An Anzac's childhood: John Simpson Kirkpatrick (1892-1915).

The Medical Journal of Australia ISSN: 0025-729X 21 April 2003 178 8 400-402 ©The Medical Journal of Australia 2003 www.mja.com.au History JOHN SIMPSON KIRKPATRICK, generally known as “Simpson”, is one of the most famous Anzacs of the Gallipoli campaign.1-3 From the Gallipoli landing on 25 April 1915 until his death 25 days later, Simpson and his donkey retrieved perhaps 300 casualties from the battlefield. He did this work independently, sometimes in disregard of orders, and frequently with a disregard for danger that kept the onlooking soldiers in the trenches enthralled as they watched him moving calmly to rescue wounded soldiers while under direct fire from the enemy. He is often thought of as t quintessential larrikin Anz c, although he was born in England and only spent four years in Australia before enlisting in the Australian Army Medical Corps in 1914. Simpson’s childhood was spent in Tyneside, United Kingdom, where his selfless military service is also well remembered.