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Image: Depicts Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick of the 3rd
Australian Field Ambulance and his donkey, 'Murphy'. Kirkpatrick is
shown as a full-length figure, moving forwards along a cliff edge,
supporting a wounded soldier seated on his donkey. Later research
undertaken by the Australian War Memorial suggests that the water colour
was copied by Moore-Jones from a photograph of a stretcher-bearer with
the New Zealand Medical Corps, Richard Alexander Henderson.
This work
was reproduced by the British Historical Section (Military Branch) of
the Committee of Imperial Defence, London, in July 1926. It was owned by
the Commonwealth Government in London and then came back to Australia
during the 1960s, where it became property of the Prime Minister's
Department and from there entered the National Gallery of Australia's
collections during the 1980s. The painting was presented to the
Commonwealth Government through Sir John McEwan.
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John Simpson Kirkpatrick
July 6, 1892 - May 19, 1915
John Simpson
Kirkpatrick, affectionately known as "the man and his donkey", was
born on the 6th of July 1892 in South Shields, England.
He landed at ANZAC Cove
at 5 a.m. on the 25th of April 1915 and was mortally wounded in Shrapnel
Gully, near the mouth of Monash Valley, on the 19th of May 1915 at the
age of 22.
During the 24 days he
spent at ANZAC he operated as a sole unit with his beloved donkey/s and
is credited with saving the lives of probably hundreds of men.
He has become a part of
the ANZAC folklore and though recommended for the Victoria Cross, twice,
and the Distinguished Conduct Medal, he was never decorated for his
actions.
JOHN SIMPSON
KIRKPATRICK SERVED AS
202 PRIVATE J SIMPSON,
AUST. ARMY MEDICAL CORPS,
19TH MAY 1915 AGE 22 HE GAVE HIS LIFE
THAT OTHERS MAY LIVE
