RIFLEMAN HENRY ASHFIELD CARLISLE
CEYLON PLANTERS RIFLE CORPS
2ND MAY 1915 AGE 20
BURIED: BEACH CEMETERY, ANZAC, GALLIPOLI, TURKEY
'Thank you Harry', a simple message of gratitude from Harry's nineteen year old sister, Maud Sibyl Carlisle - his next-of-kin. Harry had been her only close family member; their parents were both dead and there were no other surviving siblings. They had lived with their mother's brother, the Revd Gilbert King, vicar of Easterton, Wiltshire, whose only child Noel Gilbert Bryan King was killed in 1917.
Harry was educated at Denstone College and then went to Ceylon. He enlisted in the Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps on the outbreak of war. According to Charles Bean's 'The Story of the Anzac', the Corps landed in Gallipoli with 150 men and one officer and were used by General Birdwood as a personal escort and camp guard. This was necessary because, as Birdwood himself recounted, "when we first landed at ANZAC, with the whole countryside covered with thick, high bushes in which many Turkish snipers were concealed, my little escort proved itself invaluable at scouting through the scrub." Harry Carlisle was killed soon after the Gallipoli landings; it was said that he was shot going to the help of a wounded comrade.