Finding my father in Mesopotamia

FINDING MY FATHER IN MESOPOTAMIA

Jenny Lewis Presentation © Jenny Lewis 2014

Where does the story start?

i. Family archives

ii. Local history societies

iii. Books & special interest magazines

iv. National Archives

v. Internet

vi. Media – news reports, documentaries

vii. Museums – Imperial War Museum, British Museum, South Wales Borderer’s Museum

2nd Lt. T.C. Lewis, 1915

National Archives - War Diaries of the South Wales Borderers

Mesopotamia – The Land Between Two Rivers

Maps showing battle strategy

UK interests in Iraq in 1909

The Anglo-Persian Oil Company was set up in 1909 after oil fields had been discovered in Iraq, then known as Mesopotamia (the ‘Land Between Two Rivers’)

Two years later, Winston Churchill, then First Sea Lord, bought a controlling stake in the company for Britain for £2.2 million.

The start of the 1914-18 Mesopotamian Campaign

On 6 November 1914, the British offensive began with the naval force bombarding the old fort at Fao, which was located at the point where the Shatt-al-Arab river meets the Persian Gulf. D Force was made up of mainly Indian troops from the Poona Regiment.

Basra and Qurna

On 22 November 1914, the British occupied Basra at the Battle of Qurna they were able to gain back control of their stake in the oilfields

…BUT the decision was taken to send a hopelessly underfunded and underequipped force to try to take Baghdad which led to four years of appalling suffering and over a million deaths

Army camp at Kut

Bridge of Boats at Qurna

River Tigris above Amara

Traders on the Tigris

Hospital boat on the Tigris

Halting place near Sheikh-Saad

Basra

Buying from Arab traders

Tigris stern-paddler

Arab well

Sikh soldier

Taking Mesopotamia…

“The best thing would be if we could say we had taken and gained nothing. Taking Mesopotamia…means spending millions on irrigation and development with no immediate or early return and keeping up a large army in an unfamiliar country with a perpetual menace on our flank in Kurdistan.”

Memories and Reflections, Lord Grey of Falloden, 1919

90 years after the start of ‘the war to end all wars’…the second Battle of Falujah, November 7-16

2004 .

END Jenny Lewis Oxford 2014 © Jenny Lewis 2014