Most of you will know of Clives passion for Football and he is currently on cloud nine after his club’s promotion at Wembley to the Championship. Charlton Athletic rocked the National Stadium and completely drowned out the meagre turnout from rivals Leyton Orient and won the game 1-0 securing their rise back to the second tier.
Meanwhile his research continues into the connections between football and the Great War and some recent study has discovered records and accounts of The Dardanelles Cup, that took place in Gallipoli whilst the actual 1915 campaign was in progress. Our Gallipoli tour this month, with our biggest scheduled group we have ever taken to the Turkish battlegrounds, gave us the chance for Clive to reveal some of his research and take the group to the sites of both the areas used to play the matches.
First we saw the area at Helles (in front of Hunter Weston Hill) where some games were played out with participants describing the nearby French battery firing, mid-game which attracted some unwelcome counter battery fire rather close to the pitch.
The second “ground” was at Geoghegans Bluff which sits on Gully Spur in an area very few visitors access. We tracked the location down, seen in the picture below, with Clive holding The Stockdale Cup, another Football Cup from Gallipoli instigated by Brigadier General Stockdale, Commander Royal Artillery 29th Division.
Fittingly enough near this spot we found a host of Rum Jar fragments one of which the makers mark could be clearly seen as Fulham London. The final match of the Dardanelles Cup was played on Lemnos in January 1916 after the final Gallipoli evacuation. Anson Battalion of the Royal Naval Division defeated 5th Battalion Highland Light Infantry to raise the Dardanelles cup. Let’s hope, as the organisers intended, the Cup helped raise morale, even one little bit, in a campaign with few things to celebrate.
If Gallipoli is on your bucket list, or even if you have been before it is worth another trip for not only has the tour changed, the battlefield keeps surrendering new untold stories, forest fires reveal hidden redoubts and a new Hotel will welcome our guests for future trips on the stunning Canakkale waterfront.
