John Simpson Kirkpatrick enlisted in the 3rd Australian Field Ambulance as Private Simpson on 25 August 1914. He took part in the landing on Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 and became famous among Australian troops for his bravery and compassion. Under continual shell-fire he used a donkey to carry water up to Shrapnel Gully, and to bring wounded men down to the beach on Anzac Cove from the firing line on the ridges above. After less than four weeks in action he was fatally wounded on 19 May 1915. Although he was known on Gallipoli by a variety of nicknames, most of the soldiers who witnessed his bravery knew him as the man with the donkey, without ever learning his name.
Simpson has come to embody for Australians the spirit of self-sacrifice in war.