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Dvr. Robert Welsh
British Army 10th Battery, 147th Brigade Royal Field Artillery
from:Duntocher
(d.16th Apr 1915)
My great uncle Robert Welsh was drowned en route to Gallipoli on 16th of April 1915. He was a driver in the Royal Field Artillery and was aboard HMTS Manitou when it was challenged by a Turkish gun boat and told to abandon ship before they sunk it. Lifeboats were lowered but one capsized and 40 out of 60 aboard were drowned. The Turks fired torpedoes at the Manitou but did not hit it, a terrible waste of life for nothing, one of the many during the Gallipoli Campaign. His body was not recovered and he is commemorated on the Helles Memorial.
He was born in 1891 at 45 William Street, Duntocher, Dunbartonshire, Scotland to James and Elizabeth Welsh nee Donald and was their oldest child. His mother died in 1901 and his father in 1916. He was survived by two sisters and a young brother. His sister Marion (Minnie) was engaged but her fiance survived the war and died from Spanish Flu when he returned home.
