What they want in England is a good revolution and that will clear some of the millionaires and dukes out of it and then with a Labour Government they will almost be able to make their own conditions. I am enclosing a PN for a quid<\/em> [postal money order for a pound in currency].<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“What they want in England is a good revolution”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Simpson returned to the sea, went to Western Australia and became a gold miner. When war broke out he enlisted, apparently hoping to be shipped to England to be reunited with his mother. Instead, the 22-year-old was put ashore at Gallipoli where he lasted just 24 days before being killed by a Turkish sniper. I think the job Murphy carried out was self-imposed; it was entirely Operation Murphy. Murphy was of middle height; lightly built but sinewy. I have seen him referred to as Simpson. I believe he enlisted under that name. He told me his name was Fitzpatrick. It was not uncommon, though not very frequent, for a man to enlist under an assumed name. We had a couple in our unit. I know one of them did so because he preferred the comparative quiet of the battlefront to the running fight on the domestic front. Up the full length of it Murphy walked with the air of one out for a Sunday afternoon stroll with his girl. The rest of us when we were obliged to use it scurried like hares to pockets of comparative safety along the route. Our Colonel, a South African veteran, suggested that in the upper reach of the gully, barricades of sandbags be erected at intervals, half the width of the track. Some weeks later when there was time to do it, it was done. The protection afforded was limited. Murphy ignored it. Murphy would pick up a wounded man, one slightly worse than a walking wounded case, and take him to the dressing station on the beach, to be transferred later to the hospital ship. The Novocastrian commander of the 4th Field Ambulance, Dr Joseph Beeston, wrote that: \u201cSimpson was frequently warned of the danger he ran, for he never stopped, no matter how heavy the firing. His invariable reply was \u2018My troubles\u2019. The brave chap was killed in the end\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the morning of May 19, 1915, Simpson and Duffy paused at the water guard on the beach for some breakfast, but none was ready. \u201cNever mind. Get me a good dinner when I come back,\u201d Simpson is reported to have said. Only Duffy returned. This article appears in our book, The Hunter Region in The Great War.<\/em> Now on special:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A member of the 3rd Field Ambulance, Simpson was nicknamed \u201cScotty\u201d or \u201cMurphy\u201d by other diggers who couldn\u2019t place his accent. He discarded his slouch hat in preference for a seaman\u2019s leather peaked cap. He commandeered a donkey (the donkeys had been brought ashore with Greek drivers to carry water, but the drivers, suspected of being spies, were taken off Gallipoli). He put a stretcher bearer\u2019s armband around the donkey’s head, named it \u201cDuffy\u201d and got permission to operate as a one-man unit, bringing wounded men in for attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.phototimetunnel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/simpson-and-murphy-2.jpg\")
Simpson scarcely retained ties to his original unit. He and Duffy camped with Indian troops and their transport mules, going out each day and half each night, bringing back wounded men.
Maitland Anzac and former Newcastle Herald<\/em> journalist Frank Mattocks wrote of Simpson in the Herald<\/em> on April 22, 1961:<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.phototimetunnel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Frank-Mattocks.jpg\")
Murphy was liberally tattooed so it was easy to guess he was a seaman. He told me he was a stoker. We admired him immensely for many reasons and naturally grew very fond of him. His was a blythe spirit and unruffled. We marvelled at his good luck and wondered how long Dame Fortune would continue to smile upon him. The advanced aid post was a little way beyond us; Murphy occasionally had a snack with us. Suicide Gully, as we called it, was exposed to fire from three directions. Turkish marksmen looked down upon us from the elevated position and must have had the measure of any part of the gully within range<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHe walked with the air of one out for a Sunday stroll<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
He wore on his arm the red cross band of the field ambulance, and had a large red cross of some material spread over the rump of the donkey. Of all the wounded he took past us we never heard a whimper from them. Some of them were heavily bandaged; tough fellows, more than often with a cigarette between their lips. Murphy\u2019s calm bearing and his cheery disposition must have helped his \u2018passengers\u2019 no end<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.phototimetunnel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Beeston-JL-2.jpg\")
Dr Beeston wrote that Duffy \u201cwas afterwards taken over by Johnstone, one of our men, who improvised stirrups out of the stretcher slings and conveyed many wounded in this manner\u201d. It has also been claimed that New Zealander Dick Henderson, whose portrait is often confused with that of Simpson, kept working with Duffy. Henderson certainly did similar work to Simpson, receiving the Military Medal for his efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.phototimetunnel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Les-Johnstone-and-donkey.jpg\")