Studio portrait of Colonel Lancelot Fox Clarke DSO VD of the 12th Battalion, AIF. He was killed ...

Studio portrait of Colonel Lancelot Fox Clarke DSO VD of the 12th Battalion, AIF. He was killed in action on 25 April 1915 at the Gallipoli peninsula, aged 57. One of the inspiring figures in the early hours of the landing at Anzac was the 57-year-old commanding officer of the 12th Battalion, 'a brave and gallant gentleman'. He landed in a boat brought in by HMS Ribble. Once ashore, he recognised there was no time to waste. He sent a platoon to silence an enemy machine-gun then led his men up the hills. When reminded that these were not the orders he had been given, he replied firmly, 'I can't help that'. Clarke was the oldest battalion commander of the force; he had been decorated in the Boer War. On Gallipoli, men looking for leadership were drawn to him. The climb up from the beach exhausted Clarke, but he got there with the rest of his men. On the ridge the colonel coolly took command: 'Steady, you fellows! Get into some sort of formation and clear the bush as you go.' Reaching the Nek, he was anxious to get information back to Sinclair-MacLagan, the covering force commander. While standing, writing in his message book, he was shot, and fell with the pencil in one hand and the book in the other.