Richard Alexander Henderson Private Richard Alexander " Dick " Henderson MM ( 26 August 1895 – 14 November 1958 ) was a school - teacher who served with the New Zealand Medical Corps at the Battle of Gallipoli . Like John Simpson Kirkpatrick , he used a donkey to carry wounded soldiers from the battlefield . He was later honoured with a Military Medal for repeatedly rescuing wounded from the battlefield while under heavy fire at the Battle of the Somme . Early life . Henderson was born on 26 August 1895 at Waihi in the North Island of New Zealand . He was a trainee teacher in Auckland until the outbreak of the First World War . On 10 August 1914 , he enlisted with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force ( NZEF ) as a stretcher - bearer in the New Zealand Medical Corps . First World War . Henderson embarked for the Middle East with the main body of the NZEF in October 1914 . Soon after the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli he saw John Simpson Kirkpatrick using a donkey to carry wounded soldiers , and began to do the same . While it is reported that he began this work after Kirkpatrick ' s death on 19 May 1915 , he was photographed with a donkey carrying a wounded man on 12 May 1915 by Sergeant James Gardiner Jackson . According to Henderson ' s own account , he continued the work for about six weeks after Kirkpatrick ' s death . Henderson later served in France , and on 22 October 1916 was awarded the recently created Military Medal for bravery in battle on land , with the citation " During operations on the Somme on 15th September he went out repeatedly under heavy shellfire and brought in wounded who were exposed to it . He set a fine example to other bearers " . Henderson was promoted to lance corporal and then , on 23 March 1917 , to corporal . After a period of service at a NZEF hospital in England , Henderson was very badly gassed at Passchendaele on 12 October 1917 and evacuated to England where he was found to be dangerously ill , was declared unfit for military service and was repatriated . He sailed from Liverpool on 2 February 1918 and was discharged from the NZEF for medical reasons on 21 May 1918 . He was awarded the 1914 - 15 Star , the British War Medal and the Victory Medal . Later life . Henderson did not recover from the effects of the gas . He went back to teaching , but became blind in 1934 and was obliged to stop working . He remained in poor health for the rest of his life , and died in Greenlane Hospital , Auckland , on 14 November 1958 . Legacy . Henderson was painted in water - colour as " The Man with the Donkey " by Horace Moore - Jones . Moore - Jones worked from Jackson ' s photograph of Henderson , but believed it to be of John Simpson Kirkpatrick . At least six versions of the painting were made , and it was extensively reproduced as a portrait of Simpson ; the inscriptions on some versions implied that Simpson was nicknamed " Murphy " . In a newspaper interview in 1950 , Henderson said that he , not Simpson , was the man in the paintings . He had " watched the legend grow " without worrying about it , but was now old and " want [ ed ] the matter cleared up " . It was also untrue that Simpson was known as " Murphy " . Murphy was the name of the donkey , which Simpson had found wandering on the beach . A bronze sculpture by Paul Walshe of Richard Alexander Henderson as " The Man with the Donkey " stands outside the National War Memorial in Wellington . It is based on Jackson ' s photograph , and is a " tribute to all medical personnel , stretcher bearers and ambulance drivers who served alongside New Zealand troops in wartime " . Commissioned by the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services ’ Association , it was unveiled by Henderson ' s son Ross in 1990 for the 75th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings . The inscription on the plaque reads : " The stories of Simpson and Henderson are the stories of all stretcher - bearers . . . these men exposed their lives to danger to save comrades and so built up the tradition of unselfishness and cool courage that is a feature of their service . " Henderson ' s story is told through the eyes of the donkey in " The Donkey Man " , a book for children by Glyn Harper , a military historian , with illustrations by Bruce Potter , which was published in 2004 . The Anzac of the Year award of the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services ' Association , first awarded in 2010 , is a 70 cm bronze statue of Henderson and his donkey by Matt Gauldie .