Woman raises flag at Gallipoli service 104 years after great grandfather set foot on Anzac cove

Able Seaman Amanda May raised the flag at the Anzac Day dawn service in Gallipoli, Turkey, 104 years after her great-grandfather fought in the exact same spot.

May received a call to be a guards-woman at the commemorative service, meaning she was in charge of raising the flag and was a part of the catafalque party at the Lone Pine Cemetery service along the Gallipoli peninsula.

“When I found out I was coming to Gallipoli, the first person I called was my mum,” Able Seaman May told Flight Lieutenant Chloe Stevenson.

“Dad booked a trip straight away.”

May’s great-grandfather – Private Erskine May – was only 21 when he sailed into Anzac cove and began to fight on the Turkish peninsula in 1915.

“He was part of the 13th Infantry Battalion; he fought at Anzac Cove and Lone Pine and later on joined the 45th Battalion. He survived both wars and came home,” Able Seaman May said.

“It is surreal being here and seeing how small the beach was and how steep the terrain he fought on.”

May’s proud parents arrived in Gallipoli a few days ago, from NSW’s Central Coast, for the dawn service, with her father proudly watching during her catafalque party rehearsals.

“I think it’s an honour that any parent gets a phone call to say that their son or daughter is going to come over here to perform the ceremonial services,” Mr May said.

Mr May says that his daughter’s involvement in the services has inspired him to find out a lot more about his grandfather, Private May.

“I was really young when he passed so don’t have many memories of him.

“He was very lucky; when you come over here and the stories you hear … if you made it home it was obviously very special.”

Around 35 000 people travelled to attend this morning’s meeting at the memorial, for the 104^th anniversary of the landing of Australian and New Zealand troops in Anzac cove.