TCD MS 3416 page 2
[April 1916]
to our fate, & become Prisoners of War, or as Khalil Pasha described it – Honoured Guests of Turkey. – Fate had cast against our Relief.
The 43rd consisted of rank & file with Lt Col EAE Lethbridge DSO in command: other officers with the regiment were Major CF Henley Lieut Mason. Acting Adj, Lieut Naylor Capt & Lt Master Ivey and Capt J. Startin RAMC in medical charge; Lieuts Mellor Somerset Lt Infty T.F. and Lieut Harwood Border Regt T.F. attached.
Capt WEF Morland, GSO 3 of the 6th Division, went with Gen Townshend to Constantinople. I rejoined the Regiment from the Royal Flying Corps. The 30th of April saw our brigade on the march to the Turkish Camp at Shamran, about 9 miles upstream. I was detailed to take certain drafts of men & baggage up by river steamer.
A few words regarding our embarkation may be of interest.
The Turk is generally accepted to be quite incapable of organization, & we may therefore wonder how 13000 prisoners were ever evacuated. The answer is simple; that our D.A.A. & Q.M.G. Major Gilchrist of the 52D – Sikhs, took over the control of all arrangements, & with comparative ease the whole of our force, except 2 brigades who marched, were embarked & taken intact into a camp at Shamran. I can picture