Turkey. Gallipoli.

£2,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

A wonderful copy of this remarkable map of Gallipoli belonging to Lt. Eric Arundel Wilton dso, Signalling Officer of the 16th Battalion. Wilton went ashore on the first day of the landings and was invalided off the peninsula with a serious gunshot wound a week later . The map was originally produced by the British War Office in October 1908 (as is noted on the map itself) but this is the first wartime issue, specifically produced in Cairo for the use of the forces ashore at Gallipoli in 1915 by the map-making group headed by T.E. Lawrence . There was later a second issue, easily identified by the addition “corrected to July 1915,” just before the major series of secondary landings in August. This is a medium-format map on a 1:250,000 scale, perhaps less well-known than the series of 1:20,000 maps of specific sites. The scale allows the map to take in the entire peninsula, from the landing sites on the western coast right across the peninsula to the dreamt-of destination at Gallipoli itself. In addition to topographical information it denotes vegetation, water features, natural landmarks, populated places, and transport routes. The map has the ownership inscription of Wilton (1892—1932), a Victorian who enlisted into the AIF straight from the new Royal Military College at Duntroon, where he had been part of the first intake of June 1911. He was immediately appointed as a Lieutenant and Signalling Officer in the 16th Battalion, landing at Gallipoli on the first day. He was repo

• Year: 1915

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