp - which had been struck, on their departure. The entire battalion camped overnight in the YMCA hut.

On the evening of 21st November, the battalion boarded the Princess Ena, and departed for Anzac Cove, where they were sent up to Bolton's Ridge, and occupied support trenches just vacated by the 10th Battalion.

Now the 8th Battalion worked at sapping tasks, but the change of weather from July to November could not have been more extreme.  On 24th November a blizzard left half a metre of snow on the ground, followed by severe frost.  The weather conditions provided further justification for an evacuation of Gallipoli, but the men themselves were unaware of this possibility.

A snow covered gun position of the 9th Battery in November 1915. [AWM P00046.040]