A BURY-born doctor has made a poignant visit to Gallipoli exactly 100 years after his grand grandfather fought there with the Lancashire Fusiliers.

Dr Adam Yates followed in the footsteps of Radcliffe teenager Charlie Mills who took part in the landing at the Turkish beaches on the peninsula of Gallipoli in 1915 when aged just 17. The doctor was among a delegation from the Liverpool-based 208 Field Hospital TA unit to make the journey.

Dr Yates said: "We went there for a week and did the tour of the landings. Thankfully, my great grandfather survived the war."

The battle of Gallipoli was launched between British and French forces to capture the Ottoman capital of Constantinople and secure a sea route to Russia.

During the storming of the heavily fortified W beach on April 25, 11 officers and 350 men of the 1st Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers were killed or wounded.

Overall, six battalions of 6,000 men of Lancashire Fusiliers took part in the campaign. A total of 88 officers and 1,728 other ranks lost their lives.

The battle lasted for nearly nine months and resulted in a total of 187,959 Allied personnel being killed or wounded. Famously, the Lancashire Fusiliers earned "six VCs before breakfast" at Gallipoli.

Dr Yates said: "I was able to walk along the sands of W beach. My great grandfather had been a private in the Lancashire Fusiliers. He found himself on the beach at Gallipoli in 1915 and now 100 years later I was able to visit the spot where he landed and to sift the soil."

The former St Gabriel's High School pupil, who works as a doctor in Blackpool, added: "He was in the first battalion and among a 1,000-strong group of soldiers from the Bury and Radcliffe areas. After landing, he spent the night there before going into battle the following day."

The Gallipoli campaign took a terrible toll on the Lancashire Fusiliers and eventually Charlie Mills was evacuated. He survived the war unscathed and returned home to his native Radcliffe.

He later worked in a signal box with the railway along the Bury to Manchester line and lived until he was in his late 50s. He had one daughter.

Dr Yates, aged 42, is a captain with the 208 Field Hospital TA unit which he has served for the past seven years.