Page 31 - Sylvia Malt - Side by Side

Driver Richard THWAITES, 8th Battalion, Royal Horse & Field Artillery
1894 - 3rd May 1917

Richard, who was born in the Seven Stars Pub in 1894, worked with his brother at his
father’s market garden business located in Foots Cray High Street. On enlisting at
Woolwich recruiting office on 4th December 1915, he was assigned to the Royal Field
Artillery as a driver. Drivers were usually privates in rank but designated driver to
distinguish them from infantry. They were essential in getting supplies of food, ammunition
and equipment to the men as well as bringing them back from the field of battle to the field
hospitals when wounded.

The 8th Division of the Royal Field Artillery was formed of volunteers under the
administration of Western Command and on 7th June 1915 orders were received to prepare
to move to the Mediterranean. On 13th June, the first transports left port and sailed to
Alexandria in Egypt. For service in the Middle East, the army provided a totally different
uniform to that for those serving on the Western Front. The men could wear shorts, light-
weight shirts and helmets that had a flap at the bottom to protect the wearer’s neck from
the effects of the strong rays of the sun.

In February 1916, the assembled troops began to move to Mesopotamia (present day
Turkey) to strengthen the force being assembled for the relief of the besieged men at the
garrison at Kut-al-Amara. It is more than probable that Richard did not know that one of his
school friends, Henry James (Jimmie) Johnson, was one of the several thousand desperate
men who were trapped inside the garrison and who would eventually be taken prisoner and
suffer dreadfully at the hands of their Turkish captures.

After these initial efforts failed the British forces were reinforced and reorganised under a
new commander. Early in 1917, the 13th Western Division took part in the second
important Battle of Kut-al-Amara, which did eventually lead to the release of the few
prisoners, both British and Indian, who had survived the terrible ordeal of the original siege
and having being taken a prisoner of the extraordinarily cruel and barbarous Turks.
(Unfortunately, Henry Johnson had died in the previous October as a prisoner-of-war).

The determined British eventually conquered Baghdad in March 1917, but at a terrible
cost. All the battles with the Turks had been about protecting a valuable part of the Empire
and in particular, Britain’s oil interests, whereas the Turks just wanted to show the world
how they could humiliate the British and prove that their “Empire” was not impregnable.

In Memoriam. Richard died on 3rd May 1917 from wounds received in battle and is buried
in the Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery in Iraq which was begun in April 1917.

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