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Description: | 6 ms letters (20pp, March - December 1915) written to his wife while serving initially with the Field Force Engineers, 12th Indian Division, in India and Mesopotamia (March - August) and subsequently (November - December) as Field Engineer to the 6th Indian Division during their retreat from Ctesiphon to Kut al Amara, plus a long ms diary letter (75pp, December 1915 - April 1916, with 75pp photocopy) describing in detail the siege of Kut with his initial optimism degenerating to give a gloomy but interesting account of events and conditions with useful references to the lack of food and his changing diet, the shooting and eating of horses, the serious flooding of the trenches and his gradual decline in health; together with 2 brief ts telegrams from Kut, a ms letter to his wife (2pp, 1 June 1916) from a fellow officer concerning Barker's safety, a Red Crescent prisoner of war postcard (25 July 1916), a letter (4pp, 7 August 1916) and 2 postcards (January 1917) sent whilst a prisoner of war at Kastoumi camp in Anatolia describing his living conditions and the long journey by rail, donkey and on foot from Mesopotamia, 3 ms letters from Smyrna and Alexandria (November 1918) following his release and describing the prison camp, his frustration at the delays in his return home, the locals in Smyrna, and his voyage on the hospital ship ASSAYE to Egypt, and 3 ms letters (December 1908) regarding an inspection of the Lob road around Moghul Lot on the North West Frontier.
Cataloguer APR
Catalogue date 1996-06-07 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Barker, J S | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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