Lost Endeavour.

A Survivor’s Account of the Ill-Fated Gallipoli Campaign.

It was very evident as soon as I started reading the Preface that Charles Watkins was a man with great command of the English language. With only the average education of the day, he was far more articulate than the Lancashire Fusilier author of the previous Gallipoli account that I reviewed. I became convinced that he must have had some further education later in life, but apparently not. He only decided to write his memoir some 50+ years after the events, after an evening reminiscing (largely by sign language) with an aged Spanish veteran (of presumably the Spanish Civil War) while on holiday.

The editors make it clear that his memory was flawed in some areas, as you might expect after such a long period. Watkins had a novelist’s ability to embellish the narrative and I can’t help feeling that once he got going, he was rather pleased with his prose. I find it hard to believe that while sailing to possible imminent death that he could commit to memory “flying fish breaking surface and descending with a flash and a plop back into the calm lake around us.”!

It appears that he was a great admirer of Viscount Rochdale, who raised the 6^th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers and went out with them to Gallipoli. Watkins sought approval of the then viscount before publication, which in 1970 was intended for a limited print run and audience.

The descriptions of the life of the private soldier on that murderous peninsula are very vivid, even though there seems to be a concentration on the less salubrious!

Appendix I is a biography of Charles Watkins. He joined the 1/6 Lancashire Fusiliers in 1913 aged 17, concluding the war with the RAF, also having served in Macedonia. He worked as a clerk with the RAF during the Second World War. He was an active member of the Gallipoli Association and had many articles published in their magazine, excerpts of some which are included in one of the appendices. He was interviewed by Peter Liddle in 1973.

In Appendix III, the editors have clarified by chapter, some of the events in the author’s narrative explaining bits that he got wrong or simply merged with other events.

The inclusion of the editor’s appendices makes this is a thorough history of the battalion’s involvement during this campaign, including a timeline and Roll of Honour. The book is a very interesting read and will be very useful for anybody researching this battalion during the Gallipoli Campaign. It does not cover the rest of the author’s war.

Barbara Taylor