Every man at Gallipoli would lose out if a stretcher bearer known as Simpson was elevated with a Victoria Cross, as many Australians have suggested, says historian Ashley Ekins.
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The Australian War Memorial commemorated the 100th anniversary of John Simpson Kirkpatrick's death on Tuesday. Three weeks after landing at Gallipoli the private simply known as "the man with the donkey" was killed by a Turkish bullet during one of his morning journeys up Monash Valley to retrieve wounded men.
Mr Ekins, head of military history at the war memorial, says it is difficult to know why Simpson was singled out originally. Something about his story resonates, although over time it has become a more conflicted story, the myth growing larger than the man. "That image has changed over time, but he remains this powerful, evocative image as depicted by many statues of him, particularly one at the war memorial by Peter Corlett which attracts visitors every hour of every day, it seems," Mr Ekins said.
Simpson was even more interesting in the flesh, Mr Ekins said. Born in South Shields, in Tyneside, Britain, he was a working-class man, who for 3½ weeks carried wounded men on a donkey, rather than a stretcher. "Someone suggested he didn't save a single life, but he did brave work. He was under fire the whole time and soldiers certainly believed his luck would soon run out, as it did. A popular refrain, I believe, around the Monash Gully was, 'the bloke with the donk copped it yet?' " Mr Ekins said.
"The legend proved far bigger than he was. As Peter Cochrane, one of the best writers on Simpson, wrote, he was never busier in life than he was in death," Mr Ekins said. Simpson was used as an aid to recruitment, becoming almost a propaganda tool, which would have displeased him.
"He is a rough, tough, working man from working-class stock, from a coalmining, shipbuilding area, he has roughed it in Australia, worked in every kind of work, cane cutting, mining, he was a swaggie on the road," Mr Ekins said.
Modern Australian audiences would find him engaging as a character, and much more interesting as a fairly rounded character. He was devoted to his mother and sister, Mr Ekins said. "Almost every letter, he sends home some money and says 'we didn't get paid much this week' or 'we got paid off, so I can't send you much. I will send more next time'. He is always enclosing some currency with his letters, and he had this love of animals all his life."
