Richard Alexander Henderson

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Richard Alexander Henderson
First World War
AwardsMilitary Medal
Other workschool-teacher

Private Richard Alexander Henderson

Battle of Gallipoli. Like John Simpson Kirkpatrick, he used a donkey to carry wounded soldiers from the battlefield. He was later honoured with a Military Medal for repeatedly rescuing wounded from the battlefield while under heavy fire at the Battle of the Somme
.

Early life

Henderson was born on 26 August 1895 at

First World War. On 10 August 1914, he enlisted with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) as a stretcher-bearer in the New Zealand Medical Corps.[1]

First World War

Henderson embarked for the Middle East with the main body of the NZEF in October 1914.[2] Soon after the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli he saw John Simpson Kirkpatrick using a donkey to carry wounded soldiers, and began to do the same.[1] While it is reported that he began this work after Kirkpatrick's death on 19 May 1915,[1] he was photographed with a donkey carrying a wounded man on 12 May 1915 by Sergeant James Gardiner Jackson.[3] According to Henderson's own account, he continued the work for about six weeks after Kirkpatrick's death.[4]

Henderson later served in France, and on 22 October 1916 was awarded the recently created Military Medal for bravery in battle on land, with the citation "During operations on the Somme on 15th September he went out repeatedly under heavy shellfire and brought in wounded who were exposed to it. He set a fine example to other bearers". Henderson was promoted to lance corporal and then, on 23 March 1917, to corporal.[1]

After a period of service at a NZEF hospital in

1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.[1]

Later life

Henderson did not recover from the effects of the gas. He went back to teaching, but became blind in 1934 and was obliged to stop working. He remained in poor health for the rest of his life, and died in Green Lane Hospital, Auckland, on 14 November 1958.[1]

Legacy

Photolithographic reproduction of a water-colour by Moore-Jones, inscribed To the memory of our hero comrade 'Murphy' (Simpson) killed May 1915. Heroes of the Red Cross. Private Simpson, D.C.M., & his donkey at Anzac, from the version of the painting now in the Australian War Memorial Museum, printed by W.J. Bryce, London 1918.

Henderson was painted in water-colour as The Man with the Donkey by Horace Moore-Jones. Moore-Jones worked from Jackson's photograph of Henderson, but believed it to be of John Simpson Kirkpatrick. At least six versions of the painting were made, and it was extensively reproduced as a portrait of Simpson;[3] the inscriptions on some versions implied that Simpson was nicknamed "Murphy". In a newspaper interview in 1950, Henderson said that he, not Simpson, was the man in the paintings. He had "watched the legend grow" without worrying about it, but was now old and "want[ed] the matter cleared up". It was also untrue that Simpson was known as "Murphy". Murphy was the name of the donkey, which Simpson had found wandering on the beach.[4]

A bronze sculpture by

Royal New Zealand Returned and Services’ Association, it was unveiled by Henderson's son Ross in 1990 for the 75th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings. The inscription on the plaque reads: "The stories of Simpson and Henderson are the stories of all stretcher-bearers ... these men exposed their lives to danger to save comrades and so built up the tradition of unselfishness and cool courage that is a feature of their service."[1]

Henderson's story is told through the eyes of the donkey in The Donkey Man, a book for children by Glyn Harper, a military historian, with illustrations by Bruce Potter, which was published in 2004.[1][6]

The Anzac of the Year Award of the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association, first awarded in 2010, is a 70 cm bronze statue of Henderson and his donkey by Matt Gauldie.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Geoff Cumming (19 April 2008). A picture of bravery. The New Zealand Herald. Accessed March 2013.
  2. ^ a b "Richard Alexander Henderson". Auckland War Memorial Museum. Retrieved 7 July 2022 – via Online Cenotaph.
  3. ^ a b c P03136.001 (description of photograph), Australian War Memorial. Accessed March 2013.
  4. ^ a b [s.n.] (17 April 1950) Man with donkey not Australian. The Argus (Melbourne). Accessed March 2013.
  5. ^ Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, Ministry for Culture and Heritage, published 27 February 2013. Accessed March 2013.
  6. ISBN 9781869486730
  7. ^ [s.n.] (22 April 2010). Anzac Heirs: A selfless lifetime of service. The New Zealand Herald. Accessed March 2013.

External links

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