Australian Army Museum of Western Australia > Records

World War 1, Europe Turkey Gallipoli, 1915

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1915

Subcollections

Overview

Blindfolded Turkish Prisoner of War being led by officer holding white flag on pole. Now identified as taken by Colonel Charles Ryan and described as "Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey. 22 May 1915. Captain Sam Butler, holding the white truce flag, leads the blindfolded Turkish envoy Major Kemal Ohri from General Sir William Riddell Birdwood's Headquarter to return to the Turkish lines. Major Ohri was representing the Turkish army in negotiations at Birdwood's Headquarters to arrange an armistice so that the 3,000 Turks and approximately 169 Australians killed during the Turkish attack on Anzac positions 19 May 1915 could be buried. A nine hour armistice was arranged for 24 May 1915.." Australian War Memorial Catalogue # A05615

Also:
(P02649.005 & PO2649.021) Gallipoli Peninsula. 22 May 1915. Major Sam Butler, carrying a white flag on a stick, leading a blindfolded Turk, Major Kemal Ohri through the lines at Anzac Beach. He is being taken to Lieutenant General Sir William Riddell Birdwood's Headquarters to arrange an armistice for the 24 May 1915 so that both sides can recover and bury more than 3,000 dead Turks and approximately 169 dead Australians who were killed during a Turkish attack on 19 May 1915. The stench from the dead became so unbearable that the Turks initiated the nine hour armistice.

Historical information

Thanks to the research efforts of Dr Michael Sturmfels, of the “Friends of Gallipoli” a number of photographs in the collection of the Australian Army Museum of Western Australia have now been identified as the work of Sir Charles Ryan.
In 1915, soldier and surgeon Sir Charles Ryan captured the Australians’ experience on Gallipoli via a series of candid photographs. Ryan’s sensitivity, his empathy with those on both sides, and his eye for the remarkable – and the remarkable in the everyday – are apparent in his photographic work. His images take us behind the stirring accounts of battle being reported at home to reveal the dry, forbidding landscape, tired troops in the trenches, squalid dug-outs, and the horrendous task of burying the dead. Charles Ryan had a remarkable life, including service as a doctor with the Turkish army in 1877–78 and a close encounter with Ned Kelly, whom he treated at Glenrowan. During his career as a leading Melbourne surgeon and his long service as a senior military officer, he received high civil and military recognition.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-32-P1900.838

Item type

Photographs

Themes

War and Conflict
War and Conflict > World War 1

Year

1915

Links to additional resources

"Friends of Gallipoli"

Armistice of 24 May 1915