Access to web sites regarding English, French and Indian soldiers

[Gary Diffen]

Hi folks

I have some covers from WW1 from English, French and Indian soldiers who were all taken as prisoners of war by the Turks.

I am trying to research the soldiers to see if the were taken prisoners of war at Gallipoli.

The Australian War Memorial and the National Archives have excellent web facilities to look up soldiers to help identifying their service records.

Are the same types of facilities available for WW1 soldiers from England, France and India?

Cheers

Gary

[Chris Grimshaw]

Hello Gary

Welcome to the Forum,

I can't comment on the French & Indian records, I have material from them but have done no detailed research.

The National Archives at Kew (GB) have good records of WW1 service men and officers.  I collect the Gallipoli campaign but have no POW mail from there unfortunatly.

Have you tried any searches on their site? Pay by results in a lot of cases I'm afraid, but if you have access to Ancestry this opens up more records.  If you can post a few names I'll see what I can find.

Cheers

Chris

[Gary Diffen]

Hi Chris

I had a look around the Kew National Records site.....it's a complete mess.....and in the end you have to pay for a service record.....unlike the Australian sites.....

I only have one POW item addressed to an English Officer. From the address I was able to make out that he was from the 103rd Mahratta Light Infantry which was taken prisoner at Kut.

Further investigation of another 3 of my Indian cards confirmed that they were also taken at Kut (as were most of the Allied POW's held by the Turks).

My other 5 Indian cards will probably be difficult to track. My three French envelopes are signed by the POW....so I am hoping I will be able to track them somehow.....

Anyway.....thank you for your help.....at least I have a start.....

Cheers

Gary

[Chris Grimshaw]

Hi Gary

I agree the Kew archives are difficult to navigate but well worth a look, some of the Regimental histories are also a useful source.  Agree the Australian records are very good.

I recently looked at the New Zealand archives, found the chap I was looking for, a casualty but prior to scanning tissue paper had been pasted over sone of the details. Found my chap was wounded "gunshot wound to the thigh" but date and location was covered over :(  frustrating.

Cheers

Chris

[Gary Diffen]

Hi Chris

The New Zealand site is not bad.....I have a 5 frame Gallipoli exhibit.....and used Cenotaph to research the soldiers whom I was able to identify from the covers....NZ is much harder than the Australian material to acquire....

Cheers

Gary

[Chris Grimshaw]

Hi Gary

I have a small amount of New Zealand material, some of which was written up prior to the New Zealand archives becominmg avaliable, not studied their site in detail yet.  Are the War diaries avaliable do you know?

A 5 frame exhibit on Gallopili sounds very interesting. I recently showed 220 shheets of Gallopili material, a facinating period to collect and research.

Are you based in Australia?

Cheers

Chris

[Gary Diffen]

Hi Chris

Yes.....I'm based in Australia.

One of my collections is the Australians in WW1.....particularly Gallipoli. I have about 12 frames (maybe more) of the Australian campaign.....and will be showing it at the Royal of London in April next year together with my NZ collection, so it will be an ANZAC theme.

The NZ Cenotaph site is quite rudimentary compared with the Australian War Memorial and National Archives (which is a bit cumbersome as well). As for war diaries.....I have not seen them on the NZ site....

Did you buy anything in the Argyll Etkin sale yesterday?

Cheers

Gary

[Chris Grimshaw]

Hi Gary

The "GALLIPOLIAN" has a series of articles commencing in No 62, Spring 1990 and concluding in No 70, Christmas 1992, "PRISONERS OF THE TURKS" by J.D. Stott.

He quotes the figures from the Official History of British and Dominian Army Personnel missing or taken prisoner (7698) a later figure in the same report is 7221. a further figure (304) British as prisoners of which 96 died in captivity.

He then quotes from a communication prepared in Feb 1916 from the American Ambassador in Constantinople sent to London which contained internment list of 492 British & Dominian Army & Navy personel whose units can be attributed to the Gallopili campaign.

A full list of the men is then given, shows place in internment, Service No, Rank, Surname, first Name , Company, a column is shown for Died with date and place of burial. Later parts of the lists show Battalion as well.

The final article gives amended and new names plus details of a supplementary list Headed "Additional names of possible British prisioners not yet verified"

He quotes Sources as follows

Public Record Office (Kew?) AIR 1-892/204/5/697, WO 329-1





Commenwealth War Graves Commision Cemetery Registers,

51 - 8 - 38

Cheers Chris

[Gary Diffen]

Hi Chris

Interesting information......and I would be very grateful if I could get a scans of these articles.

From the Australian involvement at Gallipoli, only 69 soldiers were taken prisoner, plus 16 from the submarine AE2.

All told, 217 (as near a figure as the Aust War Memorial can determine) were taken POW in WW1. This means that 132 prisoners were taken in the Light Horse Campaign from Egypt to Syria.

I was surprised at how few of the British were taken as POW's at Gallipoli. It appears that these numbers may include all Allied soldiers.....but I think we would need to look at the data before confirming....

Rather than use this as a forum.....you may wish to use my email address of garydiffen@gmail.com 

Cheers

Gary