Belbeis Egypt Turkish POW

[Guest jomet]

Many years ago I picked up a cigarette case made from a mess tin at an antiques fair with the inscription :

Belbeis Egypt

Gpl H E R Smith No. 47700

2/4 Ox & Bucks LI

Turkish POW

I have tried Ox & Bucks LI museum and national archives campaign medals but no luck apart from fact that 2/4 was in Palestine and Egypt between June 1919 and May 1920.

Does anyone have information about the POW camp, 2/4's role or (most unlikely I know!) Corporal (?) Smith?

Thanks - new to this!

Jo Metcalf

[HERITAGE PLUS]

Jo

Belbeis (sometimes Belbes) is built on the site of Roman Phillipos.

By tradition it is where Mary and Joseph took the infant Jesus to avoid Herod.

The ancient canal there forming a strategic junction between the Nile and the Red Sea.

It is mentioned in the Nile Campaign of the Napoleonic wars and in the British campaign of 1882.

The British had a base here during WW1 and a POW camp could have been part of this.

A Royal Engineers officer was awarded the Royal Humane Society Bronze Medal for resucuing two men who had fallen into a canal lock here in 1916.

An airport was set up there which in 1951 became the home of the Egyptian Forces Air Academy.

Dave

[Kate Wills]

I have looked in the 2/4 Ox & Bucks history, which concludes with the battalion departing for Egypt, having undergone massive reductions due to demobilisations, and drafts of new personel who were willing to undertake further service abroad. There is no mention of the Cpl Smith, so he may have spent his war with another unit. The 2/4's entire active service was spent on the Western Front.on the Western Front.

Does Turkish POW indicate Cpl Smith was a prisoner of the Turks; or or was this cigarette case made by a Turkish soldier?