If you have heard of the ‘man with the donkey’ then you’ll probably know about John (Jack) Simpson Kirkpatrick’s exploits at Gallipoli ferrying wounded comrades to safety on a donkey. That he was originally from South Shields is well known, but that he was one of a much larger body of men and women from the North East of England who served in various Dominion forces during the First World War is a less familiar aspect of the conflict.
In this project, we’re looking to recruit ‘citizen historians’ (i.e. volunteers) to research the lives and wartime service of ‘Geordies’ in the armies of Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, and Canada during World War One. Our ambition is to ‘crowdsource’ research (i.e. recruit a crowd of volunteers to tackle large-scale research projects), thereby collecting information that will help us to understand why ‘Geordies’ emigrated and how these journeys relate to their wartime movements and even post-war locations of settlement.
This website provides information about how to volunteer and resources to help volunteers research the lost lives of the ‘Geordies’ who fought in Dominion land forces in World War One. As research progresses, we will build up the database and make it available to the public.
