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Island represented at London Gallipoli memorial

The Manx government will be represented at today's national commemoration in London marking the centenary of the World War One Gallipoli campaign.

Policy and Reform minister John Shimmin will attend a ceremony at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, in the presence of the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince William.

Around 700 guests are expected to attend, from nations involved in the ill-fated campaign, veterans groups and descendants of those who lost their lives.

About 131,000 - of whom 45,000 were Allied forces and 86,000 from Turkey - died in the campaign, which began with an amphibious assault on the Turkish peninsula on 25 April 1915.

A representative of the Isle of Man Royal British Legion has travelled overland to Turkey this week, to lay wreaths at memorials and cemeteries in memory of the 39 Manxmen who died at Gallipoli.

They included a number aboard the battleship HMS Goliath which was sunk by a Turkish torpedo.

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