Through his reporting of the Battle of Gallipoli, Ashmead-Bartlett was instrumental in the birth of the Anzac legend which still dominates military history in Australia and New Zealand.

As correspondent for the The Daily Telegraph', Ashmead-Bartlett accompanied Allied forces during the 25 April 1915 landing at Anzac Cove at the start of the Gallipoli campaign.

These raw colonial troops, in these desperate hours, proved worthy to fight side by side with the heroes of Mons, the Aisne, Ypres and Neuve Chapelle.On 27 May 1915, Ashmead-Bartlett was aboard HMS Majestic, a Royal Navy battleship anchored off W Beach at Cape Helles, when it was torpedoed by the German U-boat U-21.

[citation needed] As the battle progressed, Ashmead-Bartlett's reports became highly critical, which left him in disfavour with the British commander-in-chief, General Sir Ian Hamilton.

Instead of returning to the Dardanelles from Malta, Ashmead-Bartlett went on to London, arriving on 6 June, to report in person on the conduct of the campaign.

During his time in London, he met with most of the senior political figures including Bonar Law (the Colonial Secretary), Winston Churchill (by that time displaced as First Lord of the Admiralty, but still a member of the Cabinet and the Dardanelles Committee), Arthur Balfour (Churchill's replacement at the Admiralty), and H. H. Asquith (the Prime Minister).

[citation needed] When the Australian journalist Keith Murdoch arrived at Gallipoli in September 1915, Ashmead-Bartlett found a receptive audience for his commentary and analysis of the campaign.

Following the war, Ashmead-Bartlett (an opponent of Communism) fought in Hungary against the Bolsheviks,[3] and he spent two years (1924–1926) as a Conservative Member of Parliament for the Hammersmith North constituency in London.