TCD MS 10516 folio 56 recto
[4th October 1916] Left this morning with escort for Safah Camp. We are within four miles of Ur of the Chaldees with a village handy for the supply of eggs and chickens. The official order awarding me the Military Cross arrived last evening. It states that it is given for “gallantry and devotion to duty at Nasiriyah on 11th September 1916 in treating the wounded continuously under heavy fire at close range regardless of his personal safety”.
Sunday: October 8th. 1916: Safah Camp
The object of our presence in Safah Camp is to protect the engineering staff at work on this end of the railway. As the desert here lies within the flood area, an embankment must be raised to carry the rails clear of the water. Thus the work is many times more laborious than the laying of the line over the desert beyond the limit of the an-