A few days after Anzac Day – on 27th April – the annual Gallipoli campaign commemorative services were held on the Northern Aegean Island of Lemnos.
As with previous years, the commemorative services were organised by the Northern Aegean Regional Government and the Lemnos Municipality, led by Prefect Mr Angelos Vlattas-Lambrinos and Mayor Mr Dimitrios Marinakis respectively.
The services were held at the various key locations connected with the campaign on the Island – both the Portianos and East Mudros Military Cemeteries, the Mudros Port Memorial and the Australian Pier Memorial, located at Agios Pavlos, to the north of Mudros.
The latter – the Australian Pier – was created following my own research into the existence of the Australian Pier (originally erected by Queensland soldiers in 1915), funded by the Victorian Government and the local authorities, and unveiled in 2018. The Committee has created and funded two more commemorative plaques – one commemorating the Royal Australian Navy’s connection to Lemnos and the other to the only Lemnian-born Anzac in WW1, Sapper Passa of Kontopouli – both of which will be installed on Lemnos in coming months.
The services were attended by the Australian Ambassador to Greece, Mr Arthur Spyrou, along with the Deputy Head of Mission, David Kilham, and Australian Military Attache, Mr Mick Kirby, as well as Ms Emma Murphy, Second Secretary of the New Zealand Embassy in Rome representing New Zealand. Representatives of the Hellenic Armed Forces (Commander Konstantinos Takopoulos and Captain Charalambos Peglidis representing the Army and Navy respectively), local church authorities led by His Grace Metropolitan of Lemnos and Agios Efstratios Hierotheos III, the World Interparliamentary Union of Hellenism, the Lemnos Friends of Anzac, the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee and the UK-based Gallipoli Association also took part in the commemorations, along with many others.
Melbourne’s Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee was represented by its honorary member, Mr Dimitris Boulotis, who laid a wreath on the Committee’s behalf as part of the services at both the East Mudros and Portianos Military Cemeteries. He also laid wreaths on behalf of the UK-based Gallipoli Association. Participants in the services were also provided with a tour of the Mudros Museum, with its display documenting Lemnos’ role in the Gallipoli campaign.
The services were opened with addresses by both Prefect Mr Angelos Vlattas-Lambrinos and Mayor Mr Dimitrios Marinakis. They both noted the important role of Lemnos in the Gallipoli campaign and its part in forming enduring bonds between Australia and Lemnos. As Mr Marinakis stated these stories of the Anzacs on Lemnos “constitute a very human and interesting aspect, a silver lining that can be found even in the darkness of the war.”
In taking part in the services, the Australian Ambassador acknowledged the important role of Lemnos in the Gallipoli campaign, as well as Australia’s Anzac story, pointing to it as the resting place of 148 Australian and 76 New Zealand service personnel. These graves on Lemnos hold the stories of those who served and fell, and hint at the loss to loved ones back in Australia. Ambassador Spyrou took some time to walk amongst the Anzac graves on Lemnos, stopping at that of 30 year old Trooper Leonard Turner of the 10th Australian Light Horse.
Lenoard was a former storekeeper living in Western Australia. Like many diggers, Leonard was not born in Australia, but rather hailed from Macclesfield in Cheshire, England. He joined the 10th Light Horse Regiment in October 1914 and embarked from Fremantle aboard the transport Mashobra in February 1915. He did so with another of the Regiment’s men, Captain Hugo Throssell, who would be awarded the Victoria Cross for his service at Gallipoli.
After arriving in Egypt, Leonard and his regiment landed at Gallipoli in May. As was the case with so many of his comrades buried on Lemnos, Leonard was killed not by wounds but by the diseases rampant on the Peninsula. Australian Army records reveal that he contracted influenza on 20th July and was transported from Gallipoli to Lemnos, where he died seven days later at the British 15th Stationary Hospital, his death recorded as being due to pneumonia. The archives reveal that he had been a keen sportsman, was the first to enlist from his home town in Western Australia – Cuballing – and sadly was also “the first to fall” from the town. And in a fitting reflection of Leonard’s final resting place in Greece, his personal effects were returned to the family on the transport named after one of Ancient Greece’s famous orators, Demosthenes.
Ambassador Spyrou was particularly moved by the quote in Latin etched on Leonards’s grave, chosen by his family, saying “esse quam videri” or “to be rather than to seem” in English, a sad but fitting tribute for someone who gave his life for his comrades and his country.
The Ambassador expressed the importance of recognising the role of Lemnos in the Gallipoli and Anzac story, stating that: “Lemnos played a pivotal role as a forward base throughout the Gallipoli Campaign. For the ANZACs who passed through the island it was also a refuge from the horrors of war, a place to rest and recover before returning to the battlefield. The people of Lemnos, despite the privations they endured, welcomed our servicemen and servicewomen and generously provided them with shelter and assistance.”
Ambassador Spyrou said that he looked forward to the creation of Lemnos Remembrance Trail, funding for which was recently announced by the Australian Government. Both Prefect Vlattas-Lambrinos and Mayor Marinakis also referred to the coming Trail initiative in their addresses, welcoming the decision and noting the role of expatriate associations and all who have supported this initiative.
The creation of the Trail, created in cooperation with the Greek authorities, will not only honour the service of those came to Lemnos during the Gallipoli campaign as well as the locals who assisted them, but will be a great aid to commemorative tourists during their visits to the Island. The Trail will enable them to follow the footsteps of the Anzacs on Lemnos.
*Jim Claven is a trained historian, freelance writer and author of Lemnos & Gallipoli Revealed. He is also Secretary of the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee. Mr Claven acknowledged the assistance of the Australian Embassy in Greece, Lemnos Municipality, Northern Aegean Regional Government, Ms Katerina Flikari and Mr Dimitris Boulotis in preparing this article.