Gallantry and the poignancy of war is commemorated all over the North East. The monument to the dead in the Boer war with its symbolic winged figure of Northumbria, dominates the Haymarket in Newcastle, while not far away by St Thomas' Church is one of the finest memorials in the country to the dead of World War I. Statues to Jack Crawford and General Havelock in Mowbray Park in Sunderland, the Collingwood monument in Tynemouth and many another testify to the capacity of the people in the North East to display courage in battle. The youngest-ever VC is a young lad of Italian extraction, Dennis Donnini (q.v.) from Easington Colliery.
Passive fortitude under attack has also been required. Hartlepool was bombarded by German warships in December 1914, when 400 people were killed. Sunderland was bombed by Zeppelins in World War I, and was one of the seven most-bombed cities in World War II, when 256 died. In South Shields, 156 perished.
John Simpson Kirkpatrick was born at 10 South Eldon Street, South Shields, though the family moved constantly. One address was 360 John Williamson Street. After attending Barnes Road and Mortimer schools, he worked at Murphy's Fair with the donkeys, and was a milk-float boy for some years. He eventually went to sea and jumped ship in Australia in 1910 to work at casual jobs. He enlisted in 1914 as Simpson Kirkpatrick and became a stretcher-bearer at Gallipoli. Strongly-built, supremely courageous and a disciplinary handful, he had a Geordie warm-heartedness and wit that fitted in well with the Aussie attitude. He operated independently and sometimes against orders. Finding a stray donkey which he called Murphy, he carried many wounded soldiers from the trenches to the beach-head. He was killed in May 1915, at the age of 22, taking another soldier down Shrapnel Gully.
'The Man with the Donkey' is known all over the world and is venerated in Australia, where he is considered part of the national psyche, and is commemorated at the Australian war memorial in Canberra (a statue) and similarly in five other Australian cities, as well as in the shrine to Australian dead in Melbourne. Australian stamps and medals depicting him have been issued and there are memorials to him in Ocean Road, South Shields, the town museum and the Companions' Club. His lack of recognition is resented in Australia and attempts, thwarted for various reasons till now, are still being made to have him awarded the Australian VC. The statue in South Shields was erected in 1988 by public subscription. The council declined to contribute.