A publication released reveals the role of the Island of Imbros and its Hellenic population in the Gallipoli campaign of 1915-16. The book’s author is historian Jim Claven and has been published by the Imvrian Society of Melbourne. The book complements the recent Imbros & Gallipoli Revealed Exhibition – curated by Claven – and launched in June 2023.
“This is a story that needed to be told. As we delve into the archives of the Gallipoli campaign, the story of Imbros – like that of Lemnos and Tenedos – emerges from the records. My contribution to the re-telling of this story will hopefully stimulate a new conversation and other researchers on their own journey of discovery to tell Imbros’ Gallipoli story in all its aspects”, Claven said.
The book is unique, possibly the first book dedicated to telling the story of Imbros and Gallipoli in any detail.
Claven covers the long history of Imbros and its people, the coming of the Gallipoli campaign and its major impact on the Island. He tells the story in both words and pictures, drawing on many archival collections in Australia and overseas.
It publishes many of these images – photographs and artworks – for the first time. It is certainly the first time that so many of these – along with Claven’s photographs of Imbros – have been published together, accompanied by Jim’s historical commentary, in a single, accessible volume.
The book comprises some 132 pages telling the Imbros-Gallipoli story in detail, includes a detailed timeline listing key events concerning Imbros connection to Gallipoli, references for further reading and is lavishly illustrated with 80 photographs and 3 beautiful new maps from the Exhibition. The latter have been created drawing on original army maps held in London as well as the authors own archival and field research.
The photographs, drawn from the Exhibition. These include photographs of Imbros during the campaign reproduced with permission from the Australian War Memorial as well as those from the collection of the First World War Aviation Society in the UK. The vast majority of these images have never before been published and certainly not in a volume dedicated to telling the story of Imbros and Gallipoli. To the many archival photographs are added modern photographs taken by the author during his field research on the Island, depicting Imbros and its Gallipoli campaign-connected locations today.
Imbros Transformed
The book looks into the role of Imbros and its people in the Gallipoli campaign, as revealed in the author’s writing and in the many unique photographs from the time along with the author’s modern photographs of many of the locations mentioned today.
It sets out how Imbros was transformed into the forward military and naval base for the campaign, with the erection of new piers and navigational aids, with anti-submarine nets to protect the hundreds of Allied ships that would come and go from its harbour at Kephalos Bay. It also tells the story of the great storm that hit Kephalos Bay and its Allied shipping in November.
It explains the establishment of the various army camps and supply depots, medical facilities and road ways. These included the Australian and other Allied Bakeries established on Imbros to supply the army with fresh bread, vital sustenance to the diet and morale of the troops. The Army camps would fill with troops returning from the Peninsula for rest and again at the end of the campaign. It also discusses the establishment of the war cemeteries on Imbros and some of the burials there, including Australians.
The shores of Kephalos Bay were home to the Allied Headquarters of the campaign – as well as the home for its war correspondents. The former would be guarded by troops on rotation from the Peninsula, including soldiers from two Australian battalions. It was at the latter that the Australian war correspondent Charles Bean compiled The Anzac Book, a volume of writings and drawings by Australians soldiers at the front that would become a best-seller across Australia.
It explains Imbros’ role as an Allied airbase, with seaplanes, aircraft and balloons as well as a helium-filled airship.
The world’s first purpose built aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal would be anchored in Kephalos Bay for many months, its seaplanes departing and returning from their missions in support of the troops on the Peninsula.
Imbros would also inspire some Allied soldiers and sailor to write poetry or make artworks. On the 13th July, while staying on Imbros, Patrick Shaw-Stewart would one of the most famous poems of the war, Achilles in the Trench, the poem ending with the soldier returning to Gallipoli “From Imbros over the sea” – providing the title for Claven’s book.
Charles Bean and his Australian correspondent’s team would assemble the famous and best-selling Anzac Book while staying at “Villa Pericles” at Kephalos. Others drew and painted scenes of the island, including the New Zealand soldier-artist Horace Moore-Jones who depicted the various Allied camps and aircraft within the natural environment of Imbros – as well as watercolours of villages and churches. Both Australian Sapper Alec Holland of the Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train and Charles Bean would produce artworks depicting Imbros from the sea during their Gallipoli service.
Discovering Imbros and its People
Most importantly the book also reveals the story of the how the campaign impacted on the local population, as they interacted with their new soldier-visitors, in the harbour and on its shores or as they traversed the Island’s hinterland, visiting its villages and towns, experiencing its environment and history. Imbros and Gallipoli is also the story of the meeting of two peoples – the overwhelmingly Hellenic population of the Island and the soldiers, sailors and airmen of many lands – from Australia, New Zealand and Britain – during often brief periods of respite from the terrible fighting on the Peninsula.
Some would be invited to take part in local village celebrations, in an intimate encounter with Imbros’ population. They would write of hearing the songs, seeing the dances and enjoying the food and beverages – and hospitality of the island. They would rest atop Castro, gazing across at Samothrace, musing on Homer and the ancient history of the land on which they walked, before taking a refreshing swim in its waters. They might even have stopped in at the Nostos Café in Agios Theodorou – which was established in 1860 – for a meal and a drink.
Photographers like the Australian Philip Schuler toured the Island photographing its natural beauty and historic sites, including the famous Byzantine-era ruins above the village of Kastro. Photographs from the time show soldiers in the villages, meeting the locals and photographing the villages. There is even one of a local Greek Orthodox Priest visiting the Allied aerodrome at Kephalos Bay. These photographs reveal the intimacy of the interaction between the locals and these new visitors.
One soldier – the poet Patrick Shaw-Stewart of the British Royal Naval Division – would remark that he was able to converse with the locals using his Classical Greek and write that here he was on Imbros, living in a Greek village, speaking the language of Demosthenes to the inhabitants.”
Importantly this tells the story of Imbros from another light – from the view of the young men who came there from far away, who captured its life in their own words, photographs and artworks, leaving behind legacy for all, including the descendents of both the Imbrians and the veterans who served there. These new visitors would often write of the Island in glowing terms. As Captain John Gillam of the British Royal Army Service Corps wrote on 3 May 1915: “Imbros, that queen of the isles, sleeps like a goddess wrapt about in a garment of violet and silver …”
Claven says we are only now coming to appreciate the intimacy and closeness of the involvement of these islands in the northern Aegean in the Gallipoli campaign and through this their connection to Australia and its Anzac story.
“The story of these Islands and their people, of their connection to Gallipoli, not only enriches our understanding of the campaign but our appreciation of the personal links between Hellenes, Australians and the other Allied troops who experienced an island of peace in a sea of war”, Claven said.
Order Now
This book – along with the accompanying Imbros & Gallipoli Revealed Exhibition – brings to life the story of the life the story of the link between Imbros and Gallipoli for the first time, from records and photographs held in archives across the world.
The book is now available and copies will be shipped to purchasers in November. The book can be purchased now for $35 each, plus postage. You can order your copy directly by scanning the QR code reproduced below or by contacting George Xinos at georgexinos@gmail.com.au.