The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1710) Private John Edward “Jack” Barclay 8th Battalion, AIF and Mustafa Kemal Attaturk, First World War

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Richard Cruise, the story for this day was on (1710) Private John Edward “Jack” Barclay 8th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

During this Ceremony commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Landings at Gallipoli, the story of Mustafa Kemal Attaturk was also read.

ÇANAKKALE BATTLES and MUSTAFA KEMAL ATATÜRK

Story Read by Brigadier Tuna

Dear guests,
I would like to begin my words by commemorating your war hero with due respect to his loving memory.

I am delighted to have been invited to commemoration ceremonies held to honor the Çanakkale Battles Centennial. I am honored.

I could have presented one of our martyrs among out two-hundred-fifty thousand losses at the Çanakkale Battles.

But taking this opportunity for granted, I thought it would be more appropriate to speak of our great war hero, world renowned, Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK, who rendered “Çanakkale Impassable”.

The greatest legacy Çanakkale Battles left to the Turkish Nation was the commander of the 19th Division, and of the Anafartalar Group, Mustafa Kemal (ATATÜRK). The British Minister of Navy of the time, Sir Winston Churchill, described Staff Col.Mustafa Kemal, who had proved his military genius through his conduct of the battles at Çanakkale, as “the Man of Destiny.”

ATATÜRK was a successful soldier. He did not lose any battle he fought; he crowned them all with victory. Casting the long-held beliefs in “commanding ground” and “point to point battle” deep into the annals of history, he initiated a new concept in the fields of strategy and tactics which he epitomized in Çanakkale and Sakarya Battles.

ATATÜRK was a preeminent politician and a statesman. He meticulously developed a domestic and foreign policy, and put into practice in a perfect way.

With his achievements, works, and with his exceptional prudence ATATÜRK changed our destiny and the course of world history; moreover, he created far reaching reverberations in armies, states, and social lives of people; and hence, took his unforgettable place among the esteemed personages of the human history.

Following the success of the Turkish War of Independence, ATATÜRK initiated the greatest enlightenment and modernization movement of our history and crowned his military victory with the republic he founded and the revolutions he realized.

Aside from being a great soldier and a great reformist, ATATÜRK was also a great statesman and a leader with strong, accurate, and realistic views as well as with reliable and decisive attitude in international relations supported with the understanding of peace and humanism.

In a speech he made in Ankara, in 1937 he said the following for the world peace:

Today, all nations of the world have almost become relatives and are engaged in being so. For this reason, while working for the presence and prosperity of their own nation, they should do their best for the peace and welfare of the whole world nations and make every effort for the happiness of their people as well as the people of other world nations.

Those administering nations surely wish to secure primarily their own nation’s presence and happiness. However, it is also necessary to wish the same for the other nations. The developments in the world clearly prove this. We cannot know whether an event happening in a remote place of the world will not affect us one day.

Consequently, we should conceive of humanity as a single body where every nation is its limb. A pain suffered at the tip of a finger does affect all other organs.

We should not turn a blind eye to a grievance happening in a certain region of the world. We should sympathize with it as if it is our sole concern. We should not deviate from this principle, no matter how distant it is.

ATATÜRK was an intellectual. From his early school years he began propagating ideas for the future of his nation, developed prevailing ideas, and by inspiring intellectual luminaries widened their perspectives.

The superior commanding skills of ATATÜRK in the World War I as well as his peaceful policies in the aftermath, displayed his unique character. As is evident, these were the qualities that made ATATÜRK an eternal leader. Our great leader was commemorated by UNESCO, in 1963 and 1981, as an epitome of an ideal personage.

The Battle of Çanakkale, constituting the subject of today’s commemoration, has a significant place not only in our history but also for the history of other nations participating in the war. Considering the Battles of Çanakkale in terms of their consequences it can be asserted that they not only affected the Turkish people but also the nations participating in these battles. One of the most striking aspects of the battles is that the two nations we the Turks, and you the Australians from very distant countries met for the first time in Çanakkale during the battles and took the opportunity to know each other. . Despite the bitterness of the first meeting, and the innumerable lives lost, we learned each other’s characteristics of courage, valiancy, and heroism.

The ANZACs coming to Çanakkale neither knew us nor had any feelings of enmity towards us. They were exceptionally brave soldiers trying to fulfil their duties at the cost of their lives. We, the Turks, were fighting to protect our country at the cost of our lives. The Battles of Çanakkale are full of exceptional incidents rarely happened in the world history. An ANZAC soldier gave some water to a wounded Turkish soldier in the heat of the clashes; a Turkish officer ordered his troops to ceasefire allowing the Red Cross units pass through a dangerous sector. Turkish commanders refused to use toxic gas defending that it would not be a brave and honest behavior. So, a mutual understanding, respect, and even sympathy developed between the warring sides despite all the violent and bloody clashes that took place in Çanakkale… If, today, almost after one hundred years, the Çanakkale Battles are celebrated as an opportunity for commemoration in the countries that took part in the battles, it must be due to its humane aspects mentioned.

The words Great ATATÜRK pronounced, in 1934, in addressing the ANZAC troops who fought against Turkish troops and to their mothers who sent their sons to war can only be the words of him as a commander personally joined the Çanakkale Battles and witnessed the tragedy of the young people in losing their lives:

Heroes who 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 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.

Concluding my words, I would like to pay my greatest respect to all the Australia and New Zealand who made the Turkish soil their eternal home, to our Great Leader Ghazi Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK and his comrades in arms, and to all our martyrs who lost their lives to protect their country.

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Private John Edward “Jack” Barclay

Story read by Brigadier Mark Holmes

1710 Private John Edward “Jack” Barclay 8th Battalion, AIF
KIA 21 June 1915
No photograph in collection

Story delivered 25 April 2015

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private John Edward Barclay.

John Barclay was born in Melbourne in 1892 to Laughlin and Elizabeth Barclay. Little is known of his early life, such as where he attended school, but when the First World War began he was working as a labourer. He enlisted for service on 30 December 1914 and was allotted to the 4th reinforcements to the 8th Battalion.

On 2 February 1915 John, known as “Jack”, married his childhood sweetheart, Mary Louisa “Louie” Clark. Only two months later Jack embarked aboard the transport ship Wiltshire; Louisa was expecting their first child when he left.

After a brief stop in Egypt, Jack sailed for Gallipoli, where he arrived and joined the 8th Battalion on 25 May. The three officers and 114 men of the 4th reinforcements brought the battalion back up to strength after heavy losses incurred at Krithia earlier that month.

Over the next few weeks the battalion supplied working parties to forward units and was engaged in digging a trench from Shrapnel Valley up to the front line to protect supply runs from Turkish snipers. On 21 June Jack was a member of a working party tasked with carrying supplies up to the front line. During one of his forays carrying fresh water to his mates he was hit by shrapnel and killed instantly by a Turkish shell as it exploded near him. His body was carried back down to Shrapnel Valley, where he was laid to rest.

He was 22 years old.

After the war, a clearly shattered Louisa added this epitaph to her fallen husband’s headstone;

I’ve no darling now
I’m weeping
Baby and I you left alone

Early in the twenty-first century journalist John Hamilton visited Gallipoli for Anzac Day and came across Jack Barclay’s headstone. He returned to Australia determined to find out who “Baby” was, and if the child was still living. He discovered that John Michael Barclay, born on 12 October 1915 and known as “Jack”, grew up never knowing about his father. His mother had found her son so painful a reminder of her late husband that she gave up the child for adoption.

It was at a chance meeting in a Melbourne pub that young Jack struck up a conversation with war veteran Tommy Barclay. After talking for some time the men realised they were related; in fact, Tommy was Jack’s uncle. He had served on Gallipoli with the 6th Battalion, and had visited Jack’s father on the day he was killed.

Young Jack later joined the 2nd/5th Battalion and saw service in the Middle East and New Guinea during the Second World War. Throughout his service he carried a “digger’s prayer card”, and when he passed away his family asked John Hamilton, the journalist, to place this card and a poppy on his father’s headstone on Gallipoli. In a way Hamilton was able to reunite a father and son who had never known each other, and who had each given their all for their nation.

Jack Barclay’s name is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, along with around 60,000 others from the First World War.

This is but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private John Edward Barclay, and all Australians who have given their lives in service of our nation.

Michael Kelly Historian, Military History Section

Sources:
8th Battalion War Diary June 1915, Australian War Memorial.

National Archives of Australia, service record, John Edward Barclay.

National Archives of Australia, service record, John Michael Barclay.

John Hamilton, “A Gallipoli tragedy echoes down the years, baby and I alone”, Herald Sun, Tuesday 25 April 2006, p. 19.

http://www.ozebook.com/ww1/anzac/documents/61.html