|
Date: |
|
Description: | Negatives, black and white prints and photographic postcards covering the service of Private Robert Richard Williams with the 6th Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment in Mesopotamia and Kurdistan during 1919. These include a number relating to British operations around Kirkuk: horse transport during the Kirkuk - Suliemanieh march, a burnt-out Rolls Royce armoured car, the battalion halted during the Baiji - Kirkuk march (June 1919), the 6th Loyal North Lancashires entering Kirkuk (24 July 1919), 32nd (Indian) Lancers escorting Kurdish prisoners through Kirkuk (July 1919) and a small panorama of the Pai Tak Pass to Persia. There is also a photograph of a bridge over the Diyala River at the point where the 6th Loyal North Lancashires took heavy casualties on 8 March 1917, whilst engaged in operations to capture Baghdad. Other photographs relating to Baghdad show general street scenes, a native bazaar, the racecourse and one of a pontoon bridge over the Tigris. The collection also includes a number of photographs of general military interest covering motor and pack transport, a light railway, river steamers and local craft including bellums and mahailas, a British military cemetery, a river gunboat and a pontoon bridge over the Tigris (possibly at Shumran Bend). A small number of portraits of British and Indian soldiers also form part of the collection with those named being RSM W Wylde DCM and Private S Pilkington both of the 6th Loyal North Lancashires. The Indian portraits depict a Jemadar of the 85th Burma Rifles, a Ghurkha rifleman, a Marhatta sepoy and signallers with a heliograph. The collection also contains photographs of general scenes: mounted Arabs and Kurds, Arab villagers, the Ctesiphon Arch and Ezra's Tomb. There are also a number of photographs taken in India and mostly showing street scenes including a snake charmer, cobbler and musicians. Of a more gruesome nature is a photograph of the head of an Afghan tribesman with a notice board stating it is a Ghurkha trophy from Dakka on the North West Frontier and dated August 1919. Photographs of the troopship HMT NYANZA and the French protected cruiser JURIENDE LA GRAVIERE are also in the collection.
Finally, the collection includes a number of postcards. One series, printed by The Times of India for the Army YMCA of India, show scenes in and around Basra along with reproductions of photographs from the Mesopotamia Campaign. A second set of cards (produced by Raphael Tuck & Sons for A Kerim of Basra) show the buildings forming the Royal Engineer Field Park at Basra, captured Turkish munitions, the River Euphrates and the Turkish memorial at Kut. A final card is Turkish in origin and bears a nice drawing of a Turkish infantryman. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Subjects: | Mesopotamia 1914-1918 6th Battalion Indian Army 1919-1939 British Army 1919-1939 British Army 1914-1918 British Army Loyal North Lancashire Regiment | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Williams, Robert Richard | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
|
|