AN HISTORIC & HIGHLY IMPORTANT
GALLIPOLI "V.C. ACTION" OFFICER CASUALTY
1914 Star & Bar Trio ( With M.I.D.)

To:
LIEUT, RICHARD W.H.M. EMPSON. R.M.L.I (Portsmouth) R.N. DIV.
"KILLED IN ACTION" ( Gallipoli ) 1st May 1915.

(L/Cpl Walter Parker V.C. RMLI won his Victoria Cross while attempting to save the life of Lt Empson and his company.)

THE ACTION

At ‘Lonesome Pine Plateau’ near Gaba Tepe on 30 April 1915.

The hill of Lone or Lonesome Pine is a little plateau less than 400 feet high running N.W. S.E. and ... or ridge, known as Pine Ridge, which gradually declines away to the low ground near Gaba Tepe.

Lieutenant R.W.H.M. Empson RMLI and about forty men of his company had become pinned down in an isolated advanced trench with a number of wounded. Their situation over about two days had become seriously dire and it had become very obvious to Empson that the chances of extrication from the position were almost nil. However, Lance Corporal Parker, a unit stretcher bearer, having been made aware of the plight of the men immediately volunteered to join a party who were to attempt to take them ammunition, water, and medical supplies. This over the four-hundred yards of open machine gun swept terrain. He alone managed to reach the position, with all the other volunteers becoming casualties. By dawn of the next day he had greatly assisted in the trench with the wounded and later with carrying them to safety under fire, when the trench was evacuated. He was seriously wounded twice in the process and never fully recovered from the wounds when he was discharged in May 1916..........(RESERVED)