Little Gully

14/10/2024

Alec Riley’s Netley diary now in stock at the Bitterne Local History Society shop in Southampton.

Read one soldier’s experiences of life in a First World War hospital: https://littlegully.com/books/netley-diary-1915-1916

Learn more about the history of Southampton: https://bitterne.net/

Thanks Bitterne Local History Society for keeping history alive for the future!

27/08/2024

Little Gully’s Mike Crane attended the unveiling on Thursday 22 August 2024 of a new memorial to units of the old Wigan Volunteer Drill Hall, including the 1/5th Manchester Regiment. Hugh Darlington, grandson of Sir Henry Clayton Darlington who commanded the regiment at Gallipoli, gave a speech. A full report, including the text of the speech, can be found on the Gallipoli Association website.

https://www.gallipoli-association.org/news/2024/wigan-drill-hall-memorial/

24/08/2024

Major-General Sir Charles Callwell was one of the authors of the 1906 study into the feasibility of attacking the Dardanelles. He was also the author of one of the first histories of the campaign.

You can read what Callwell had to say about the campaign in “Alive With Death,” the first part of the new Gallipoli history “Hell and Confusion.”

22/08/2024

Little Gully proudly presents ‘Alive with death’, the inaugural volume of a ground-breaking history of the Gallipoli Campaign, narrated day by day through the voices of those who experienced it first hand.

https://littlegully.com/books/hell-confusion-gallipoli-day-by-day-vol-1

19/08/2024

A couple of years ago we indexed Gallipoli articles in ‘Twenty Years After’. Did you know that digital copies of the magazine are now available to members of The Western Front Association? The archive is also keyword-searchable.

https://steadyhq.com/littlegully/posts/51f0bc6b-9243-4e86-a36f-320317eb5143

09/08/2024

Charles Watkins’ wonderful Gallipoli memoir is reviewed in the latest journal of The Western Front Association. ‘Descriptions of life on that murderous peninsula are very vivid, though there seems to be a concentration on the less salubrious’! Get your copy today.

https://littlegully.com/books/lost-endeavour

05/08/2024

A flash of strategic genius, a worthwhile gamble or did ‘criminal idiots attempt the impossible’?

A new day-by-day account of the Gallipoli Campaign gets you right inside the dramatic events.

Subscribe for release date & news 📨 https://steadyhq.com/en/littlegully/newsletter/sign_up

Hell and Confusion: Gallipoli Day by Day

Image credit: collection of Serpil & Bill Sellars.

18/07/2024

Diary note: A memorial to all units resident at the old Wigan Drill Hall will be unveiled on 22 August by Hugh Darlington, grandson of the former Commanding Officer of the 5th Battalion Manchester Regiment, Colonel Sir Henry Darlington.

https://www.gallipoli-association.org/news/2024/new-memorial-at-wigan/

14/07/2024

Available soon, D.V.

While many people focus on Winston Churchill's part in the origins of the Gallipoli campaign, some, if they're not under the impression that he was the British Prime Minister at the time, often overlook the role of the man who was, Herbert Asquith.

In “Alive With Death,” the first volume of a new Gallipoli history, you can read what Asquith had to say about the Turks; attacking the Dardanelles; and Admiral Jackie Fisher's relationship with Churchill.

Did he fail to control his ministers? Did he pay attention to professional naval and military advisors? All this is covered in the new book, to be published later this year.

Image: Herbert Asquith watching a Parliamentary cricket match, 'The Sphere,' 23rd July 1910.

14/07/2024

Just finalising the images to be used in "Alive With Death," the first volume of my Gallipoli history, "Hell and Confusion."

This one might not make it....

28/06/2024

Be the first to know when this unique telling of the Gallipoli story is available.

- Follow page Hell and Confusion: Gallipoli Day by Day
- Subscribe to Little Gully's free email newsletter: https://steadyhq.com/en/littlegully/newsletter/sign_up

19/06/2024

“Officers of the Rochdale Battalion 6th Lancashire Fusiliers.

“Photographed in Egypt Before Leaving for the Dardanelles.” [1]

[1] 'Rochdale Observer,' 19th June 1915.

04/06/2024

‘The morning of Friday, June 4, was bright and sunny. Looking round in the early morning, the landscape had little about it to suggest what was about to happen...’

Alec Riley’s Gallipoli diary records in detail his view of the Third Battle of Krithia. It is a remarkable and poignant first-person account.

Riley returned to the Peninsula after the war. On 4 June 1930, he climbed Achi Baba and looked upon the softly-scarred battlefield from its teasing summit.

Little Gully's edition of Gallipoli Diary includes his notes and photographs from that visit.

https://littlegully.com/books/gallipoli-diary-1915

23/05/2024

Historian Stephen Chambers recommends ‘Lost Endeavour,’ the vivid memoir of Gallipoli soldier Charles Watkins. He says:

This book uses a lot of the common soldier’s vernacular of the time, and is full of anecdote. “Fust thing Ah’ll get me when Ah gets to Cairo will be to buy meself a big plate of fried eggs, stacks and stacks of good bread-and-butter, and a pot of tea – in a pot so bloody big you’d be able to swim in it. Wot does ta think o’ that for a start, Sarge?’ The Sergeant regarded the questioner quizzically, then burst out laughing. ‘Knowing thee as Ah do, mate,’ he said, ‘that’ll be the second thing tha’ll be getting’ thiself.” While it can take a few pages to get your eye in, it is most definitely worth the effort.

Little Gully have done a wonderful service by republishing Watkin’s work, thus giving it the wider readership it truly deserves... it remains a must-read.

https://littlegully.com/books/lost-endeavour

Stephen’s review can be found in the latest edition of The Gallipolian, journal of the Gallipoli Association.

19/05/2024

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ reader review on Amazon. A good summary of the contents and flavour.

"From the Horse's Mouth!"

This book is a delight. A reminiscence rather than a History, it very well conveys the feeling of "being there" on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915. Watkins has a narrative novelistic style and is a 'dab hand' at decanting Lancashire accents onto the page; also the refined tones of the High and Mighty officers and those wealthy purveyors of War Supplies back home, who ruled the lives of the poor 'Tommies' (the Army rank and file). And don't forget the ever-pious thoughts of Johnny Turk in the opposing trench, ever-ruled by Allah and pining for his home village.

The Editors have added much valuable historical context in Appendices and footnotes, sometimes exposing the fallibility of Watkins memory over half a century; sometimes bringing the reader up cold with the realisation that the jolly Tommy jesting in the trench with Watkins was soon after dead - his legacy nothing more than a dusty carved line on the Helles Memorial to the Missing.

Entertaining and thought-provoking.

https://littlegully.com/books/lost-endeavour

16/05/2024

‘A fascinating insight into one of the lesser-known exploits of Britain’s little army of Chanak.’

Historian Stephen Chambers recommends P.J. Bothwell’s affectionate account in the latest journal of the Gallipoli Association.

https://littlegully.com/books/in-chanak-with-the-british-army

12/05/2024

Today, 12 May, is International Nurses Day, when we remember and acknowledge their invaluable service.

Image: Sister Esther Murphy, Australian Army Nursing Service, assisting with surgery at No. 1 Australian Casualty Clearing Station on the Western Front, November 1917. (AWM E01304)