Garth Neville, Walford V.C. 1882 - 1915

Captain Garth Neville Walford, arrived with the 29th Divisional Artillery Headquarters at the island of Lemnos on the 12th April, and immediately joined a party of 35 Officers to observe Naval bombardments of the 29th Divisions objectives. They boarded the Queen Elizabeth and steamed up the the Gulf of Saros at great speed, turned around and came back down the Gulf at a slower speed to get a better look at the rugged coastline.

Near to Cape Helles the Queen Elizabeth went astern to test her reverse turbines and her speed slowed further. It was at this point that the enemy, who had been watching the Queen Elizabeth's passage, decided to salute the men with a couple of artillery rounds, but the Turks fire was widely inaccurate as they hadn't accounted for the drop in the ships speed and the shells landed harmlessly about a half mile ahead. The Queen Elizabeth then lay of Cape Helles and a careful survey of the area was performed. It was assumed the Turks must have been disgusted with the previous accuracy of their aim, as they did not open fire again.

Whilst the preparations for the landings at Gallipoli continued, (Temporary Brigade-Major) Captain Garth Neville Walford, like many of his peers, found the time to write a verse entitled The Last Crusade,

Once more revives the never-dying war

Of East and West: through this one entry gate

Between two Worlds have armies alternate

Swept forth to conquest an alien shore

V Beach Landings, Cape Helles, Gallipoli

V Beach was three hundred yards long with Cape Helles and Fort Etrugrul (Fort No.1) on the left and the old Sedd el Bahr castle on the right. The beach was defended by a Company from the 3rd Battalion, 26th Regiment Turkish Army, equipped with four machine guns. At 6.00am on the 25th of April 1915 the first Allied troops begun to land from boats that were towed or rowed to the beach, and as the 1st Battalion Royal Fusiliers approached all was quiet. As the men begun to land the Ottoman defenders open fired with deadly accuracy, from the guns in the forts and castle. Some of the Fusiliers made it onto the beach, but were pinned down behind a sandbank where they remained. Out the seven hundred men of the 1st Battalion Royal Fusiliers who went in, only three hundred had survived and many of those were wounded.

Close behind the first landing was the SS River Clyde, a 4,000 ton converted collier, with eleven machine guns on the bow and sally ports cut into the hull to allow the disembarkation of the two thousand men of the 1st Battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers including two Companies from the 2nd Btn, the 2nd Battalion Hampshire Regiment and one Company from the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.

To connect the River Clyde to the beachhead, the Argyll a steam hopper was to be beached to form a bridge. The Argyll ended up broadside to the beach, so the Captain led his crew outside to manhandle transport boats into position to form a bridge and only now could disembarkation commenced.

Two companies of The Royal Munster Fusiliers begun to emerge from the sally holes and were immediately cut down suffering seventy percent casualties. The men from the next company attempted to move about 9.00am but this also failed. At 9.30am another attempt to get ashore by the Hampshire Regiment failed with most of the men killed.

Brigardier General Napier was killed attempting to lead his men ashore from the River Clyde, before General Hamilton issued orders at 10.21am for the main force to land at W Beach, leaving the thousand men still on the SS River Clyde to wait until nightfall before attempting to come ashore.

Six Victoria Crosses were won on V Beach on the 25th of April, and all belong to the sailors and men of the Royal Naval Reserve, who had attempted to hold the transport boats in position as a bridge between the Argyll and the River Clyde, and for also rescuing the wounded.

Although the landing on V Beach had so far failed, a further 29,000 men had been landed on six beaches along the Gallipoli peninsular, in face of desperate resistance by strong Turkish forces, that were well dug in and supported by artillery.

By 12.30am on the 26th the remaining men aboard the River Clyde had disembarked and made their way ashore where they would spend a wet, cold and miserable night and some were wavering as they had either been stuck in the Hull of the River Clyde or stuck behind the sandbank on the beach unable to move and surrounded by the dead and wounded. A lack of experienced Officers after so many casualties led the Officers of the Staff to intervene and lead the men by personal example.

Led by Lieutenant-Colonel Doughty-Wylie and Captain Garth Neville Walford the surviving men from the Munster Fusiliers, Royal Fusiliers and two companies from the Hampshire Regiment, moved as one large mass and stormed the castle. The castle was taken with all the Turkish snipers found within bayoneted.

By 8.00am the Sedd el Bahr castle had been occupied and the men turned their attention to the Ottoman Forces in the Etrugrul Fort and those overlooking the beach. It was during these attacks that both Captain Garth Neville Walford and Lieutenant-Colonel Doughty-Wylie were killed in action.

General Hunter-Weston, GOC 29th Division, wrote the following on the 27th of April 1915;

"Alas, that I should have to write it, Captain Walford has been killed. He died gallantly, very, very gallantly, leading with Colonel Doughty Wyllie the attack on V Beach. We landed some men on that beach on the 25th. . but further progress was impossible on that day. On the 26th Doughty Wyllie, with Walford assisting him, organized an advance, and, working through the village of Sedd-el-Bahr, . they finally managed to drive off the Turks and clear the beach of the enemny fire that had rendered further landing impossible".

"In this glorious deed both Doughty Wyllie, Walford and many others lost their lives, but their gallantry saved the situation and has written their names on the pages of history. They achieved the impossible. They showed themselves Englishmen of the grand old mould. I esteem it an honour and a privilege to have known such gallant men. " I am trying to get them both a suitable posthumous reward, and hope I may succeed. No honour could be too high for them."

The honour that both were awarded was the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration, awarded for valour 'In the face of the enemy'.

The citation for Captain Garth Neville Walford was published in the London Gazette on the 23rd June 1915, Issue 29202.

BRIGADE-MAJOR, ROYAL ARTILLERY, MEDITERRANEAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE.

Date of Act of Bravery: 26th April, 1915.

On the 26th April. 1915, subsequent to a landing having been effected on the beach at a point on the Gallipoli Peninsula, during which both Brigadier- General and Brigade-Major had been killed. Lieutenant -Colonel Doughty- Wylie and Captain Walford organized and led an attack through and on both sides of the village of Sedd-el-Bahr on the Old Castle at the top of the hill inland. The enemy's position was very strongly held and entrenched and defended with concealed machine guns and pompoms. It was mainly due to the initiative, skill and great gallantry of these two officers that the attack was a complete success. Both were killed in the moment of victory.

London Gazette, 23rd June, 1915.

Captain Garth Neville Walford was originally buried where he fell, just outside the walls of the old fort in Sedd el Bahr, with a large cross marking his grave throughout the rest of the Gallipoli campaign. After the war his remains were interred in the Commonwealth Graves Commission Cemetery at V Beach, where he lays in Row O.1.

Probate records show that Garth's family residence at the time of his death, was a house called Stowe, Brackendale Road, Camberley, Surrey. The presentation ceremony for the Victoria Cross Awarded to Garth was held in November 1916, and records show that Garth's Widow, Elizabeth, applied for Garth's Campaign medals on the 3rd of November 1921.

Garth was entitled to the 1914 Star and Clasp, Victory Medal, British War Medal and was awarded the Victoria Cross for Valour.

Garth is Remembered at the Chagford Church in Devon, Exeter Cathedral, Royal Artillery Chapel Woolwich, Officers Mess R.M.A. Sandhurst, the Regent Hotel in Royal Lemington Spa, Harrow, Harrow School Chapel and also at Balliol College, Oxford.

Remembered on the Camberley War Memorial, Camberley, Surrey.

Lest We Forget.

Lee Thomas

April 2021