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Description: | Ts carbon copy memoir (102pp), written ca 1919 - 1920, covering his appointment to a commission in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (November 1914) and training and recruiting duties in Scotland with the 11th Battalion (January - July 1915) and the 13th Battalion of the Regiment (August 1915 - October 1916), his passage on the troopships ORSOVA and ARAGON via South Africa to India (October - November 1916), his service with the 2/4th Battalion Border Regiment on garrison duty at Peshawar (December 1916 - January 1917), his passage to Mesopotamia and attachment to the 2nd Battalion The Black Watch (7th Indian Division) during operations following the capture of Baghdad, including the Battle of Istabulat and the capture of Samarrah (April - October 1917), his admission into hospital and convalescence (November - December 1917), his appointment to the Department of Local Resources in Mesopotamia and postings as a local purchase officer in Basra, Qurna and Qalat Sikar and as the palm fronds purchasing officer for the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force (January - December 1918) and back at Qalat Sikar to supervise the purchase of the grain harvest (January - March 1919), his return to India and service there on garrison duty because of the uncertain political and military situation (April - August 1919) and his passage home on the SS WAHEHE for demobilisation (September 1919). The memoir includes a graphic account of the fighting at Istabulat, detailed descriptions of the major towns of Mesopotamia and the local population and their customs, and some observations on his batman and on the peace celebrations in India in June 1919, while throughout the writer shows a certain antipathy towards the East and an innate belief in British superiority.
Cataloguer RWAS
Catalogue date 2000-01 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Byrom, J A | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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