Major characters of the Gallipoli Campaign

Creating a list of main characters will always run the risk of omitting someone whom is considered by some to be of major significance. Please help to develop this page.

In anyone’s estimation, Mustapha Kema Ataturk must figure in a description of the Gallipoli Campaign and in making sense of the subsequent reform of Turkey. Such is his centrality that we have created a page dedicated to him, as well as providing the brief biography below.

The biographies below focus mainly on people in public and high-profile roles. This is not to put a value on their contribution above the men in the trenches, but precisely to acknowledge that the oversight and decisions which affected the course of the campaign were often made at a level which was quite removed from the reality of the conflict.

Titles and ranks are rendered as they stood at the time of Gallipoli Campaign.

Lieutenant Colonel Mustapha Kemal

A career soldier, Mustapha Kemal alilied himself with the Young Turks movement and saw action in the Italo-Turkish War and in the Balkan Wars. At Gallipoli he commanded the 19th Division and soon forged a reputation for his effectiveness, leading from the front and correctly predicting enemy movements. He was central to the defence of Chunuk Bair in the last major Anzac offensive of August 1915, narrowly escaping a serious wound or even death when his pocket watch stopped a piece of shrapnel that might otherwise have penetrated his chest.
After World War One Kemal rose to political power and was instrumental in founding the modern Turkish state, taking the title ‘Ataturk’, Father of the Turks. He died in 1937 and rests in a purpose-build mausoleum in Ankara.

See a detailed page on Ataturk here.

Winston Churchill MP

Winston Churchill, who was First Lord of the Admiralty at the time, was a strong advocate of a Naval assault on the Dardanelles. He was increasingly opposed by Lord Fisher, the First Sea Lord, who resigned in May 1915 in protest at the continued pouring of resources into the attack on Turkey. Even after the decisive repulse of the allied fleet in the narrows on 18th March 1915, Churchill pressed the need for action, moving with the majority view toward a land invasion. The Gallipoli campaign was partly responsible for the party political crisis in Brtain in May 1915 and as the condition for the Conservatives to have a place in the new coalition, Churchill was demoted from First Lord of the Admiralty to the post of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He resigned in November 1915 and went to the Western Front, taking command an infantry battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. Churchill returned to politics in June 1916 in the non-cabinet role of Minister of Munitions. Although Winston Churchill recovered his high position in British politics in later years and through World War Two, his role in advocating the Gallipoli Campaign was questioned in many quarters.

Generalleutnant Otto Liman von Sanders

Liman Von Sanders was born on 17th February 1855 in Stolp in Pomerania. He began his military career in 1874 and rose to the rank of Lieutenant General. He served in many staff and divisional positions before being appointed to a Turkish military command in 1913 . Sanders was sent to the Dardanelles with the Fifth Army in 1915 , where he was immensely effective. It is argued that one of his best decisions was to promote Mustapha Kemal to a senior command position during the conflict. He was intensely active in the Anzac and Suvla areas of the conflict. In 1918 he led forces in Palestine against Allenby but was defeated. Von Sanders was not a popular leader, reputely reticent and lacking in social skills. He died on 1929.

General Sir Ian Hamilton

A Sandhurst trained career soldier, Hamilton saw action in the First Boer War, and after being taken captive, returned to England to a hero’s welcome. He was made Captain in 1882 and Colonel in 1891 and received the DSO. He was frequently mentioned in dispatches during the Second Boer War and was made Chief of Staff to Lord Kitchener. In early 1915, at the age of 62, he was given command of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, having by then established a reputation as a senior and experienced officer, but also being considered too unconventional and cerebral for command on the Western Front. It is far too simplistic to lay the allied defeat at Gallipoli solely on General Hamilton, but an unbdoubted fact is that he subscribed to a view that once he had given his orders, his staff should be allowed to execute them in detail without interference. This ‘distance’ from the dynamic and ever-changing nature of the battles on the peninsula and the final failure of the Suvla landings, added to the stalemate at Helles and Anzac led to his removal from command in mid-October 1915, signaling the end of his military career. Hamilton expended considerable energy defending his reputation during the Dardanelles Enquiry, and escaped serious censure. In his later years he was a strong supporter of The British Legion and he ended his time as Rector of the University of Edinburgh.