The Last Crusade (extract) - Henry Mildmay St.John, Gallipoli 1915, by Denis Pitcher

An extract from a detailed account of the Gallipoli campaign which draws on letters exchanged between Captain Henry St.John and his mother, Lady Bolingbroke.

Henry St.John took part in the allied invasion at Cape Helles where he was shot and severely injured. The author records the horrors of the wounded:

'The wounded had to lie in the open until help could reach them and suffered agonies as they were transported by horse drawn ambulance or carried on a stretcher by their comrades on their way to the beach. When they reached the beach they could wait for hours in the heat and dust, plagued by flies, until they could be taken on tenders or lighters, not designed for such work, to the hospital ships.' 

Henry was safely repatriated and it took over a year for him to regain his health, after which he returned to active service. In May 1918, his brother Lieutenant Charles Reginald St. John refers to him being in France.

See Related Items for the complete story by the late Denis Pitcher, husband of Henry's niece, Rosemary (St,John).