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| "John Stuart Reid...Adjutant...Otago Battalion...Killed in Action...Gallipoli...2nd May 1915 |
A Regimental Adjutant is the officer in charge of the administration of the unit. He assists his Commanding Officer in the day-to-day routines, reports and other paperwork essential to the smooth running of the unit. You don't expect the adjutant to be at the "sharp end" of a war. But at Gallipoli the rules were different.
John Stuart Reid was born in 1893 and was a stellar student, passing the Civil Service Examination in 1909 and going on to study at the University of Otago. In 1911 he applied for and was awarded the Gray Russell Scholarship which was founded in 1882 by George Grey Russell, builder of the house at Glenfalloch on the Otago Peninsula. The scholarship was worth forty pounds.
John gained a First Class result in French Phonetics in the 1912 examination results and a Second Class in Constitutional History and Law 1913.
At Otago Boys High School John had been Captain of the Defence Cadets and he was gazetted Lieutenant of the Otago Regiment in 1912. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in June of 1914 but John Stuart Reid was not destined for an academic career.
With Mobilisation in September 1914, John was appointed to the position of Assistant Adjutant to the Commanding Officer during the six weeks of training and tented life at Tahuna Park.
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| The Reid house in Falcon St. Photo taken from the street. |
departure
The end of those six weeks began with a bugle reveille at 3am. Dressing by candle-light in their tents, and doing their best to avoid the heavy rain that morning, they packed their gear and loaded it onto the waiting train. The order to mount was given to the Mounted Battalion and they moved out quietly and rode to Port Chalmers to board ship
Reveille for the Infantry was at 4.30am, though there had not been much sleep that night and most had been awakened by the earlier action. Kit was packed and the camp was almost deserted by 10.30am. A waiting train took them to Port Chalmers through a city which was mostly unaware of their departure.
Just over 1700 men in all arrived that morning at Port Chalmers. Dunedin had been quiet but the Port was decorated with banners and bunting of colourful and patriotic style. "Soldiers of the Southern Cross, the Empire calls you" was the first one visible, followed by "British blood tells on land or sea."
The final message, across the entrance to the wharf, wished "God-speed to our boys."
It was a difficult and careful job to load the horses of the Mounted Battalion. Each man rode one horse and led several others and they were crane-loaded in boxes and led and pushed up covered gangways. The public were excluded but a growing crowd started pushing at the restraining police and eventually broke through and surged to the military barricade. Sentries with fixed bayonets were a little more effective than the local police and the crowd waited there until the barricade was opened a mere half hour before sailing. Officers who'd had business in town and arrived later had to push their way through the crowd. A late consignment of lifebelts had to be untied and passed hand to hand over the heads of the crowd.
There was one small element of ceremony just before the two ships, HMNZT 9 the Hawkes Bay and HMNZT 5 the Ruapehu, left for the war. The Port Chalmers Mayor and Councillors came aboard the former ship and Mayor Scollay made a short farewell speech, redolent with phrases such as "despotic militarism," "barbarian enemy," "honourable obligations" and "liberty and civilisation."
In reply, Colonel Bauchop, a Port Chalmers native destined to die on "Bauchop's Hill" in Gallipoli, made a much shorter and much lessdramatic speech and the Officer Commanding the Otago Military District, Colonel Nicholls, VD added: "We are sending of our best from Otago and I know that they will give a good account of themselves." before admonishing the men to write home to those left behind and who would live in constant concern for their well being.
The visitors then left and the barricade was opened, allowing the crowd to surge onto the wharf and exchange shouted farewells with the troops. The ships had steam up and were soon edging away. Some entertainment was given the crowd by a fireman from the Ruapehu who returned to his ship to find all gangways up and only a heavy cable attaching the ship to the wharf. He had been in the Port having "a merry afternoon" and climbed up the cable head downwards and almost falling into the water a couple of times.
Then the ships were off, with cheers exchanged from ship to shore. A lone white handkerchief, held by the only woman on board, the wife of an Imperial Officer going home, was visible as the Ruapehu was lost to sight. An escort of local boats, dressed in all colours, accompanied the ships to the Otago Harbour heads where cheers and signals were exchanged with the Taiaroa Fortress garrison.
After two days' sailing the ships arrived in Wellington, ready to join the troopships waiting there. Then orders were received to postpone sailing. Horses were put ashore and the men lived on the transports, leaving them for exercise and training ashore. Finally on October 16, nearly a month after leaving Port Chalmers, the troop convoy, escorted by three British and one Japanese warship, left for the War.
Five days' sailing saw them at Hobart and a week later the convoy joined the larger convoy of the Australian Expeditionary Force. On the night of November 8-9, one of the escorting warships, the HMAS Sydney, was detached from the convoy to confront and destroy the German commerce raider Emden. The Sydney's return to the convoy with 138 prisoners at Colombo, Sri Lanka, had the convoy's first view of "the enemy" as the prisoners were distributed around the ships.
Egypt
Next the convoy reached Aden and Suez and halted there. Everyone was expecting to proceed to Europe but orders were received and everyone went to camp in the desert. There was some excitement when the Turkish Army attempted to cross the Canal with pontoons but the Otagos were kept in reserve and saw no action.
On April 9th, 1915, after much training and marching around the Egyptian Desert, the Otagos entrained for Alexandra. There they were transferred to a captured enemy ship which was filthy and louse-ridden. Three days later saw them at Mudros harbour, the assembly point for the Gallipoli landings, joining a fleet of battleships, troopships and transports. Officers were briefed on the general plan and troops practised for an amphibious landing. At midnight on April 24th, after a stirring address from General Sir Ian Hamilton, the Otago Battalion followed the Royal Navy battleships to the fateful shore of Gallipoli - a name none had heard before and a name no survivors would forget.
Gallipoli - the landing
Landing on the shore at Gaba Tepe was no simple matter. The men scrambled down the sides of their transports onto navy destroyers and then onto barges which were towed by small steam boats towards the shore. Then it was a 300 yard drag to the beach, the barges heavy and under fire from the Turks. By 9.30am the two and a half hour manoeuvre was completed by the first group. The Otagos began to arrive at 2.30pm and were all ashore by four.
The situation immediately became confused. Turkish artillery took its toll and the NZ troops had none of their own yet, while communication and observation problems meant no support from the waiting naval vessels. Casualties started piling up and the heat and exhaustion started to play their part. Re-embarkation was suggested to the commanding General whose response was "Dig, dig, dig, until you are safe."
All through that first night the Turkish Army kept up its fire on the Anzacs and several attacks were made. At dawn on the 26th the Turkish guns opened up again and were answered by the few that had been brought ashore and from the supporting ships. Orders were received to reorganise the line and furious fighting continued all day. The night of the 26-27 was relatively quiet, though the men of Otago could hear the Australians on their right being attacked heavily.
The fighting continued furiously on the 27th and the Battalion was ordered inland, up Monash Valley and onto Plugges Plateau where it took up defensive positions. For the following two days it seemed that the Turks had eased off, possibly transferring their strength to other parts of the Line to the south. The 30th was quiet enough for vital resupply work to be done and some troops were taken out of the Line and sent back to the shore to rest and bathe - both badly needed. At this stage, of the 937 men of the Otago Battalion, 18 had been killed and 60 wounded.
Gallipoli - Dead Man's Ridge
At the end of April plans were being drawn for a new attack by the Anzacs. An area which overlooked Monash Gully and would later be named Dead Man's Ridge was chosen as a goal to deny its position to the Turks. May First was the planned date but the attack had to be delayed after a Turkish attack on the nearby Australians. May Second, 7.15pm was the start time, preceded by an atillery and naval bombardment. Otago's goal was a hill named Knoll 700. The Australian 16 Battalion, 4th Division made good time and achieved their aim but suffered greatly from Turkish machine guns. The Otago Battalion, unfortunately were late. They started to march to the start point at about 4.30pm, heading along the beach and then up Monash Gully. Turkish snipers at the head of the gully, a procession of wounded on stretchers coming down the track and, mostly, a half Battalion of the Naval Brigade taking up the Monash Gully track slowed their progress. So the attack from two directions, meant to hit Turkish lines at the same time, was delivered at intervals of 90 minutes. There was no surprise from the Otagos.
The task of the Otago Battalion wasn't helped by it occurring at night, on steep terrain (machine guns were hauled by rope up some of the steeper parts) and the additional pressure of arriving late at the start point. They advanced towards the Turkish position named "Baby 700" for 200-300 yards without, it seemed, being detected. Then all hell was loosed against them.
The Otagos' advance was into a curving Turkish position and they were swept with rifle and machine gun fire from three sides. The attack failed, though a few of the 4th Company, in the lead, reached the enemy trenches having lost all officers but one and suffering 78% casualties.
The Battalion dug in short of their target and held on, under fire for two days. The overall situation was unclear to them, runners were sent back to inform Command of the situation but no orders were received. By May 4th, with no news, reinforcements or supplies, it was decided by the remaining officers that their position was untenable and they moved back to the main Line that night.
Lieutenant John Stuart Reid, BA's life ended after that attack. He died either on May 2nd (according to the official records) or May 3rd according to his memorial stone in Dunedin's Northern Cemetery. He was assigned to the 4th Company and the mention of the 4th losing all officers but one - Lieutenant J L Saunders - puts his death on the 2nd. He died in desperate circumstances, many others dead around him, the happy, cheering men who left Port Chalmers gone, lying still or fighting hopelessly around him.
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| NZ Forces tunic button, found in the vicinity of Pope's Hill, 1919, Australian War Memorial collection |
"heroic self sacrifice"
The news was released to the those at home ten days later, on May 12th. On the 15th, the Reid family's church, the Moray Place Congregational, paused in the celebration of their silver jubilee to propose a Motion to "express heartfelt sympathy with Mr and Mr W E C Reid in the loss of their only son, Captain and Adjutant John Stuart Reid who has fallen in battle at the Dardanelles, and, while showing their sorrow, also to share in the pride which they must feel in the heroic self-sacrifice of him whose future appeared so bright with promise, but who has nobly given his life in the service of King, country and humanity."
More was said by the Reverend Saunder about the Reids' only son, recalling the achievements of his young life. It was an early death for Dunedin in the Great War. All present stood silently for the Motion to be carried.
“Those heroes that shed their blood
And lost their lives.
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.
Therefore, rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies
And the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side
Here in this country of ours,
You, the mothers,
Who sent their sons from far away countries
Wipe away your tears,
Your sons are now lying in our bosom
And are in peace
After having lost their lives on this land they have
Become our sons as well"
-1934, Kemal Ataturk, leader of Turkey, aka Kemal Pasha, General in charge of the defence of Gallipoli
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