A Collection of Medals for the Gallipoli Campaign

Three: Corporal C. Sheddan, Royal Garrison Artillery, who was killed in action at Gallipoli on 12 June 1915

1914-15 Star (145 Cpl. C. Sheddan. R.G.A.); British War and Victory Medals (145 Cpl. C. Sheddan. R.A.); Memorial Plaque (Charles Sheddan) the trio nearly very fine; the plaque pierced at 12 o’clock with traces of verdigris and so heavily polished that the naming is only just discernible, therefore fair (4) £120-£160

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals for the Gallipoli Campaign.

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Charles Sheddan was born in Campbeltown, Argyll, and attested there for the 4th Highland (Mountain) Brigade, Royal Garrison Artillery Territorial Force. Disembarked at Gallipoli on the first day of the campaign, 25 April 1915, alongside 40-50 fellow Highland gunners, it wasn’t long before the attack plan began to unravel. The 29th Divisional Artillery War Record and Honours Book, 1915-18, sets the scene:
‘One section of the Ross and Cromarty Battery and one section of the Argyll Battery came ashore in the afternoon with the initial landings at 'W' Beach. Both batteries were supposed to come in on the heels of the infantry in the morning, but the fierce resistance encountered there caused delays and changes all around.’

Reserved for the landing of guns, horses, transports and stores due to its ease of access to the hinterland and its reduced vulnerability to gunfire from Turkish positions on the Asiatic shore, 'W' Beach proved a killing field. As the very first artillery units of any kind and the very first Territorial troops of any badge to set foot on the peninsula, the small number of 4th Highland (Mountain) Brigade artillery men soon found themselves in a desperate fight against a well-prepared enemy fighting on home beaches; mined, laced with barbed-wire entanglements and defended by Turks in well-sited trenches, only the extreme bravery of the Lancashire Fusiliers prevented a disaster.

Sheddan was subsequently killed in action on 12 June 1915 and is buried at Twelve Tree Copse Cemetery, near Krithia, Turkey.