Alec Riley

Alec Riley was born in Salford, Lancashire, on 24 March 1887. He was the son of Thomas Riley, a business owner, and Mary Ann Riley (née Dobie). Alec grew up in a comfortable middle-class household with two siblings. Tragedy struck early with the death of his mother in 1894, and his father remarried the following year. It is likely that Alec received his secondary education at Eccles Grammar School.

Riley joined the 2nd Volunteer Battalion of the Manchester Regiment in 1905 and later re-enlisted in the 6th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment when the Territorial Force was formed in 1908. He was a committed amateur soldier, attending annual training camps. The 1911 census recorded him as a clerk in a salt warehouse, likely his father’s business. At the outbreak of the First World War, Riley cut short a cycling tour and reported for duty in August 1914.

In September 1914, Riley’s battalion sailed for Egypt, and he was attached to the 1/1st East Lancs RE Signals Company. He served in Egypt with No. 4 Section, operating communications facilities. In April 1915, he was promoted to 2nd corporal. In May 1915, Riley embarked for Gallipoli, landing at W Beach on 6 May.

During his time at Helles, he was attached to various battalions of the Manchester Regiment, providing him with a wide perspective of the battlefield. He was present during significant battles, including the Third Battle of Krithia and the Battle of 6–7 August.

Riley was medically evacuated from Gallipoli on 11 September 1915, suffering from jaundice, enteritis, diphtheria, and septic wounds, and spent eleven months recovering in hospitals in Lemnos and England before being demobilised in May 1919.

After the war, Riley developed a persistent focus on the Gallipoli Campaign, revisiting the peninsula independently on at least two occasions. These pilgrimages provided him with unique insights into the battlefield from both Allied and Turkish perspectives, forming the basis for his writing.

He pursued this career, enrolling at the London School of Journalism and maintaining a decade-long correspondence with Sir Ian Hamilton. Riley achieved some journalistic success, with material published in the magazine Twenty Years After. He also donated photographs and artefacts to the Imperial War Museum.

The sources suggest a somewhat solo existence in Riley’s later life, as he never married. The 1939 census finds him in Falmouth, Cornwall, described as a “traveling photographer and occasional writer” of “private means”, indicating a peripatetic lifestyle. His lifelong fascination with travel led him to join the Royal Geographic Society and to visit South Africa at least three times in his later years, with itineraries that sometimes echoed his wartime journeys. His will describes a modest and private man.

Alec Riley died on 17 October 1958 in Manchester. His will requested a simple cremation without mourning. His unpublished diaries, revealing a vivid eyewitness account of the Gallipoli campaign, were donated to the Imperial War Museum, offering a valuable historical record.