Seddulbahir Military Grave: Doughty Wylie VC, Gallipoli

Charles Hotham Montagu "Dick" Doughty-Wylie VC, CB, CMG was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Colonel Doughty-Wylie was the British consul in Mersina, Turkey, during the Turkish revolution of 1909.

Richard Bell-Davies (later a VC winner, then a lieutenant on the battleship HMS Swiftsure) met him at the time and gives an account in his autobiography Sailor in the Air (1967).

Massacres of Armenians started along with the revolution, and Bell-Davies says that it was largely due to the efforts of Doughty-Wylie that these were halted in Mersina.

Doughty-Wylie then went to Adana, forty miles away. He persuaded the local Vali (Governor) to give him a small escort of Turkish troops and a bugler and with these managed to restore order. Mrs. Doughty-Wylie turned part of the dragoman's house into a hospital for wounded Armenians. Bell Davies says that by the time an armed party from Swiftsure arrived, Doughty-Wylie had again almost stopped the massacre single-handed.

Doughty-Wylie was 46 years old, and a Lieutenant Colonel in The Royal Welch Fusiliers, British Army when, "owing to his great knowledge of things Turkish" according to Bell-Davies, he was attached to General Sir Ian Hamilton's headquarters staff of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force during the Battle of Gallipoli.

On 26 April 1915, following the landing at Cape Helles on the Gallipoli peninsula, during which the brigadier general and the brigade major had been killed, Lieutenant Colonel Doughty-Wylie and another officer (Garth Neville Walford VC) organised and made an attack through and on both sides of the village of Sedd-el-Bahr on the Old Fort at the top of the hill. The enemy's position was very strongly entrenched and defended, but mainly due to the initiative, skill and great gallantry of the two officers the attack was a complete success. Both were killed in the moment of victory.

Doughty-Wylie is buried close to where he was killed. His grave is the only solitary British or Commonwealth war grave on the Gallipoli peninsula.

His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum (Caernarfon Castle, Gwynedd, Wales). Partly from Wikipedia.

Location Information:

This isolated grave, marked by a standard Gallipoli marker, is on the top of Hill 141, also known as Doughty Wylie or Fort Hill. The site is situated on the road from Seddulbahir to W Beach. Leave Seddulbahir (formerly Seddel-Bahr) on the road towards Lancashire Landing Cemetery and watch for a signpost to Panorama Pension. Turn up this road and the grave will be found off to the side of the road under two cypress trees.

Historical Information:

The eight month campaign in Gallipoli was fought by Commonwealth and French forces in an attempt to force Turkey out of the war, to relieve the deadlock of the Western Front in France and Belgium, and to open a supply route to Russia through the Dardanelles and the Black Sea.

The Allies landed on the peninsula on 25-26 April 1915; the 29th Division at Cape Helles in the south and the Australian and New Zealand Corps north of Gaba Tepe on the west coast, an area soon known as Anzac. At Helles, the 29th Division landed troops at 'S', 'V', 'W', 'X' and 'Y' Beaches, five small coves at or near the southern end of the peninsula.

The landing at 'V' Beach was to be made by boats containing three companies of the 1st Royal Dublin Fusiliers, followed by the collier 'River Clyde' with the rest of the Dublins, the 1st Royal Munster Fusiliers, half the 2nd Hampshire Regiment and other troops. The place was very strongly fortified and heavy casualties were sustained during the landing.

On the morning of 26 April, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Doughty-Wylie and Captain Garth Walford led the survivors on the beach to the capture of Sedd el Bahr village and the old castle above it. Both won the Victoria Cross but were killed during the fight. (Captain Walford is buried at V Beach).

That evening, the main body of the French Corps began to land at 'V' Beach and after the following day, the front line had advanced about three kilometres beyond it. The grave of Colonel Doughty-Wylie is immediately north of Sedd el Bahr, opposite the point at which the 'River Clyde' came ashore.

He is buried where he fell, close to the old fort to which he led the attack.

No. of Identified Casualties: