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War hero to be honoured Down Under
SOUTH Tyneside war hero John Simpson Kirkpatrick is to be honoured in Australia.
South Shields-born Kirkpatrick and his donkey ferried 300 wounded soldiers to safety during the battle of Gallipoli during the First World War, before he was shot dead.
Kirkpatrick, ‘the man with the donkey’, was serving with the Australian army, and his statue takes pride of place in the town’s Ocean Road.
Now a new tribute to the 22-year-old war hero is being unveiled in Australia next week.
Doctors and nurses in Adelaide decided to raise money for a bronze statue of Pte Kirkpatrick for their city, and their work has now come to fruition after raising thousands for the cause.
Pte Kirkpatrick was born in South Shields in 1892, emigrated to Australia at the age of 17, and is considered by the Aussies as one of their greatest war heroes.
He enlisted as a stretcher-bearer with the 3rd Field Ambulance, 1st Division Australian Imperial Force, and joined the battle against the Turks at Gallipoli in 1915.
He was killed in 1915 by a sniper while on a mission to rescue wounded soldiers.
The Australian Defence Force Health Service Memorial is a large-scale sculpture of Pte Kirkpatrick and his donkey, created by internationally renowned South Australian artist Robert Hannaford.
Chairman of the Memorial Committee, Colonel Vikija Andersons, said: “Like many Australian medical personnel in theatres of war, from the Boer War, the Great War and East Timor through to Afghanistan, Simpson epitomises courage, bravery and willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice for his comrades and his country.”
The bronze statue will be unveiled on Thursday.
A wreath will be laid at the spot during the unveiling by Whitley Bay ex-pat Douglass Potts, a gesture he wanted to make on behalf of others in the North East.
Twitter: @ShieldsGazette
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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Comments
There are 14 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
geecee
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 02:28 PMreaders may like to know that there is a small statue to him with his donkey at the Victoria State War Memorial in Melbourne, Australia. i was there in December and was delighted to come across it.
DavidTrotter
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 03:45 PMjooly good ,what is south tyneside doing .
Pull the other one
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 08:26 PMIt's about time the statue was cleaned up and more importantly then maintained on a regular basis. A few years ago an online campaign was launched to try and get the government to formally recognise the valiant efforts of this locally born man, with a petition set up on Number Ten’s website to try and force their hand in making a posthumous award. Unfortunately the required 100,000 signatories were not gathered. Wouldn’t it be fitting if the town could rally and try and get the Prime Minister o bestow some posthumous award on Kirkpatrick in time for the 100th anniversary of Gallipoli in 2015? The previous attempt received little if any support from the local press. I wonder if they’d like to carry the flag for the cause.
Pull the other one
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 08:25 PMIt's about time the statue was cleaned up and more importantly then maintained on a regular basis. A few years ago an online campaign was launched to try and get the government to formally recognise the valiant efforts of this locally born man, with a petition set up on Number Ten’s website to try and force their hand in making a posthumous award. Unfortunately the required 100,000 signatories were not gathered. Wouldn’t it be fitting if the town could rally and try and get the Prime Minister o bestow some posthumous award on Kirkpatrick in time for the 100th anniversary of Gallipoli in 2015? The previous attempt received little if any support from the local press. I wonder if they’d like to carry the flag for the cause.
Pull the other one
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 08:19 PMIt's about time the statue was cleaned up and more importantly then maintained on a regular basis. A few years ago an online campaign was launched to try and get the government to formally recognise the valiant efforts of this locally born man, with a petition set up on Number Ten’s website to try and force their hand in making a posthumous award. Unfortunately the required 100,000 signatories were not gathered. Wouldn’t it be fitting if the town could rally and try and get the Prime Minister o bestow some posthumous award on Kirkpatrick in time for the 100th anniversary of Gallipoli in 2015? The previous attempt received little if any support from the local press. I wonder if they’d like to carry the flag for the cause.
Heinrich Scrotwengler von Grossteschattenburg
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 05:53 PMThe town has a problem with feral gulls, just as it has a problem with feral councillors. I see the latter claim to be 'professionals', highly amusing. They seem only to be professional destroyers.The days of honest men and women in municipal service seem long gone. We are cursed with traitors at every turn. Money grubbing apparatchics and graduates of the Frankfurt School is all I see.
Coggage
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 05:32 PMI don't blame the Council for the state of the town centre, because if we spent more of our money there the shops would be there to take it. If the Council hasn't helped, neither have we. All I'm saying is that it's ironic that this article says "his statue takes pride of place in the town’s Ocean Road" when, truthfully, it's been ignored ever since it was placed there. At least let's clean it up before the rest of the world sees how we little we seem to value a genuine local hero. God knows there's few of them about these days.
sanddancer
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 04:57 PMI don't visit South Shields town centre any more for good reason, so was unaware of the state of this statue until seeing this article. As for time and place, well this is an open forum and if a picture is published showing the statue in such a deplorable state, then surely im allowed to comment. Just because my comments and opinions differ from yours, does not mine I can't express them.
myviewonlyandonlymine
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 04:16 PMWell, I understand your point but clearly you weren't bothered about the condition of the statue as you would have done something about it, ie: speak the the council via letter or at a CAF meeting or whatever but using this story and then using profanities just to have a pop at the council is not really the time or the place to do it.
sanddancer
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 02:03 PMIts is a good news story your quite right. A young man who gave his life saving others. But if we are happy to claim this guy as one of our own, the least we can do is clean the Sh*t off him.
myviewonlyandonlymine
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 01:52 PMSheesh, it's not surprising how you lot can turn this good news story into an attack on the council. Moan moan moan
sanddancer
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 01:31 PMIt might be nice to see the council actually do something about the state of our town in general.
PeskySonic
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 01:00 PMI'll second that motion. Well said Coggage.
Coggage
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 12:14 PMIt might be nice is the Council could get the years of bird droppings cleaned off our statue, as gesture of our own. You know, the one nobody seems to bother about.
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