Page 29 - Sylvia Malt - Side by Side v1

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

Before enlisting, 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
th
recruiting office on 4 December 1915, Richard 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 or killed.

th
The 8 Division of the Royal Field Artillery was formed of volunteers under the administration of
th
Western Command and on 7 June 1915 orders were received to prepare to move to the
th
Mediterranean. On 13 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 troops began to move to Mesopotamia to strengthen the force being assembled
for the relief of the besieged garrison at Kut-al-Amara. (Richard Thwaites could not have known that
one of his school friends, Henry James (Jimmie) Johnson, was one of the men who was trapped inside
the garrison and who would eventually be taken prisoner and suffer dreadfully at the hands of their
Turkish captures).

After these efforts failed and Kut fell, the British forces were reinforced and reorganised under a new
th
commander and in 1917, the 13 Western Division took part in the second Battle of Kut-al-Amara,
which eventually led to the release of the few prisoners who had survived the terrible ordeal of the
original siege and 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 - see page ....).

The 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 wanted to show the world how they could humiliate the British and prove
that their “Empire” was not impregnable.

rd
In Memoriam. Richard died on 3 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.