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Major the Hon. Aubrey Herbert Without any doubt one of the most colorful figures in the history of Gallipoli. As Military Intelligence Officer, an appointment he got because of his mastery of Turkish and Arabic, he served as interpreter for the Anzac force. During the cease fire after the ill-fated Turkish attack of 19th May 1915, he organized the procedures to bury the dead, and himself served as a hostage during the negotiations with Major Kemal Ohri at Anzac. In his 'Gallipoli Memories', Compton Mackenzie mentions him, some days before, on board of the Arcadian, when he had come from Anzac to ask Hamilton's permission for the truce to bury the dead :
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gossip with him as we walked round and round the deck in a series of
rapid diagonals, for Aubrey was so short-sighted that he really could
not see well enough to walk straight. I think he was holding forth
passionately about the woes of the Turks and the beauty of their
characters, gripping my arm from time to time and exclaiming 'My dear,
we must do this,' or 'My dear, we must do that.'
As we zigzagged along I suddenly became aware that a shape was following our course, though what that shape was, I did not dare for a moment to look round and ascertain, so acutely was I aware of a menace, an almost diabolical menace in its shadowing. At last I plucked up courage to turn my head. Imagine my dismay when I saw the Commander of the Arcadian, his cheeks an angry crimson, stalking along the deck after us with the air of one who is tracking a pair of assassins. The faintness of despair came over me. His eyes protruding like a Bateman admiral's were fixed upon a meandering line of ink-stains that stretched from one end of the deck to the other. I looked at Aubrey. Yes, there in the pocket of his service-jacket, or rather fixed to the outside of it, was a fountain-pen that was dripping with every step he took. I played a coward's part. 'Aubrey,' I said, 'I must run now. And, by the way, I think your pen's leaking or something.' I cannot remember what steps were taken to restore the Commander of the Arcadian to consciousness; but I do remember that those ink-spots were still traceable when we went ashore ten days later." (Compton Mackenzie) What is less known about Aubrey Herbert, and may well explain his thorough knowledge of the Near East, is the fact that he was the brother of the Earl of Carnarvon, better known as the Lord Carnarvon who financed Howard Carter's archaeological work in Egypt, which finally led to the discovery of Tutanchamen's tomb in 1922.
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