WHEN a box of never-before-seen World War I photos landed on his desk, Williamstown documentary-maker Gary ‘Tex’ Houston took one look and “died”.
Taken by Thomas Leigh Simpson in Gallipoli and Egypt in 1915-16, the majority of the behind-the-scenes images were sent home as negatives in five Kodak folders to his family near Hamilton in western Victoria.
The box contained more than 1000 photos shot by Simpson, who was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery, and 250 letters he wrote between 1911 and 1918.
Simpson was sent to Gallipoli as a stretcher-bearer and took part in the fateful August campaign in which many of his friends from the 8th Light Horse died in the infamous charge at the Nek.
But Mr Houston says many of the photos show the Aussie larrikin spirit.
The one which most blows him away shows Diggers casually bathing at Anzac Cove.
“You can see the boys swimming, which, of course [from the] angle of where they are, they can’t be seen from where the Turks had their guns,” Mr Houston says.
“I’ve got dozens of pictures of guys naked. In one of the pictures on the Suez Canal, they’ve made a diving board and I’ve got a picture of a guy mid-air. It’s just so funny.”
Most of the collection has remained unseen in the care of Simpson’s daughter, Barbara Dohle, of Dunkeld.
Mr Houston says the most striking letter details the demise of ‘the Red Baron’, German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, whose death in 1918 remains the subject of controversy.
Simpson was flying reconnaissance aircraft in the 3rd Squadron Australian Flying Corps when attacked by the Red Baron.
“Leigh was a reconnaissance [pilot] taking photos so they were in old, really slow planes so they were sitting ducks for anyone, and these triplanes came in,” Mr Houston says.
“There’s no doubt one of these was the Red Baron.
“They fought him off. [Simpson] was such a skilled pilot, they put up a good fight.
“At that point, the actual Red Baron took off and they thought they’d hit him.
“They did their reconnaissance flight, did their photos. The Germans [had] disappeared because a whole group of British planes appeared so they all took off to have a great big fight … for about 45 minutes in the air.
“And that was where the Red Baron was killed by an Australian gunner – that’s a great big controversy in itself.
“As Leigh comes back, all the Red Baron’s mates attacked him – nine planes in one go – and he did an amazing trick. It’s like a spiral; he just let his plane go. It’s like a 7000-feet free fall.”
Six weeks later, Simpson succumbed to “iron rations” and was hit in the thigh by anti-aircraft fire, returning home at the age of 25 as a hero.
Mr Houston says he calls the decorated pilot and stretcher-bearer the “other Simpson”.
“Simpson and the Donkey was a Pom; it’s a laughing matter among historians.
I’m doing the history on the Aussie Simpson.”
Fifteen of the photos have been framed and are on display and available for sale at Fancy on Ferguson in Williamstown. Proceeds will fund further work documenting Simpson’s life.
