Unexpected Gallipoli experience

Monday, 4 May 2015

Anzac Day at Gallipoli was a real family affair for Orakei Local Board member Kate Cooke.

She'd entered her son and daughter in the ballot process but had never imagined they would both win tickets. It meant that Kate and her husband Jon could attend as guests of their children.

'I'd been to Gallipoli in 2009, although not for a service, with my older daughter Diana who was living in London at the time, she says.

'I thought it'd be nice for the younger two to have this experience, given that we had a direct relative involved.'

The Orakei resident's son Anthony, 24, won two tickets in the first round of the ballot and planned to take his sister Amanda, 29.

But in January Amanda's name came up in the second round and her tickets were confirmed in March.

Kate's grandfather Sinclair Reid grew up on Alten Rd in Auckland city. He was a member of the Auckland Mounted Rifles and was 28 when he landed on the peninsula.

After the Gallipoli Campaign he was sent to Palestine and Egypt. During the second half of the war he was promoted to major and was awarded the military cross.

Reid died two years before Kate was born. She was told that one of the saddest parts of the war for her maternal grandfather was saying goodbye to his horse.

'These horses had carried them faithfully through the war. They felt they would not be looked after and would just be left to run wild so they decided to put them down.'

When the Cookes arrived in Istanbul in the lead-up to Anzac Day it was business as usual.

'It didn't seem to resonate there but by the time we got to Gallipoli there was a lot going on.'

Kate and Jon took a bus from Istanbul at 2pm and arrived at Anzac Cove to meet their children at around 1am on April 25.

The weather was fine overnight and there was no wind so it was the perfect night to be sitting under the stars, she says. 

And the atmosphere was really special.

'The crowd was great. There was no annoyance if people were asked to move. Everyone was just happy to be there.

'One of the most moving things about the service was when they listed the names and ages of a whole lot of people who had died.'

Her daughter Amanda says the service was very thought-provoking.

'It provided me with some perspective as to what my great grandfather would have been thinking and to process what I would have been thinking if I was in that position or lived in that era.'

After the main event the guests headed up the hill. The Australians had their service at Lone Pine while the New Zealanders headed up to Chunuk Bair.

It was well worth going to the peninsula for a second time, Kate says.

'When you go and just visit it's a very peaceful, quiet feeling. But being there for the service took on quite a different connotation.'