Lieutenant ColonelCharles Hotham Montagu "Richard" Doughty-Wylie, VC,CB,CMG (23 July 1868 – 26 April 1915)[1] was a British Army officer and an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to members of the British and Commonwealth armed forces. Doughty-Wylie had been awarded the Order of the Medjidie from the very Ottoman Government he later fought against. He was generally known as Richard.
He married in 1904 a nurse Lilian Oimara Adams, daughter of John Wylie and widow of Lieutenant Henry Adams. He adopted the surname Doughty-Wylie to incorporate his wife's maiden name.
Massacres of Armenians in Mersina started along with the revolution, and Bell-Davies says that it was largely due to the efforts of Doughty-Wylie that these were halted. Doughty-Wylie then went to Adana, forty miles away, where he persuaded the local Vali (Governor) to give him a small escort of Ottoman troops and a bugler; with these he managed to restore order. Mrs. Doughty-Wylie turned part of the dragoman's house into a hospital for wounded Armenians. Bell-Davies says that by the time an armed party from Swiftsure arrived, Doughty-Wylie had again almost stopped the massacre single-handedly. Newspaper reports of the period record that Doughty-Wylie was shot in the arm while trying to prevent the Adana massacres.[5] He was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 1909 Birthday Honours in recognition of his services during the disturbances in Asia Minor.[3]
In 1913, Doughty-Wylie was the recipient of the Order of the Medjidie (Second Class) from the Ottoman Government. He was awarded the Medjidie "in
recognition of valuable services rendered by him while in charge of the British Red Cross Hospitals in Turkey" during the Balkan Wars.[6][7]
On 26 April 1915, following the landing at Cape Helles on the Gallipoli peninsula of the SS River Clyde, Lieutenant Colonel Doughty-Wylie and Captain Garth Neville Walford organised and made an attack through and on both sides of the village of Sedd-el-Bahr on the Old Fort at the top of the hill. The enemy's position was very strongly entrenched and defended, but mainly due to the initiative, skill and great gallantry of the two officers the attack was a complete success.[8] However, both Doughty-Wylie and Walford were killed in the moment of victory; Doughty-Wylie was shot in the face by a sniper, and died instantly.
Doughty-Wylie is buried close to where he was killed, immediately north of Sedd-el-Bahr, opposite the point at which the SS River Clyde came ashore. His grave is the only solitary British or Commonwealth war grave on the Gallipoli peninsula: The Turkish authorities moved the graves of all other foreign soldiers to the "V Beach" graves except for his.[9]
Doughty-Wylie, a married man, had an unconsummated affair with Gertrude Bell with whom he exchanged love letters from 1913 until his death. Bell was an eminent English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist who explored in the region of Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia.[13] Doughty-Wylie was a member of the Naval and Military Club from 1900 until his death.
His wife, Lilian, reportedly was the only woman on the Allied side to visit Gallipoli during the campaign, when she went to lay a wreath on his grave on 17 November 1915.[10] She was awarded the Royal Red Cross (First Class) in the 1919 New Year Honours for her work as matron at Limenaria Hospital, Thasos, Greece.
She died in Cyprus in 1961 at the age of 83.
Legacy
Doughty-Wylie is commemorated outside St Peter's Church in Theberton, Suffolk where his name is recorded on the war memorial. Inside the church he is depicted as St George in a stained glass window by T. F. Curtis of Ward and Hughes.[14] A road in the village is named Doughty-Wylie Crescent. He is named on the Winchester College War Cloister, the war memorial at Winchester College.