Ulysses, 1915

Captain Edward Unwin
V Beach Landings, Gallipoli, 25/04/1915
First World War

Edward Unwin, date unknown, IWM Q 85893

Edward Unwin was born on 17/03/1864 in Hampshire. He joined the Merchant Navy at 16 and served for fifteen years before transferring to the Royal Navy in 1895, where he served in the punitive expedition to Benin (1897) and Second Boer War (1897-1902). In 1909 he retired with the rank of Commander, aged 45.

On the outbreak of war, Unwin was one of many old hands brought out of retirement. 1914 proved unremarkable for him, but in February 1915 he was recruited onto the staff of Governor Rear Admiral Wemyss at Mudros (Lemnos, Greece) where a large naval force was
concentrating for an invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula.

With stalemate on the Western Front, voices advocating for a second front to tip the balance of the war had grown louder. Eventually the scheme for an Allied landing at Gallipoli, to strike inland, capture Constantinople and knock Ottoman Turkey out of the war had won out. A
colossal amphibious assault was planned, with landings on multiple beaches. At V Beach, overlooked by entrenched positions and two forts, the question of how to land troops swiftly and minimise losses was a thorny problem. Unwin proposed a solution.

An ordinary collier (coal ship), the SS River Clyde, would be acquired. Sally-ports would be cut into her hull and gangways fitted to her bows. After the first wave had landed in open boats, the Clyde would be beached at full speed, disgorging the 2,000-strong second wave, who would charge down the gangways and along a bridge of flat-bottomed boats to storm the beach. Despite some misgivings, Unwin’s “wooden horse” scheme was approved. He was given command of the Clyde and promoted Acting Captain.

At 06:30 AM on 25/04/1915 the landings began, but Unwin’s carefully laid plans began to unravel almost immediately. The delay of the first wave forced the Clyde to circle and lose vital speed. As the first wave of Dublin Fusiliers reached the shore, the Turks unleashed a horrific
concentration of fire. The Dubliners, sitting ducks in their open boats, were massacred.

Meanwhile, the Clyde steamed into shore, but her reduced speed caused her to ground further out than planned. Worse, the steam hopper (barge) towing the bridge of boats had drifted off course and grounded, making disembarkation impossible Unwin took the initiative. Assisted by Seaman William Williams, the 51-year old Captain climbed down onto the bridge and commanded a nearby steam pinnace to push it towards a rocky spit to starboard. When the pinnace could go no further, the pair dived into the sea in full view of the Turks and, assisted by Midshipman George Drewry, physically hauled the bridge into place. The rope was too short to reach the rocks, so they were forced to stand in the water, bullets raining down around them, and anchor the bridge with their own bodies.

Unwin gave the order to disembark and a wave of Munster Fusiliers rushed down the gangways, but the Turkish fire was too intense. The Munsters, funneled down the narrow gangways and bridge, were cut to pieces.

After holding the bridge in place for more than an hour, Williams received a fatal shrapnel wound to the neck. Unwin went to support him, but in doing so lost his hold on the bridge, which drifted free. Williams died in Unwin’s arms, and the exhausted Captain was taken back to the Clyde for medical attention while others attempted to re-establish the bridge. Several further attempts were made to rush the beach, but all were stopped dead by the relentless Turkish fire. Hundreds of men, including Brigadier General Henry Napier, were killed, their bodies crowding the bridge and their blood, according to several witnesses, staining the surf red.

Described by one officer as “maddened by the failure of his landing plan”, Unwin ignored his Doctor’s orders and left the safety of the Clyde twice more. The first time he attempted to coordinate efforts on the bridge and was wounded in the face by a ricocheting bullet.

When the attack was finally abandoned and the survivors ordered to stay put in relative safety aboard the Clyde, he left the ship again, this time in a small boat which he piloted towards the rocks in search of survivors. He succeeded in bringing seven men back to the Clyde, at which point exhaustion finally overcame him again.

It was not until after night had fallen that the men aboard the Clyde were able to disembark. The forts were taken the next day and a proper beachhead established, but the Gallipoli campaign was doomed to failure.

Unwin was one of six men to receive the Victoria Cross for actions at V Beach. He went on to serve in various posts throughout the Gallipoli campaign and, during the evacuation, was the last man off the beach at Suvla Bay on 20/12/1915, where he served as beachmaster and
saved a man who had fallen overboard a crowded boat from drowning.

V Beach and the bridge of boats viewed from the bow of SS River Clyde, 25/04/1915,
note the bodies crowding the bridge, IWM Q 50473

The remainder of Unwin’s war service was fairly quiet. He commanded the a light cruiser on the South-East American station for a time, then returned to administrative roles in Egypt and the Mediterranean. He retired for the second time in 1920 with the rank of Captain and enjoyed an active retirement.

From 1937-1939 Unwin was a member of the national council of The Link; a British pro-German and pro-Nazi organisation with 4,300 members at its height. While he appears to have had very little active involvement in The Link’s activities, and the precise motivations behind his membership are unclear, his presence on the council doubtless lent a measure of prestige to the organisation prior to its disbandment after the outbreak of the Second World War.

Unwin died on 19/04/1950 at Grayshott, Hampshire, at the age of 86. He is buried in Grayshott cemetery, and there is a memorial to him at Hythe, Hampshire. His medals are still owned by his family, but at the time of writing are on display in the Ashcroft gallery at the Imperial War Museum, London.

SS River Clyde beached at V Beach, 1915, Ernest Brooks

For a deeper dive into James Nicolson’s incredible story, make a pledge of any size to our crowdfunder to gain access to the Forlorn Hope podcast, which explores in depth all of the stories that inspired ‘Valour - Part I’.