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Remembered Today:

Men who went into captivity after the fall of Kut


kevan darby

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I came across this article on a local man Thomas Trenfield from Yardley Birmingham, who died in captivity after the fall of Kut. Has anyone else got any photos or info on anyboby else who died while a POW

Kevan

post-3604-1253650917.jpg

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We have Hubert Richard Faxon on Kenilworth War Memorial (see www.kenilworth-war-memorial.org.uk) who like your man was captured after the fall of Kut and died whilst a prisoner. He was a Driver with 76th Battery, Royal Field Artillery, and died 30th August 1916 and is buried in Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery.

No photo of him but he wrote a couple of interesting letters the previous year which were published in our local newpaper.

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Kevan,

think you may know about these

ENSOR, Gunner, Francis Arthur. 48566, 706th Bty., Royal Field Artillery. Died, Kut-el-Amara, Mesopotamia, 30th August, 1916. Husband of Edith Ensor, of Taher Building, Parel, Bombay, India. Born 23rd June 1889 at Keresley. Enlisted Coventry. Resided at 76, Brook Street. Turner. Reservist.

Grave Ref. XXI. C. 23. Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery, Iraq.

HICKS, Private, James. 19635, 5th Bn., Wiltshire Regiment. formerly (13543) , Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. Killed in action, 9th April, 1916. At that time he was at Basra, on the occasion of the surrendur of Kut. Age 31. Son of James and Sarah Hicks, of Rock Farm, Baginton, Coventry. Born Deddington, Oxon. Enlisted Coventry. Resided Coventry. Sister Miss Olive Hicks, New Inn, Gosford Street. Memorial Ref. Panel 30 and 64. Basra Memorial, Iraq.

KING, Private, Frederick. 19552, 1st Bn., Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. Died of wounds received at Kut, Persian Gulf, 8th April, 1916. Age 35. Born Thomas Street, Coventry. Enlisted Coventry. Resided No. 2, Paybody’s Buildings, Moat Street. Cycle Fitter, Humber Works. Enlisted August, 1915. Memorial Ref. Panel 26 and 63. Basra Memorial, Iraq.

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My Grandfather had two cousins in 1st Ox & Bucks LI who were captured at Kut, Sidney and William Gaskin. Wiliam came home but Sidney died at Adana, Anatolia. I ran a thread on him here.

Keith

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  • 3 months later...
I came across this article on a local man Thomas Trenfield from Yardley Birmingham, who died in captivity after the fall of Kut. Has anyone else got any photos or info on anyboby else who died while a POW

Kevan

It was a mystery for many years what happened to my Gt. Grandfather, George Edward Spink. I discovered his army records which say that he died on 29/4/16. It is marked: Turkey P.O.W. Dead. First theatre of War served in, 5a-Asiatic. Date of entry therein, 17/11/14. From the date, and that he served in the RFA, Bombardier, Regimental No 57057.

I have been told that in all likelihood he was in the 10th Brigade and died in the fall of Kut. I assume that he must have been taken prisoner and died the same day. Unfortunately I do not have a photo of him.

If anyone has any information relating to the above, or any knowledge how I might get a photo of the 10th brigade, it would be appreciated.

He is buried in North Gate Cemetery, Baghdad, and have the grave number.

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WALSH, MICHAEL. Rank: Gunner. Regiment or Service: Royal Garrison Artillery

Unit;86th Heavy Battery. Date of Death:06-May-1916. Service No:34518 Born in Kilrush, County Clare. Enlisted in Kilrush. Died in Mesopotamia. Also commemorated in the ‘List of Kilrush Men engaged in the War from August 1914’. This pamphlet lists the Kilrush men who were involved in the war until 11-November-1918. It also says he fought in Mesopotamia and died in Turkish hands from neglect after Kut. Grave or Memorial Reference: A. 3. Cemetery: Kut War Cemetery in Iraq.

COURTENAY, MICHAEL HUDSON. Rank: Lieutenant Colonel. Regiment or Service: Royal Garrison Artillery. Unit; Cdg. 1st Heavy Bde. Date of Death: 04-January-1916. Age at Death; 48. Awards: Twice Mentioned in Despatches. Died of wounds during the siege of Kut. Killed in Action. Supplementary information; Son of William Courtenay, J. P. and Elizabeth J. Courtenay, of Ireland; husband of Laura Courtenay, of 19, Craigerne Rd, Blackheath. Born at Woodmount, Arklow, Co. Wicklow. Grave or Memorial Reference: K. 15. Cemetery: Kut War Cemetery in Iraq.

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Hi Kevan

I have this man

Lionel Victor CLARIDGE, Airman 1st Class 1299, No. 1 Reserve Squadron (India), Royal Flying Corps

Died in Iraq between Monday 1 May 1916 and Wednesday 31 May 1916

post-10072-1264061205.jpg

The eldest son of Percy and Ada Mary Claridge, Lionel lived with his parents at 60, Wednesbury Road, Walsall. At one time his parents kept a restaurant and coffee house at 14, Bridge Street, Walsall.

Lionel was educated at the Bridge School and, between the years 1905 and 1908, attended Queen Mary’s School where he was noted for his swimming abilities, gaining many certificates. Leaving school he found employment as an apprentice mechanic with Hall and Cooper Limited, engineers of Charles Street, Walsall.

Joining the Royal Flying Corps on Thursday 2 July 1914, Lionel was sent to Belgium at the outbreak of war, but was invalided home with rheumatism in April 1915. He initially spent a period of time in a hospital at Boulogne and then spent seven weeks in hospital at Ilkley, Yorkshire. Returning to the Corps in June 1915, he was drafted to the Persian Gulf in August 1915, being attached to General Townsend’s Division that held out at Kut-el-Imara.

Lionel, a single man of 23 years, was captured by the Turks and held at Aleppo where he succumbed to dysentery.

He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Basra Memorial, Iraq on Panel 6 and 61 and on the rolls of honour at St. Matthew’s Church and Queen Mary’s School.

A post war address of Fosseway House, Fosseway, Lichfield is recorded for his parents.

Regards,

Graeme

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It was a mystery for many years what happened to my Gt. Grandfather, George Edward Spink. I discovered his army records which say that he died on 29/4/16. It is marked: Turkey P.O.W. Dead. First theatre of War served in, 5a-Asiatic. Date of entry therein, 17/11/14. From the date, and that he served in the RFA, Bombardier, Regimental No 57057.

I have been told that in all likelihood he was in the 10th Brigade and died in the fall of Kut. I assume that he must have been taken prisoner and died the same day. Unfortunately I do not have a photo of him.

If anyone has any information relating to the above, or any knowledge how I might get a photo of the 10th brigade, it would be appreciated.

He is buried in North Gate Cemetery, Baghdad, and have the grave number.

Curious, just looked him up on the CWGC, the date of death listed there is quite a bit later:

http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_detail...casualty=635322

Name: SPINK

Initials: G E

Nationality: United Kingdom

Rank: Bombardier

Regiment/Service: Royal Field Artillery

Date of Death: 30/09/1916

Service No: 57057

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Grave/Memorial Reference: XXI. Q. 38.

Cemetery: BAGHDAD (NORTH GATE) WAR CEMETERY

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Not sure how much use this might be to you, but at the IWM London's Department of Documents is held the diary/account of the CO of the Volunteer Artillery Battery.

Half this Indian Army unit served in the siege at Kut and was duly captured. The account above includes a list of all men in the unit at Kut, and their fates as kia, POWs, escape attempts etc.

LST_164

EDIT: I should have said that the personnel were ethnically British or maybe Eurasians.

Edited by LST_164
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  • 3 weeks later...

My father served in the German volunteer Pionier company at Gallipoli, and the 200 man company has 80% casualties almost immediately, almost entirely from disease. My father was sent as a replacement, was there briefly, and got malaria. I have a wire from a medical officer at Gallipoli transmitted from Istanbul to the War Ministry, and in the wire to Berlin he requested the entire medical supplies kit for a cavalry regiment be sent to Gallipoli for the use of the one company, with some specified additional equipment and supplies. The water was black, having been carried for days in goat-skins on camel-back in the summer sun; Europeans could only drink the water if it were liberally laced with oil of peppermint.

I could not imagine the conditions for the captured EM from Kut, even if they were treated much the same as Turkish EM. If a Yank or a Brit had to live in Bahgdad today, living on tap water, with the crumbled infrastructure that provides a mix of fresh water and sewage out of the tap, instead of Evain water flown in from the French Alps, they probably would curl up and die. The people in those areas under those conditions have developed Goliath-like immune systems. Conditions in the Middle East for 99% of the people were horrible. Conditions in the Turkish Army itself were terrible, and it hardly was a warmy-cuddly type of situation; I have read of Turkish EM with ill-fiting boots simply being marched to death.

I gather that the officer prisoners from Kut were given preferential treatment, but that some officers chose to march with their EM prisoner comrades. Townsend (correct spelling?) was treated like royalty, at least in Istanbul, and I have read the memoirs of German officers in Istanbul who were annoyed at the sight of him being sped about from toney restaurant to toney restaurant, the toast of the town, and they complained to the Turks, and Townsend was somewhat reined in. I don't know what he could have done for his men, but his high life style in captivity has a bad odor.

I am not an expert on what happened to the EM POWs from Kut, but I just want to state that if they were treated exactly like the Turkish EMs, which I think was the standard expected under international military law, and exposed to the same enviromental conditions, most would not have survived. A very sad bit of business.

Bob Lembke

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I recall a news report sometime between the two Gulf wars that western military cemetries in Bahgdad had been desecrated (Headstones destroyed and occupied by squatters). Does anyone know if they have been restored?

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  • 2 months later...

A book by an Australian airman captured and who shared in the experience of the Kut survivors is excellent material. The treatment they experienced was barbaric.

"Guests of the unspeakable" T.W.White

Len

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  • 2 weeks later...

Dear Kevan

Just to add another source which may interest you, Dr James Brown, an Australian medical officer held prisoner at the Sourp Asdvadzadzin (Holy Mother of God) Armenian church at Afyon Kara Hissar (the main internment camp of allied POWs in Turkey), records his experiences at attending to medical needs of the remnant of Kut prisoners who made it to Afyon. Arriving to attend the first party of Kut prisoners, Dr Brown states ""I found a motley collection of humanity disposed among the bare, open, uninviting rooms. They were more or less in rags, some were even without boots and many had no blankets. The Turks had not provided clothing or blankets. Valuable and necessary as had been thses articles en route, food had been more necessary and in order to procure it without money the men had been compelled to to dispose of their clothing as a means of barter. Most of them looked ill some looked very ill. Some were oedematous as if suffering from the food deficiency disease called beriberi. To my astonishment, I was told that these men were comparatively well ..." Page 195 (Turkish Days and Ways, James Brown,Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1940.

The British White Paper, The Treatment of British POWs in Turkey (1918), is another great source which details the mistreatment of British POWs including the number of deaths during captivity etc. I can send you a PDF copy of it if you shoot me an email at dwhitman124@gmail.com

Any attempt to rationalise or trivialise the deliberate brutality inflicted upon the Kut prisoners by the Ottoman Turks, is nothing more than a vain attempt to whitewash the "criminal act". I call it a "criminal act" because post war trials held in Istanbul, Turkey, convicted members of the Young Turk government for their role in the mistreatment of the allied Pows and the atrocities committed against the Christian Armenians of the Empire which amounted to genocide. Unfortunately, the transcripts of the trials have not been translated in English yet, but the Turkish version was published recently by historians Taner Akcam and Vahakn Dadrian.

Regards

David

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  • 4 months later...

Kevan,

If you're still interested, then you might want to take a look at these sites for a couple of the 2nd Norfolk men captured at Kut and who would subsequently die in a Turkish PoW camp

The Norfolk County picture archive also has many pictures of Norfolk men who died during WW1,

http://norlink.norfo...x?searchType=97

I'm a comparative novice at researching the war memorials of Norfolk, but so many of them will feature a Norfolk man who died either during the siege or in the subsequent march into captivity or the POW camps themselves. It seems that many of the other European units (artillery \ medical\supply) involved had an East Anglian connection, so its not just 2nd Battalion men. But lets not forget the Indian soldiers who died in much larger numbers during the siege and made up two thirds of the garrison when they surrendered.

In a saddening parallel, those same war memorials will also be a roll-call for those who died at the hands of the Japanese following the fall of Singapore.

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  • 3 years later...
Guest Hollinshead

Lionel Victor Claridge

This is my husband's uncle whom he was named for as Norman Victor Claridge in memorium.

We hold the Queen Mary's School magazine listing him with photo in their Roll of Honour.

We would be interested to learn more about the No.1 Reserve Squadron (India) RFC and

their involvement in Mesopotomia if you can supply this info.

He is listed on the Basra Memorial Panel 6 and 61.

It has been difficult to find him as he was originally given in the men captured at Kut

as L.N. Claridge.

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Mate,

I have a number of aussie airman captured while attach to 30 Sqn RFC at Kut many of whom died as prisoners.

These are just some, records should be on the AWM webb site of there actions there.

ADAMS Francis Luke 44 AM 1 Half Flight AFC 1R Mesoptamia att 30 Sqn RFC 10-15 PoW 29-4-16 captured at Kut died of malaria buried Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery Iraq recom DCM - for his work at Kut between Dec 1915 to April 1916 (NZ 4Co RGA 2 years)

CLARK Arthur Vivian 133 Pte 02 LHR A Sqn (G) disch to Imperial Army prom 2/Lt RFC to 7Bn Gloucester Regt 39 Bde 13th Div to Mesopotamia killed during operations around Baghdad to relieve Kut buried Amara War Cemetery Iraq also reported died 20-1-16

CURRAN David 45 AM 1 Half Flight AFC 1R Mesoptamia att 30 Sqn RFC 10-15 PoW 29-4-16 captured at Kut died of fever at Nisibin age 35 buried Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery Iraq

LORD William Henry 23 Pte 1 Half Flight AFC Mesoptamia PoW 29-4-16 captured at Kut died malaria date of death unknown NKG listed on Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery Iraq brother Hector AFC

S.B

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Hi Kevan

I have this man

Lionel Victor CLARIDGE, Airman 1st Class 1299, No. 1 Reserve Squadron (India), Royal Flying Corps

Died in Iraq between Monday 1 May 1916 and Wednesday 31 May 1916

claridge_lv.jpg

The eldest son of Percy and Ada Mary Claridge, Lionel lived with his parents at 60, Wednesbury Road, Walsall. At one time his parents kept a restaurant and coffee house at 14, Bridge Street, Walsall.

Lionel was educated at the Bridge School and, between the years 1905 and 1908, attended Queen Marys School where he was noted for his swimming abilities, gaining many certificates. Leaving school he found employment as an apprentice mechanic with Hall and Cooper Limited, engineers of Charles Street, Walsall.

Joining the Royal Flying Corps on Thursday 2 July 1914, Lionel was sent to Belgium at the outbreak of war, but was invalided home with rheumatism in April 1915. He initially spent a period of time in a hospital at Boulogne and then spent seven weeks in hospital at Ilkley, Yorkshire. Returning to the Corps in June 1915, he was drafted to the Persian Gulf in August 1915, being attached to General Townsends Division that held out at Kut-el-Imara.

Lionel, a single man of 23 years, was captured by the Turks and held at Aleppo where he succumbed to dysentery.

He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Basra Memorial, Iraq on Panel 6 and 61 and on the rolls of honour at St. Matthews Church and Queen Marys School.

A post war address of Fosseway House, Fosseway, Lichfield is recorded for his parents.

Regards,

Graeme

Hollinshead,

Not clear whether you saw this 2010 post before you made your recent post?

Steve Y

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Morning Hollinshead,

Lionel is commemorated on the Walsall, Queen Mary's School and St. Matthews Church rolls of honour.

Here is his pic and service record

post-10072-0-83765900-1393489736_thumb.j

service record 2.doc

A colleague of mine may still be in possession of his medals, however, since retiring, I may have lost touch with him so I dont want to build any hopes up.

Regards,

Graeme

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You guys may find these FREE online books of interest? -

http://www.archive.org/details/akutprisoner00bishuoft

http://www.archive.org/details/prisonerinturkey00stiluoft

http://www.archive.org/details/inmesopotamia00swayuoft

Search the site and you will find much much more....

ENJOY.

Neil

Thankyou so much for the links Neil. I am not very good at finding these things myself and have enjoyed the first of the books already.

Hazel

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The FIBIS Fibiwiki page "Mesopotamia Campaign" has some additional links in the sections"External links" and Historical books online"

http://wiki.fibis.org/index.php/Mesopotamia_Campaign

Cheers

Maureen

Thanks Maureene!

H.

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I have a Delhi Durbar to a Sepoy who died as a POW:

564 Sepoy Kanhaiya Singhwp41bee45e_05_06.jpg

48th Pioneers

Kanhaiya Singh, of Samrala in Ludhiana District Punjab, joined the 48th Pioneers during the years leading up to the Great War. In 1911, Kanhaiya Singh was with his Regiment when it carried out preparations for the great 1911 Delhi Durbar. For his good service, he was awarded the 1911 Delhi Durbar Medal, and subsequently had it very neatly engraved with his name, number and regiment. It would be the only medal he would ever wear.

Shortly after the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914, the 48th Pioneers was added to the strength of the 6th (Poona) Division which, as events would unfold, was bound for Mesopotamia. Disembarking in mid-November 1914, the 48th Pioneers found itself in action at Sahil within only a couple of days. It thereafter took a very active part in virtually all of the early battles in Mesopotamia; Shaiba, Nasiriyah, Amara, Kut, and finally Ctesiphon in November 1915. During the latter bloody engagement, in which the undefeated 6th (Poona) Division was finally halted, the 48th Pioneers lost 57% of its officers and men (8 British Officers, 9 Indian Officers, and 259 Other Ranks). Thus began the long match back down the Tigris to Kut-al-Amara where the 6th Division was besieged from 4th December 1915 until it surrendered on 29th April 1916. Sepoy Kanhaiya Singh was with the 48th Pioneers throughout, and after much hardship and deprivation, was taken Prisoner of War by the Turks with his comrades. Of the 48th Pioneers at that time, one British Officer observed,

All ranks were desperately hungry, and in some units hunger broke the bonds of discipline, Arabs and even Turkish soldiers were waylaid and robbed of food, sepoy snatched food from sepoy, and ration dumps were rushed. There were no sign of such madness in the 48th Pioneers and alone of the Indian regiment they were employed to guard the ration dumps.

Roughly three hundred and forty other ranks of the 48th Pioneers were besieged in Kut, of which roughly three hundred were taken Prisoner. The rest were too sick to march, and were exchanged for Turkish prisoners. Of the three hundred to march into Turkish hands, only ninety would ever see India again. The rest were either murdered at the hands of the Turks, or died of disease, malnutrition, and neglect. Sepoy Kanhaiya Singh was one of the majority. He died on 29th March 1917 after nearly a year of captivity, somewhere in Mesopotamia.

564 Sepoy Kanhaiya Singh

48th Pioneers

Died 29th March 1917

Son of Pophi, of Sahja Majra, Samrala, Ludhiana , Punjab

Commemorated on the Basra Memoral, Panels 56 and 57.

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