Restoration of the Naval Ensign Supported by the Annual Fund

The School’s Gallipoli flag, saved from HMS Rattlesnake in 1916, was fully restored in time for the commemoration of ANZAC day which fell on the 25th April. This was also the 100th anniversary of OMT Lt Leslie Drewry winning the Victoria Cross for his part in the landings. 

With support from the Annual Fund, the flag was removed from its original frame and mounting (an old piece of blackboard), carefully cleaned before humidification. It was then mounted on a custom-made padded board and re-framed with lighting. The flag is now displayed in the Great Hall lobby alongside the roll of honour and Lt Drewry’s medals. 

The Gallipoli Campaign, also known as the Dardanelles Campaign, the Battle of Gallipoli or the Battle of Çanakkale (Turkish: Çanakkale Savaşı), was a campaign of World War I that took place on the Gallipoli peninsula (now modern Turkey) in the Ottoman Empire between 25 April 1915 and 9 January 1916. The peninsula forms the northern bank of the Dardanelles, a strait that provided a sea route to the Russian Empire, one of the Allied powers during the war. Intending to secure it, Russia’s allies, Britain and France, launched a naval attack followed by an amphibious landing on the peninsula, with the aim of capturing the Ottoman capital of Constantinople. 

The naval attack was repelled and after eight months’ fighting, with many casualties on both sides, the land campaign was abandoned and the invasion force was withdrawn to Egypt. 

HMS Rattlesnake, a Beagle-class destroyer from which the School’s flag was saved, was launched in 1910 and sold for scrap in May 1921.  It took part in the Gallipoli landings as well as the evacuation and was also involved in various engagements throughout the campaign. The School has researched its log which confirms its role in the evacuations. 

In an amazing coincidence, after six months of research, the School discovered the identity of the donor of the flag on 24th April - the day it was re-mounted on the wall of the Great Hall Lobby, and the day before ANZAC Day.

The original owner of the flag was Lt Commander John W R Smails who served in the Dardenelles and was badly wounded. His obituary in the Halstead Local newspaper says that "the scenes at the Dardanelles had made a deep impression on his mind".

The flag was then passed to his son, Frederick Smails, who donated the flag to Merchant Taylors' School to mark the creation of the Royal Navy section of the CCF in that year. His son, Stephen Smails had joined the School in 1952 in the Third Form as a member of Hilles House.

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