12 Tree Copse Cemetery, Helles, Gallipoli Turkey

" SHOT AT DAWN "

9610 Private (formerly Sergeant) J Robins

Wiltshire Regiment

2 January 1916

"The victim, Sergeant John Robins, was a regular soldier who landed at Gallipoli as a Corporal at the end of June 1915.

In the early hours of 10 August his battalion - 5th Wiltshires - suffered a disaster when, without warning, they were overrun by the Turks while the men were sleeping in their bivouacs. In the ensuing panic, those men who managed to flee left without their equipment, a situation that compounded their predicament when they found themselves trapped in a gully with no means of defense. Nearly four months later, and after his promotion to Sergeant, Robins found himself on trial for his life.

The fatal incident had occurred when the NCO had been ordered to accompany an officer on a patrol. Robins maintained that he was unwell and had refused to go. In consequence the sergeant had been ordered to report to the medical officer. After examining the soldier, the doctor prescribed some medicine and returned him to duty. However Sergeant Robins maintained that he was still unwell, and he refused to accompany the officer on the patrol.

On 8 December Sergeant Robins was tried on a charge of "Willfully disobeying an order given by a superior officer in the execution of his duty". The NCO still maintained however that he had been unfit for duty, and he related to the court that since serving in India he had suffered from fits which were aggravated by wet weather. Whatever the cause of the sergeant's debility, his battalion's diary showed that during the month of December, 25% of the battalion's strength was on the sick list adding weight to the likelihood that Robins was also unwell.

At the court martial hearing the doctor who had examined Robins did not give evidence, instead he submitted a written statement. The outcome of this fiasco was, that notwithstanding that the witness could not be cross-examined, this written deposition was improperly admitted as evidence. In this unfortunate case, both medical and legal considerations are shown to be inadequate and illegal, particularly when the desperate soldier sought medical help, only to have the doctor turn prosecution witness. Then the Judge-Advocate General's department failed to quash the irregular proceedings.

Sentence of death was promulgated on Sergeant Robins on New Year's day 1916, and at 8 am the following morning the execution took place on the beach at Cape Helles."

from Shot at Dawn, J. Putkowski & J. Sykes, p. 61 & 62

Location Information:

Twelve Tree Copse Cemetery is in the Helles area, about 1 kilometre south-west of the village of Krithia.

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. On 28 April, following the landings at Helles, the first attack was mounted towards Achi Baba, the ridge which dominates the southern part of the peninsula.

Fatigue, however, brought the assault to a halt some kilometres short of the objective, near the village of Krithia. Turkish counter attacks followed but were repulsed and during the period 6-8 May, the 29th and French Divisions, reinforced by the 2nd Australian and New Zealand Infantry Brigades, carried out a renewed attack on Krithia, making some gains but suffering heavy casualties.

Between 1 May and the beginning of June, the 29th Indian Infantry Brigade and 42nd (East Lancashire) Division landed on the peninsula. With these reinforcements, the Allied force at Helles pushed forward once more on 4 June, but again to little effect. A further attack between 28 June and 5 July at Gully Ravine inflicted heavy casualties on the Turks, but despite local gains - at one point the line was pushed forward more than a kilometre - there was no breakthrough.

By 13 July the advance at Helles was effectively over and the position remained unchanged until the evacuation in January 1916. TWELVE TREE COPSE CEMETERY was made after the Armistice when graves were brought in from isolated sites and small burial grounds on the battlefields of April - August and December 1915.

The most significant of these burial grounds were Geoghan's Bluff Cemetery, containing 925 graves associated with fighting at Gully Ravine in June - July 1915: Fir Tree Wood Cemetery, where the 29th Division and New Zealand Infantry Brigade fought in May 1915 and Clunes Vennel Cemetery, containing 522 graves.

There are now 3,360 First World War servicemen buried or commemorated in the cemetery. 2,226 of the burials are unidentified but special memorials commemorate many casualties known or believed to be buried among them, including 142 officers and men of the 1st Essex who died on 6 August 1915, and 47 of the 1st/7th Scottish Rifles killed on 28 June.

The cemetery also contains the TWELVE TREE COPSE (NEW ZEALAND) MEMORIAL, one of four memorials erected to commemorate New Zealand soldiers who fell on the Gallipoli peninsula and whose graves are not known. The memorial relates to engagements outside the limits of Anzac in which New Zealand soldiers took part. It bears almost 180 names.

No. of Identified Casualties:

1,134 (includes Foreign and Non-World War graves in CWGC care)