If spoons could talk.

[high wood]

I have had this spoon for some time now and have identified the original owner as Pte Walter Eades, 1st battalion, Ox & Bucks Light Infantry. His medal index card shows that he served in the Asiatic theatre from 5th December 1914. His service papers have survived and I have a theory that this spoon was with Pte Eades all through the Great War. The reason that I think this is that the spoon has the broad arrow above the letter I and was therefore issued in India where Pte Eades was stationed prior to the outbreak of war. His service papers show that he never returned to India and therefore this must be his original spoon. This in itself does not sound particularly interesting until you read his service papers and see how his Great War unfolded.

[high wood]

Some pages from his service papers.

[RussT]

Interesting, thanks for posting.

Do you think he would be allowed to keep it whilst a prisoner?

Russ

[high wood]

4 minutes ago, RussT said:

Interesting, thanks for posting.

Do you think he would be allowed to keep it whilst a prisoner?

Russ

It was probably one of the few things that he was allowed to keep. I cannot see any other way that it could have turned up in a box of cutlery at a car boot sale. 

Edited 12 June , 2023 by high wood

[Dave66]

What a lucky find, always nice with objects as mundane as this to trace their history….thanks for sharing.

Dave.

[AndrewSid]

Lovely find.  The stories of the KUT POWs makes bleak reading.  Most didn’t survive their captivity. 

 

Edited 12 June , 2023 by AndrewSid

[PhilB]

A very fine spoon! Rather more personal than the 14/15 trio and plaque I have to a 2nd West Kents man, Pte Henry England, L-9631  who died in Kut during the siege 21/1/16.

Edited 13 June , 2023 by PhilB

[charlie962]

19 hours ago, RussT said:

Interesting, thanks for posting.

Do you think he would be allowed to keep it whilst a prisoner?

Russ

I believe he was an officer's servant so more likely to have be been able to hang on to his spoon. He started off in Yozgad officer's camp according to ICRC R50010.

That he was with the officers meant he avoided the worst of the 400 mile death march and work camps. His chances of being a survivor thus hugely increased compared to most. 

Charlie

[high wood]

4 hours ago, PhilB said:

A very fine spoon! Rather more personal than the 14/15 trio and plaque I have to a 2nd West Kents man, Pte Henry England, L-9631  who died in Kut during the siege 21/1/16.

I started off collecting medals but very soon realised that almost anything from a spoon to a post card can be the key that unlocks a soldier's story as long as it has a name or a number. I particularly like personal items that were there in the field with him.

3 hours ago, charlie962 said:

I believe he was an officer's servant so more likely to have be been able to hang on to his spoon. He started off in Yozgad officer's camp according to ICRC R50010.

That he was with the officers meant he avoided the worst of the 400 mile death march and work camps. His chances of being a survivor thus hugely increased compared to most. 

Charlie

That is interesting. Is there any documentary evidence that says he was an officer's servant?

[PhilB]

Yozgad doesn`t look too bad!

Pursuit of an 'Unparalleled Opportunity' (gutenberg-e.org)

[charlie962]

His service record shows he was Yozgad. The ICRC record shows he was Yozgad.

You will see from the ICRC sheets either side that there were lots of officers on same listing.

Officers, depending on their rank, were allowed to take one or two servants. These men were sometimes not previously a servant but lucky enough to be adopted by an officer which saved them from the awful march of the other ranks. 

Those who arrived at Yozgad so quickly were clearly in the officer contingents in that the officers and their 'adopted' servants arrived well in advance of the ORs. Yozgad, as I have said, was an officers' camp. 

There were subsequent changes for the ORs at the camp when the Turkish authorities tried to impose Muslim Indian soldier servants. 

The most famous account of life at Yozgad is Hill and Jones deception with a ouija board-  Road to Endor. 

So I think Eades was a servant or a last minute 'adopted' servant. But to whom I do not know. How long he remained at Yozgad I don't know either.

Charlie 

 

Edit. Just to mention that, despite protest, the officers were separated from the ORs before the long march into captivity. Officer groups, with their servants, went into captivity ahead of the ORs.

Edited 13 June , 2023 by charlie962

[high wood]

Thank you for your comprehensive post. Sometimes spoons don't tell you everything they know straight away. I was not aware of the Yosgad Camp and have learnt something new. I will now have to read up on it.

I have a copy of Ronald Millar's Kut. The death of an Army and whilst he mentions Shumran PoW camp he does not seem to mention Yosgad.

As Eades was a regular army man, having served since 1901, he must have been well known to the officers of the regiment and this is probably what got him into the Yozgad camp.