A Lonely Memorial

The memorial at Collingwood Corner on the Salisbury to Blandford Forum road commemorates the officers and men of the Collingwood Battalion of the Royal Naval Division who died in action during the Third Battle of Krithia at Helles on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 4 June 1915 when the battalion was practically destroyed.

The memorial was provided by the surviving members of the battalion and it is situated near the Blandford Downs where the battalion trained during the winter of 1914/15 from shooting to constructing trenches.

The Collingwood Battalion was formed up of 'spare' naval men due to there not being berths in the fleet when the men were called up. As such the Royal Naval Division was set up and the became a land based unit formed up of several naval battalions of men.

Gallipoli during the first world war was controlled by the Ottoman empire and the stretch of water it overlooked (the Dardanelles). The plan by the allies was to seize control of the area then launch an attack on the Ottoman capital Constantinople (Modern day Istanbul).

This proved to be over ambitious and the attack stalled in the face of heavy artillery and machine gun fire. The grimmest of these was the Third Battle of Krithia

On 4 June, the seven hundred strong Collingwood Battalion took part in the second phase of the attack. The battle started with a heavy bombardment and at 1200 hours the RND advanced and captured the enemy front line but suffered heavy casualties. At 1215 hours the Collingwood Battalion was to take over the advance but the communication trenches were choked with stretcher-bearers and wounded, which delayed the Battalion's move forward.

The attack finally went ahead, from the captured enemy trenches and the Collingwoods seized the Turkish second lines four hundred yards further on. However, the neighboring French Senegalese troops were driven back by a counter-attack, leaving the Battalion's right flank exposed. Flanking fire caused devastating casualties amongst the Collingwoods, with over five hundred men killed or wounded. The remnants of the Battalion withdrew but so heavy were the casualties that the Battalion was not reformed.

The memorial was unveiled on Saturday 7 June 1919 by the widow, Mrs Jessie Aubrey Spearman, of the commanding officer of the Collingwood Bat... talion, Commander Alexander Y. C. M. Spearman, RN, who was killed on 4 June 1915 at Gallipoli.

Since 8 July 2014 this memorial has been listed at Grade II by English Heritage