23000-C
Consignment
This is a Consignment sale set we are offering. It comes in its original box and is in very good condition.
The paint is chipping off of the lead rope and you can see the copper wire coming through.
W. Britain's #23000 Simpson and His Donkey, Australian Army Medical Corps, Gallipoli, 1915
World War I
Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick was born on July 6, 1892 in South
Shields, Durham, England. He joined the merchant marines at age 17 and
began a life of wandering that eventually led him to Australia, where he
tried all manner of jobs. On August 25, 1914 he enlisted as Private
John Simpson in the Australian Imperial Force.
After training in Australia, he landed at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915 as
a stretcher bearer with the 3rd Field Ambulance. Simpson soon decided
the task could be better carried out by using a donkey to evacuate his
wounded comrades. On May 19, 1915, only three weeks after the landing,
he was killed by a Turkish bullet at Shrapnel Gully on his way up the
Monash Valley to bring in more wounded. In that short time at the front
he had achieved some measure of fame, that only grew after his death.