Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

British War Medal 1914-20 (2) (1135 A Cpl. C. P. Robinson 3-Co. of. Lond. Y; 5496 Pte. S. Johnson Lan. Fus.) very fine (2) £70-£90

Charles Poulton Robinson was born in Amsterdam, Holland in 1889 but by the time of the 1891 census he was living with his parents Robert and Edith in Battersea. Ten years later the family had moved to Bexley in Kent. He attested for the Corps of Hussars at Hounslow and joined the 3rd County of London Yeomanry (The Sharpshooters) sailing with them for Egypt, arriving on 28 April 1915. He was killed in action, aged 26, when the 2nd Mounted Division took part in the Battle Scimitar Hill on 21 August 1915. He is buried in Green Hill Cemetery, Suvla, Turkey.

Stephen Johnson, of Driffield, Yorkshire, landed at Gallipoli with the 1st Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers on June 6 1915 strengthening the numbers of the battalion that had suffered so badly during the “Lancashire Landings” just two months before. He was killed in action on August 21 during an attack on “Hill 112” during the Battle of Scimitar Hill. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Turkey.

The Battle of Scimitar Hill
The Battle of Scimitar Hill was the largest single day attack mounted by the allies at Gallipoli, involving three divisions in an attempt to stop the Turks threatening the Suvla Bay landing areas and link up with the ANZAC forces that had landed further south. It followed the Battle of Sari Bair which had seen two Divisions of Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Stopford’s IX Corps land at Suvla on 6 August in an attempt to break the deadlock that had been in place since the Dardanelles campaign had begun. Scimitar Hill, so named because of its curved summit, was actually a first day objective for 7 August but it, and the neighbouring Chocolate Hill, Green Hill and W Hills which formed part of the Anafarta Spur, had proved too difficult an obstacle. It was at one stage captured by the 6/East Yorkshire Regiment on 6 August but was subsequently abandoned; it was to change hands a number of times over the next week. After repeated failures Stopford was relieved of command and Major-General Beauvoir De Lisle, commander of the 29th Division (including Private Johnson’s 1/Lancashire Fusiliers) took temporary command of the IX corps. With his own Division, the 11th Division and the yeomanry of the 2nd Mounted Division De Lisle’s plan was to attack Scimitar Hill with the 29th, nearby W Hills with the 11th and leave the 2nd Mounted in reserve. In the meantime the ANZAC forces were to attack Hill 60 further south in attempt to link up the two armies. It was not a success. The 11th Division failed to achieve their objective and whilst the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers of the 87th Infantry Brigade of the 29th Division did manage to capture the summit of Scimitar Hill they were soon driven back by fire from further up the Anafarta Spur and from the other hills to the south. The 2nd Mounted Division were soon called forward and, marching across the dry bed of a salt lake in extended formation, they came under constant fire. It is known that the 3rd County of London Yeomanry managed to advance to Chocolate Hill and took part in the attack on Hill 112, at some point during these attack Acting Corporal Poulton was to lose his life. Scimitar Hill itself was briefly recaptured by the yeomanry of the 2nd South Midland Mounted Brigade under Brigadier-General Lord Longford but after he was killed they were pushed back once again: the fighting on 21 August marked the last attempt by the British Forces to advance at Gallipoli. The front line was to remain static until the evacuation in December 1915.