THE centenary of the Gallipoli campaign, one of the key engagements of the First World War, was marked today with emotional services in London on ANZAC Day.

Many thousands of people turned up at the Dawn Service, at a wreath-laying in Whitehall or at a special service in Westminster Abbey, to pay their respects to those who died during the campaign. And, somewhere in the huge crowds in the capital, a woman from Norwich was remembering the great-uncle she never met.

Helen Hutchinson paid her own personal tribute to George Barlow, who died almost one hundred years ago.

George was one of more than 400,000 British servicemen who took part in the Gallipoli campaign. Alongside them were 40,000 French troops and 140,000 Commonwealth and Irish servicemen.

George, from Clydebank, was just 23 years old. Before he enlisted, he had worked as an apprentice riveter in the John Brown shipyard in his home town. The yard played a key role in Britain's war effort, turning out capital ships, destroyers and submarines. It's possible that George himself worked on at least some of these vessels before he left for the army.

According to the 1901 census, George was born in Dunbartonshire. His dad, also George, was employed as a shuttle-builder.

George jnr signed up with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and, as Private number 12063 in the regiment's 5th battalion, was called upon during the action in the Dardanelles, the 40-mile strip of water in northwestern Turkey that separates the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara.

From the Allies' point of view, the Gallipoli campaign was a series of costly disasters and even now is a byword for official bungling.

On August 15, 1915, George's luck ran out, and he was wounded.

Says Helen: "Online records show that they landed at Suvla Bay and Anzac Cove in August 1915, so it would appear that is where George died."

Mystery seems to have surrounded the young Scot's exact fate. George was reported missing that August day - but it was not until the following February, six months later, that it was confirmed he had 'died of his wounds'.

On February 17, 1916, the Evening Times reported that his mum, who lived in Clydebank's Somerville Street, had received word that her son had died.

Helen is originally from Clydebank. She left the town when she was 16. She went on to marry, and to have three children.

"George's sister was my grandmother, so he would have been my great uncle," she says.

"It was only a few months ago that we began looking into our family history, and we discovered that George had been at Gallipoli. But to lose your life at 23 - my own kids are older than that now. It's just so sad that he never managed to fulfil any dreams that he may have had."

"We applied a couple of months ago to go to London and finally got an email inviting us to this national commemoration for the Gallipoli campaign and Anzac Day."

George is one of countless thousands of servicemen commemorated in the Royal British Legion's Everyman Remembered online database.

The entry under his name records that he is commemorated on the Wall of Remembrance at Helles Memorial in Turkey. So many men died at Gallipoli that George is one of no fewer than 19 men with the surname of Barlow who are listed on the memorial.

The Every Man Remembered website itself carries a tribute from Helen's cousin, Linda Crisp. It reads: "Your great, great nephew is 23, the age you were when your life was ended, his life is just beginning. Thank you for your sacrifice."

Sajid Javid, who leads the Government's programme to mark the Centenary of the First World War, said: "Marking the anniversary of the Gallipoli Campaign is a key part of our Centenary programme. The Royal Navy and the British Army - 410,000 strong and none of them a conscript - played a central role in the conflict, fighting in extremely difficult conditions. It is right that we remember their courage and valour.

"More than 550,000 Allied troops participated on land and in ships off the coast in the Gallipoli Campaign from Britain, the Indian sub-continent, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada other Commonwealth countries and France.

In total their casualties, including those killed, sustaining serious injuries, falling sick or missing, numbered more than 200,000. The campaign saw a higher number of Australian and New Zealand deaths than in any previous conflict."

Almost one hundred years after his death, far from his Clydebank home, George Barlow was remembered today, too.