Northern song and storytelling trio Harp & a Monkey have organised a special one-off show to mark the centenary of a unique pilgrimage undertaken by grieving parents at the end of the First World War.
In March 1922, James and Mary Duckworth of Rochdale, Lancashire, took the sapling of an English oak tree in a bucket of water across the Mediterranean and planted it near to where their 19-year-old son Eric had fallen near the village of Krithia on Gallipoli.
Their son’s body had never been recovered from the battlefield and they had used a map drawn up by one of his surviving comrades to try and locate the spot where he had last been seen slumped in the enemy wire. However, seven years after the battle, the land was being reclaimed for agriculture, so they instead planted it in a nearby war graves cemetery.
Courtesy of the efforts of different generations of local gardeners working for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the tree has continued to thrive in the Redoubt Cemetery – keeping alive the memory of both the fallen teenager Eric Duckworth as well as the hundreds of men from old East Lancashire who fell alongside him on this Turkish peninsula.
Largely forgotten as the years went by, the story of the lone English oak at the Dardanelles was revived after Martin Purdy, Harp & a Monkey’s singer and a respected social and First World War historian, co-wrote a book about it in 2013 (The Gallipoli Oak). The award-winning alt-folk trio then penned a song about The Gallipoli Oak which appeared on their second album (All Life Is Here).
The centenary show that will take place on the afternoon of Saturday, March 26, will include songs and stories relating to the tree and local soldiers by Harp & a Monkey as well as two short talks: one by Dr Purdy (about the vital role the tree has played in keeping alive the sacrifices of the men of East Lancashire who fell at the Dardanelles, and the other by Liz Marsland of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, who will talk about the scale of the organisation’s commitment to its horticultural work.
The show is taking place in the upstairs room at Todmorden Central Methodist Chapel, Calder Valley, West Yorkshire, between 1pm and 3.30pm (26 March) and tickets are £6 from www.ticketsource.co.uk/todtic
Martin Purdy explained: “We are doing the show in Todmorden as it is one of the three former mill towns that provided the men for Eric Duckworth’s battalion. It is really a celebration of sacrifice and healing – not least as the tree has only continued to survive because of the willingness of the Turkish gardeners to nurture an alien species planted in memory of what, at the end of the day, was an invading enemy soldier.”
l In addition to the Gallipoli Oak Centenary Show, Harp & a Monkey will perform a full version of their acclaimed ‘War Stories’ show for the first time in four years at The Great War Huts Museum, Hawstead, Suffolk, on the afternoon of Sunday, April 24. Tickets and further details from https://www.greatwarhuts.org/event-details/gallipoli-sunday-war-stories-show-with-harp-a-monkey
The trio will also be performing a selection of songs and stories from the same show at a special event being organised by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission at Brookwood Military Cemetery, Woking, Surrey, on Thursday, May 26.
http://www.harpandamonkey.com/