Charles Hotham Montagu Doughty-Wylie
Encyclopedia
Lieutenant Colonel
Charles Hotham Montagu Doughty-Wylie VC
, CB
, CMG
(23 July 1868 - 26 April 1915) was an English
recipient of the Victoria Cross
, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British
and Commonwealth
forces. Charles Hotham Montagu Doughty-Wylie was also the recipient of the Order of the Medjidie from the very Turkish Government he later would fight against.
A native of Suffolk, Doughty-Wylie was a 1889 graduate of the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. His military career included the Chitral Expedition
(1895), 1898 Occupation of Crete, the Mahdist War
(1898–99), the Second Boer War
, the Boxer Rebellion
(1900) and Somaliland
(1903–04) where he commanded a unit of the Somaliland Camel Corps
.
in Mersina, Turkey
, during the Turkish revolution
of 1909. Richard Bell-Davies
(later a VC winner, then a lieutenant
on the battleship
HMS Swiftsure
) met him at the time and gives an account in his autobiography
Sailor in the Air (1967).
Massacres of Armenia
ns started along with the revolution, and Bell-Davies says that it was largely due to the efforts of Doughty-Wylie that these were halted in Mersina. Doughty-Wylie then went to Adana, forty miles away. He persuaded the local Vali (Governor) to give him a small escort of Turkish troops and a bugler and with these managed to restore order. Mrs. Doughty-Wylie turned part of the dragoman
's house into a hospital for wounded Armenians. Bell-Davies says that by the time an armed party from Swiftsure arrived, Doughty-Wylie had again almost stopped the massacre single-handedly. Newspaper reports of the period record that Doughty-Wylie was shot in the arm, while trying to prevent these massacres.
Charles Hotham Montagu Doughty-Wylie was the recipient of the Order of the Medjidie from the Turkish Government. He was awarded the Medjidie because of his work during the Balkan Wars
when he served with the British Red Cross
helping the Turkish Military. He is the only soldier to have been awarded military honors by both the British Empire
and the Ottoman Empire
.
in The Royal Welch Fusiliers, British Army
when, "owing to his great knowledge of things Turkish" according to Bell-Davies, he was attached to General Sir Ian Hamilton's headquarters staff of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force
during the Battle of Gallipoli
.
On 26 April 1915, following the landing at Cape Helles
on the Gallipoli
peninsula, during which the brigadier general
and the brigade major
had been killed, Lieutenant Colonel Doughty-Wylie and another officer (Garth Neville Walford
) organized and made an attack through and on both sides of the village of Sedd-el-Bahr on the Old Fort at the top of the hill. The enemy's position was very strongly entrenched and defended, but mainly due to the initiative, skill and great gallantry of the two officers the attack was a complete success.
Both were killed in the moment of victory. Doughty-Wylie was shot in the face by sniper and died instantly. Doughty-Wylie is buried close to where he was killed. His grave is the only solitary British or Commonwealth war grave on the Gallipoli peninsula: The Turkish authorities moved the graves of all other foreign soldiers to the "V Beach" graves except for his.
His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Royal Welsh Fusiliers Museum in Caernarfon Castle
, Gwynedd, Wales.
with whom he exchanged love letters from 1913-1915 until his death. Bell was an eminent English
writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist who explored, mapped in Greater Syria
, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia.
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
Charles Hotham Montagu Doughty-Wylie VC
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
, CB
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
, CMG
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
(23 July 1868 - 26 April 1915) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
recipient of the Victoria Cross
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
forces. Charles Hotham Montagu Doughty-Wylie was also the recipient of the Order of the Medjidie from the very Turkish Government he later would fight against.
A native of Suffolk, Doughty-Wylie was a 1889 graduate of the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. His military career included the Chitral Expedition
Chitral Expedition
The Chitral Expedition was a military expedition in 1895 sent by the British authorities to relieve the fort at Chitral which was under siege after a local coup.-Background to the conflict:Chitral was at the extreme north west of British India...
(1895), 1898 Occupation of Crete, the Mahdist War
Mahdist War
The Mahdist War was a colonial war of the late 19th century. It was fought between the Mahdist Sudanese and the Egyptian and later British forces. It has also been called the Anglo-Sudan War or the Sudanese Mahdist Revolt. The British have called their part in the conflict the Sudan Campaign...
(1898–99), the Second Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
, the Boxer Rebellion
Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also called the Boxer Uprising by some historians or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in northern China, was a proto-nationalist movement by the "Righteous Harmony Society" , or "Righteous Fists of Harmony" or "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" , in China between...
(1900) and Somaliland
Somaliland
Somaliland is an unrecognised self-declared sovereign state that is internationally recognised as an autonomous region of Somalia. The government of Somaliland regards itself as the successor state to the British Somaliland protectorate, which was independent for a few days in 1960 as the State of...
(1903–04) where he commanded a unit of the Somaliland Camel Corps
Somaliland Camel Corps
The Somaliland Camel Corps was a unit of the British Army based in British Somaliland from the early 20th century until the 1960s.Camels are a necessity in East Africa, being as important as ponies are in Mongolia...
.
Turkish Revolution
Colonel Doughty-Wylie was the British consulConsul
Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...
in Mersina, Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, during the Turkish revolution
Young Turk Revolution
The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 reversed the suspension of the Ottoman parliament by Sultan Abdul Hamid II, marking the onset of the Second Constitutional Era...
of 1909. Richard Bell-Davies
Richard Bell-Davies
Rear-Admiral Richard Bell Davies VC, CB, DSO, AFC , also known as Richard Bell Davies was a British First World War fighter pilot and Royal Navy officer...
(later a VC winner, then a lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
on the battleship
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
HMS Swiftsure
HMS Swiftsure
The Royal Navy has had ships named HMS Swiftsure since 1573, including:*Swiftsure, a galleon launched in 1573, renamed Speedwell and rebuilt in 1607, and lost in 1624., a 42-gun great ship launched in 1621, and captured by the Dutch in 1666., a 70-gun ship built in 1673 and later renamed Revenge., ...
) met him at the time and gives an account in his autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
Sailor in the Air (1967).
Massacres of Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
ns started along with the revolution, and Bell-Davies says that it was largely due to the efforts of Doughty-Wylie that these were halted in Mersina. Doughty-Wylie then went to Adana, forty miles away. He persuaded the local Vali (Governor) to give him a small escort of Turkish troops and a bugler and with these managed to restore order. Mrs. Doughty-Wylie turned part of the dragoman
Dragoman
A dragoman was an interpreter, translator and official guide between Turkish, Arabic, and Persian-speaking countries and polities of the Middle East and European embassies, consulates, vice-consulates and trading posts...
's house into a hospital for wounded Armenians. Bell-Davies says that by the time an armed party from Swiftsure arrived, Doughty-Wylie had again almost stopped the massacre single-handedly. Newspaper reports of the period record that Doughty-Wylie was shot in the arm, while trying to prevent these massacres.
Charles Hotham Montagu Doughty-Wylie was the recipient of the Order of the Medjidie from the Turkish Government. He was awarded the Medjidie because of his work during the Balkan Wars
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...
when he served with the British Red Cross
British Red Cross
The British Red Cross Society is the United Kingdom branch of the worldwide impartial humanitarian organisation the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The society was formed in 1870, and is a registered charity with over 31,000 volunteers and 2,600 staff. At the heart of their work...
helping the Turkish Military. He is the only soldier to have been awarded military honors by both the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
and the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
.
World War I
Doughty-Wylie was 46 years old, and a lieutenant colonelLieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
in The Royal Welch Fusiliers, British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
when, "owing to his great knowledge of things Turkish" according to Bell-Davies, he was attached to General Sir Ian Hamilton's headquarters staff of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force
Mediterranean Expeditionary Force
The Mediterranean Expeditionary Force was part of the British Army during World War I, that commanded all Allied forces at Gallipoli and Salonika. This included the initial naval operation to force the straits of the Dardanelles. Its headquarters was formed in March 1915...
during the Battle of Gallipoli
Battle of Gallipoli
The Gallipoli Campaign, also known as the Dardanelles Campaign or the Battle of Gallipoli, took place at the peninsula of Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire between 25 April 1915 and 9 January 1916, during the First World War...
.
On 26 April 1915, following the landing at Cape Helles
Landing at Cape Helles
The landing at Cape Helles was part of the amphibious invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula by British and French forces on April 25, 1915 during the First World War. Helles, at the foot of the peninsula, was the main landing area. With the support of the guns of the Royal Navy, a British division...
on the Gallipoli
Gallipoli
The Gallipoli peninsula is located in Turkish Thrace , the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles straits to the east. Gallipoli derives its name from the Greek "Καλλίπολις" , meaning "Beautiful City"...
peninsula, during which the brigadier general
Brigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...
and the brigade major
Brigade Major
In the British Army, a Brigade Major was the Chief of Staff of a brigade. He held the rank of Major and was head of the brigade's "G - Operations and Intelligence" section directly and oversaw the two other branches, "A - Administration" and "Q - Quartermaster"...
had been killed, Lieutenant Colonel Doughty-Wylie and another officer (Garth Neville Walford
Garth Neville Walford
Garth Neville Walford VC was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces....
) organized and made an attack through and on both sides of the village of Sedd-el-Bahr on the Old Fort at the top of the hill. The enemy's position was very strongly entrenched and defended, but mainly due to the initiative, skill and great gallantry of the two officers the attack was a complete success.
Both were killed in the moment of victory. Doughty-Wylie was shot in the face by sniper and died instantly. Doughty-Wylie is buried close to where he was killed. His grave is the only solitary British or Commonwealth war grave on the Gallipoli peninsula: The Turkish authorities moved the graves of all other foreign soldiers to the "V Beach" graves except for his.
His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Royal Welsh Fusiliers Museum in Caernarfon Castle
Caernarfon Castle
Caernarfon Castle is a medieval building in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. There was a motte-and-bailey castle in the town of Caernarfon from the late 11th century until 1283 when King Edward I of England began replacing it with the current stone structure...
, Gwynedd, Wales.
Personal life
Doughty-Wylie, a married man, had an unconsummated affair with Gertrude BellGertrude Bell
Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist who explored, mapped, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making due to her extensive travels in Greater Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia. Along...
with whom he exchanged love letters from 1913-1915 until his death. Bell was an eminent English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist who explored, mapped in Greater Syria
Greater Syria
Greater Syria , also known simply as Syria, is a term that denotes a region in the Near East bordering the Eastern Mediterranean Sea or the Levant....
, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia.