NO VC for Simpson

Kyt · May 20, 2008

Simpson doesn't qualify for a VC - National - smh.com.au

JOHN SIMPSON KIRKPATRICK, the man with the donkey, one of the most enduring of all Anzac legends, will be denied the ultimate recognition of courage and sacrifice - the Victoria Cross.

Ninety-three years ago Private Simpson was killed ferrying wounded soldiers to safety from the front line at Gallipoli.

Although his commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred Sutton, recommended him for the country's highest military award, the Rudd Government's new Defence Honours and Awards Tribunal will disqualify Simpson from being posthumously awarded the medal. That is because his bravery is not supported by the required documentation: the sworn statements of at least three witnesses to his actions.

The Defence Department has revealed that a VC for Simpson would be ruled out by the independent tribunal, which will be formed next month.

Co-ordinated by Mike Kelly, the parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Defence, the tribunal is a Labor election promise to "take the politics out of medals decisions".

A spokesman for Dr Kelly said the tribunal would comprise honours and awards authorities, war historians, former Australian Defence Force members and lay people.

Dr Kelly's office is considering candidates to chair the tribunal and has invited applications for the positions of six community members. A panel of experts would consider applications for individual honours "on a case-by-case basis", the spokesman said.

But a Defence Department spokesman told the Herald: "It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to make an award of a Victoria Cross to Simpson for his action at Gallipoli during World War I."

He said recommendations "must be supported by signed statements of at least three eyewitnesses of the act for which the award is recommended. These statements should be on oath."

Witness accounts of Simpson's deeds exist but they are mostly unspecific diary accounts of his journeys up and down the gullies from battlefield to dressing station.

Simpson was fatally wounded in the chest by Turkish gunfire on the morning of May 19, 1915, and was buried at 6.30 that evening at Hell Spit, on the southern end of Anzac Cove.

The day after Simpson's death, Colonel John Monash, then the commander of the Australian Imperial Force's 4th Infantry Brigade at Gallipoli, sent a submission to Australian and New Zealand Divisional Headquarters.

Monash (later General Sir John), wrote: "I desire to bring under special notice, for favour of transmission to the proper authority, the case of Private Simpson … [who] has been working in this valley since 26th April, in collecting wounded, and carrying them to dressing stations."

Sutton, the commanding officer of the 3rd Australian Field Ambulance, who had condoned Simpson's abandonment of the unit and had tied his own Red Cross armband around Simpson's donkey, wrote in his diary on June 1, 1915: "I think we will get a VC for poor Simpson."

Simpson's feats have immortalised him in the mindsofAustralians and he features in school texts and history classes.

Statues of Simpson and his donkey stand outside the Australian War Memorial in Canberra and the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne.

At least four serious attempts have been made to have Simpson awarded a VC, most recently in 2005.

Campaigners have included, in1967, the prime minister, Harold Holt, who appealed to theBritish Government and, in1995, the minister for veterans' affairs, Con Sciacca, with the support of the then Australian Army chief of generalstaff, Lieutenant General John Grey.

In 2000 the Labor MP Jill Hallimplored the Howard government to award Simpson "in accordance with the wishes of his commanding officers and overwhelming public demand".

Ms Hall told Parliament Simpson was a "symbol of the self-sacrifice, mateship and all those values that Anzacs now stand for and Australians treasure. By honouring him, we honour them all."

However, Senator Bill Heffernan said that to "now single out one brave soldier of this period would not be appropriate".

Fresh applications to the Government's tribunal for individual medals were anticipated but it would first consider "three top priorities", DrKelly's spokesman said.

They were recognition of merchant navy personnel, consideration of thousands of service men and women for the Australian Defence Medal, and recognition of RAAF personnel who served at Ubon, Thailand, during the Vietnam War.

The tribunal would also look at recognising cadet instructors and peacekeeping roles.

The VC may be given for one outstanding act of valour or self-sacrifice, or for continual heroism and "extreme devotion to duty in the presence of theenemy".

Witness accounts of Simpson's deeds are unspecific, such as Monash's description of Simpson's "fearless rescues" of "all cases unable to walk … [he] moved unconcernedly amid shrapnel and rifle fire".

In recent decades, Simpson detractors have said he does not deserve national hero status.

Graham Wilson, a commentator on Australian military history, argues that Simpson cost diggers' lives. He says it is "not a great leap of the imagination to actually wonder how many men at Gallipoli died because a stretcher-bearer team was short a man due to Simpson's absence".

A campaigner for Simpson, Tom Curran, said he did not mind that Simpson could not now win a Victoria Cross.

"He's an Australian icon and even his worst detractors can't take that away from him," Curransaid.

"Each year school students compete in the Simpson prize with an essay about heroism and the Anzac tradition."

Curran said even if a VC might have been procured for Simpson, the medal's rightful claimant would go to his British heir.

"We couldn't be sure that the medal would be donated back to the Australian War Memorial, where it belongs," Curran said. "It would have been worth at least $1 million on the open market."

Candace Sutton is a freelance writer and Lieutenant Colonel Sutton's granddaughter.
Click to expand...

AWM Collection Record: J06392 - 202 Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick, 3rd Field Ambulance Brigade ( enlisted as Simpson), assisting an unidentified wounded soldier being carried by a donkey. Pte Simpson was later killed by ...

Digital Collections - Pictures - John Simpson Kirkpatrick and his donkey, Gallipoli, 1915 [picture].

morse1001 · May 20, 2008

Kyt said: ↑

Simpson doesn't qualify for a VC - National - smh.com.au

AWM Collection Record: J06392 - 202 Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick, 3rd Field Ambulance Brigade ( enlisted as Simpson), assisting an unidentified wounded soldier being carried by a donkey. Pte Simpson was later killed by ...

Digital Collections - Pictures - John Simpson Kirkpatrick and his donkey, Gallipoli, 1915 [picture].
Click to expand...

That is ver sad indeed! he should be recognised with the highest medal available. His donkey, if there was only one, should get the Dickenson medal as well!

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NO VC for Simpson

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