Family :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

The Gallipoli Campaign was fought on the Gallipoli peninsula 25th April 1915 to 9th January 1916. in a failed attempt to defeat Turkey by seizing the Dardanelles and capturing Istanbul. Ill-conceived and planned, the initial effort by the Royal Navy failed to force passage through the Dardanelles by sea power alone. It was then realised that a land force was needed to support the project by suppressing the Turkish mobile artillery batteries. By the time all was ready the Turks were well aware and well prepared. Despite amazing heroics on the day of the landings only minor beachheads were achieved and over the succeeding 8 months little progress was made. Eventually the beachheads were evacuated in a series of successful ruses.

Despite Gallipoli rightly becoming a national source of pride to Australians and New Zealanders, far more British casualties were sustained, and these days the substantial French contribution is almost forgotten.

Detail :

John William Womersley. He was born 3 February 1884, the eldest son of Frederick and Emily Womersley of The Olives, Victoria Park, Manchester. Educated Mill Hill School. Later a partner in the Manchester accountancy firm of Womersley and Tweedale. A pre-war officer of the 8th (Ardwick) Battalion. Promoted Lieutenant 25 May 1914. Killed in action 4 June 1915. Commemorated Redoubt Cemetery, Gallipoli and on a plaque in St Chrysostom's Church, Victoria Park, Manchester. Sources; Robert Bonner ? The Manchester Regiment Group Forum 3rd Battle of Krythia On the 29th Division?s right, the 42nd Division attacked with the four Manchester Regiment battalions of the 127th Brigade in the first wave with two battalions of the Lancashire Fusiliers following the attacking waves. Here the attack opened well and within five minutes the Turkish first line had been captured. The whole of the division?s objective was soon taken, except on the extreme left (next to the 29th Division) where the wire in front was uncut. For the first hour everything went well. The 127th Brigade advanced about 1000 yards and over 200 prisoners were taken. The Official History states that: "the Turks were on the run". Hunter-Weston now issued orders to consolidate the ground gained. The 42nd Division as far as was known was still in a good position, although the 127th Brigade commander, Brigadier- General Lee, had by now been mortally wounded in the throat by a shell and his successor, Lt.-Col. Heys had been killed outright4. It was unfortunate that at about 16.00 the Turkish reserves had came into action and soon after Hunter-Weston?s order to consolidate, word reached corps HQ that the 127th Brigade was now being hard-pressed. From this point on the situation grew steadily worse. At 18.00 the Brigade was being attacked from three sides and the leading troops? withdrawal was eventually approved by Hunter-Weston. A company of the 1/6 Manchesters however was unable to comply and was practically wiped out. By nightfall the greater part of the ground captured during the attack had been given up. Of 16,000 officers and men engaged, the British had lost 4,500. Br.-Gen. Lee was subsequently evacuated to Malta where he died from haemorrhage due to the reopening of his wounds. He is buried in Pieta Military Cemetery. See Frank Davies & Graham Maddocks, Bloody Red Tabs: General Officer Casualties of the Great War, 1914- 1918, (Leo Cooper, London, 1995) pp81-2.

See also : Sty Chrysostoms Church.

See also : A Manchester Accountant on Gallipoli for a most detailed family biography.

"You have every reason to be proud of his action. He was shot while leading his Platoon in the attack, and at the moment he was jumping into a Turkish trench, which we captured."

Masonic :

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley