Gallipoli pilgrimage a ‘privilege’
Cambridge’s Sue Milner never thought for a moment that her name would come up to go to Gallipoli, but she couldn’t be more thrilled at the prospect of going to Turkey.
Sue applied for the ballot because her grandfather, Scotsborn Archie Duncan, fought in Gallipoli. He was a 21-year-old territorial with a Hawke’s Bay company attached to the Wellington Infantry.
His 14 weeks on Gallipoli ended when he was invalided off the peninsula in August 1915 and shipped to Alexandria in Egypt to recover before being sent home to New Zealand.
Sue’s grandfather died when she was just 3, and she feels enor- mously privileged to be able to attend the centenary commemorations on Gallipoli. Her London-based son will be with her on the trip. Many thousands of people applied for inclusion in New Zealand’s Gallipoli 2015 ballot, hoping to attend the centenary of the Anzac landings on Turkey’s Gallipoli Peninsula.
Once the counting was done, 9851 of the 10,112 application were deemed eligible. A total of 2275 were eligible in the direct descendant category, 795 in the veteran category, and there were 750 double passes allocated in the general public category.
Just 21 were both direct descendants and veterans. The oldest successful applicant will be 92 this year, the youngest 18.
Only 62 ballots were awarded to people in the Waikato.
‘‘Once we get to Gallipoli, there are very strict regulations in place – primarily for security reasons and because of the huge numbers expected to attend,’’ she said. ‘‘There will be tours of the battlefields, and on the Friday before the dawn ceremony, we have to camp overnight at secure checkpoints. We have to take wet weather gear, everything we need for an overnight stay seated in a chair – there will be various activities laid on, I understand.
‘‘Early the next morning we then walk about 8km – mostly uphill – to the dawn service at Chunuk Bair.’’
Gruelling it might sound, but Sue plans to follow the Gallipoli leg by walking half of the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage route across northern Spain also known as the Way of St James.
She will join the route half way through and walk to the endpoint in Galicia.
With the final touches being put to her plans, Sue is wondering who else in Waipa might be attending the Gallipoli commemorations. As a Waipa District councillor, she would also like to be able to lay a posy or leave a card at Chunuk Bair on behalf of the Waipa District Council.
‘‘I would like to find out who else in this area is going. It would be good for us to meet each other, perhaps get together before we all leave.’’
Contact the Cambridge Edition for Sue’s contact details.