The Man With The Donkey

John Simpson Kirkpatrick: a Sanddancer chucked out on the wrong beach at Gallipoli. Fifteen times a day he went up and down Shrapnel Gully, loading the wounded on to a donkey and walking them back. After three weeks, he got a bullet in the back and died, unknown at home but a hero on the far side of the world. There's a statue of him and his donkey outside Asda in South Shields, which is how come we got round to talking about him in class. It's a fascinating story: from Eldon Street in South Shields to the back of an Australian $100 dollar note.