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The Advance Beyond Kilimanjaro German East Africa (now Tanzania), March 1916
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Whilst the 2nd East African Division under Major General M J Tighe prepared to fight the battle of Latema-Reata Nek, General Smuts also had other formations on the move in early 1916. From the north Indian Army Brigadier General J M Stewart's 1st East African Division advanced from Longido with the task of blocking any German withdrawal along the M…
The Indian Army in the First World War
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Editor Alan Jeffreys Helion, £35.00, 313pp, notes, refs, bibliog, index. ISBN: 978–191–151–278–3 The Indian Army raised some 1.4 million volunteers during the Great War of whom 53,000 died on various fronts. Although immediate interest in the role of the Indian Army after the Great War stimulated the publication of many books, copies of most of…
114: February 2019
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Postponed : 8th President's Conference - Theme '1915 Revisited'
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Given current situation with spread of coronavirus the President's Conference will be postponed until further notice. The welfare of delegates and speakers is uppermost in our thoughts. Speakers: Aimee Fox : 'To Gallipoli and Back Again: Learning lessons between theatres, Gallipoli and the Western Front, 1915-1916'? Aimee Fox This talk fo…
The Hong Kong and Singapore Mountain Battery in Egypt, Sinai and Palestine
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In 1847 the British authorities in Hong Kong began using Indians as gun lascars, or general workers, because the climatic conditions were unsuitable for white soldiers, and also because Indians were much more economical to employ and to administer. The practice spread throughout the British possessions in the Far East and by 1908 all the gunners we…
The Indian Army on the Western Front: India’s Expeditionary Force to France and Belgium in the First World War
Cambridge University Press, £60.00, 335pp., bibliog, index. ISBN: 9–781–107–027–466 To subvert a review about a new book with lengthy opinions on a fifteen–year–old work on the same topic is almost certainly poor reviewer’s protocol. However, since the shelf of new books about the Indian Army is virtually bare I will ignore polite convention. Lik…
The Indian Corps on the Western Front Handbook and Battlefield Guide
/world-war-i-book-reviews/the-indian-corps-on-the-western-front-handbook-and-battlefield-guide/
[These reviews by John Battersby first appeared in Stand To! No. 104 September 2015 Special Edition. Available in the digital archive to WFA members]. The Indian Corps on the Western Front Handbook and Battlefield Guide by Simon Doherty and Tom Donovan, Tom Donovan Editions, Hardback: ISBN: 9–781–905–968–084 £35.00 plus p and p (also in paperback …
The Sons of John Company: The Indian & Pakistan Armies by John Gaylor
/world-war-i-book-reviews/the-sons-of-john-company-the-indian-pakistan-armies-by-john-gaylor/
1903-1991 Parapress. 1996. Hardback, 379 pp., £19.99. ISBN 1898594 414. [This review first appeared in Stand To! no.51 January 1998. It is one of over 2,200 reviews of books about the First World War which are available to search in the Stand To! archive by members of The Western Front Association]. This is a very welcome book. The contributio…
3 January 1918: Sepoy Babu Singh
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Babu Singh was one of over one million Indians, including over 621,224 combatants and 474,789 non-combatants, who were sent overseas between August 1914 and December 1919. Secret plans had been made as early as 1910 to deploy Indian troops to Mesopotamia via Bombay and Karachi to Basra. Most of the sepoys were recruited from the peasant-warrior …
3 February 1915: Capt Oriel William Erskine Bannerman
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Oriel was the second son of the General William Bannerman CB 104th Wellesley’s Rifles and of Louisa Bannerman (née Goddard). He was educated at Cheltenham College and Sandhurst. He joined the Indian Army 27 July 1898 and was promoted to Lieutenant 27 October 1900 and Captain 27 July 1907. From October 1903-07 he was ADC to Major-General G H…
February 2020
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THE ROAD TO BAGHDAD Two: “Mission Creep” It became apparent by January 1915 that the situation was not quite as was hoped for. The Turks were reinforcing Mesopotamia and it was learnt that German and Turkish diplomatic missions had been in Persia. Although the Southern oilfields were secured some of the local tribes had become restless and a pip…
3 March 1915 : Lieut. Wickham Harvey
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His parents were Arthur and mother Emily (née Stanger-Leathes and from New South Wales, Australia) of Hoon-Hay, the Drive, Belmont Surrey.
At the 1901 Census, age 13, Whickham lived at home in Bromley with his parents, three siblings, two aunts and three domestic servants.
He went to school at Quernmore, Bromley, Kent and then joined the Royal…
The Indian Corps on the Western Front by Simon Doherty and Tom Donovan
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Richly illustrated throughout, with clear maps and explanatory plans, many contemporary black and white photographs and a wealth of recent photographs on the ground, as well as colour illustrations, The Indian Corps on the Western Front makes an excellent companion to a trip along that stretch of the Western Front taken over by the Indian Army in O…
Ep. 138 – The Indian Labour Corps in the First World War – Pratap Chhetri
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Pratrap Chhetri’s research and interest goes beyond the statistics to take in tribal culture, memories of war, widening horizons and the independence movement in India. Your browser does not support the audio element. With a postgrad degr…
The Battle for Latema-Reata Nek, British East Africa, 11-12 March 1916
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By early March 1916 the British forces in British East Africa (BEA - now named Kenya) had been ordered to abandon the defensive operations that characterised their 1915 activities. A new theatre commander, General J C Smuts, had arrived with thousands of reinforcements from South Africa and with a mandate to invade German East Africa (GEA - now nam…
Indian Volunteers in the Great War East African Campaign
/world-war-i-articles/indian-volunteers-in-the-great-war-east-african-campaign/
In August 1914 the Volunteer units of the Indian Defence Force were recruited from white and mixed-race members of the civilian community whose expectations were that they would only be used operationally within India for local or home defence. However, on the declaration of war, several members of Volunteer units wished to serve overseas and their…
Ep. 156 – The Indian Army in the Great War – Dr Adam Prime
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Dr Adam Prime, lecturer in the Politics and Contemporary History at the University of Salford, talks about his research into the Indian Army during the Great War. In this podcast you will hear how the Indian Army came about with its origins in the defence of the East India Company from 1757. A hundred years later when the British Army needed to de…
Ep. 160 – The 2nd Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment in FWW – Nigel Atter
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Historian Nigel Atter talks about his book on the Great War service of the 2nd Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment. This is published by Helion. 11 May 2020 : Podcast 160 Nigel Atter, a self-styled ‘independent scholar’ is an active member of the Leicestershire & Rutland branch of The Western Front Association. His interest in the First Wor…
A Tour of Mesopotamian War Cemeteries in 2003
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In the early summer of 2003, fortunately or not, I found myself and the Battalion I was commanding at the time, 7 Air Assault Battalion REME, based just outside of Al-Amarah in what had once been the British front line in Mesopotamia. Wherever I am in the world if there is an opportunity to visit a CWGC site then I will. A quick look on the map and…
ONLINE Carry On Up the Tigris – The Experiences of British and Indian Troops in Mesopotamia 1914-18 by Alan Wakefield
ONLINE Zoom Meeting: Carry On Up the Tigris – The Experiences of British and Indian Troops in Mesopotamia 1914-18 by Alan Wakefield Between 1914 and 1918, British and Indian troops fought against the Ottoman Turks in Mesopotamia (now Iraq). After many setbacks, they finally took Baghdad in March 1917. This marked the high point of a long and tragi…
Ep. 174 – Ypres and its meaning through time – Prof Mark Connelly & Dr Stefan Goebel
Professor Mark Connelly, Professor of Modern British History, University of Kent and Dr Stefan Goebel, Reader and Director of the Centre for the History of War, Media and Society, University of Kent, talk about their recent book on Ypres. This is published by OUP. Your brows…
The World’s War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire by David Olusoga
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Listening to The World’s War by David Olusoga narrated by Nigel Carrington is a joy. With a subtle change of accent the narrator helps put in the minds eye a soldier of the First Nations of Canada, an Ottoman Sultan, Black labourer from South Africa or African American Soldier. This is a history of the First World War written from a different pe…
Major Tom's War by Vee Walker
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The weave of Major Tom's War is such that at least two other books, possibly three, intertwine between its pages - the story of the Major from Calcutta in India to Herefordshire, then to the Western Front, post-war Belgium, Germany and home; the story of Gaston Derome the mayor of Bavay before, during and after the German occupation; the Home Front…
The Indian Cavalry at Cambrai : 30 November 1917
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Cavalry in the First World War was rarely used, at least in its traditional mounted role. A famous exception to this is the mounted attack towards High Wood on the Somme in 1916. It is fortunate that cavalry divisions, held for the hoped for exploitation after the attack at Cambrai were still available when, on 30 November 1917, the Germans launc…
ONLINE : ‘The Indian Army during the First World War' with Stephen Barker
‘The Indian Army during the First World War: An Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry Perspective’. During 1914-18, the 1st Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry fought in Iraq as part of the British Indian Army. Many of the soldiers who died in the campaign are commemorated on war memorials across Oxfordshire. This presentation highlights a project run by…
The Coolie’s Great War. Indian Labour in a Global Conflict 1914–1921 by Radhika Singha
£45.00, Hurst & Company, London, 392 pp, 21 ills, index, notes and refs ISBN 9781787382152 Military labour is a forgotten theme of First World War history. And yet the importance of labour behind the frontlines should not be underestimated. The Labour Corps was vital in securing Allied victory, yet John Starling and Ivor Lee’s 2009 No Labo…
The Indian Army in the First World War Editor Alan Jeffreys
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Helion, £35.00, 313pp, Notes, refs, bibliog, index. ISBN: 978–191–151–278–3 Contributors include: Daniel Marston, Raymond Callaban, Rob Johnson, Graham Winton, Joseph Moretz, Adam Prime, Cat Wilson, David Omissi, Alan Jeffreys, Andrew Jarboe, Michael Creese, Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Peter Stanley and Anirudh Deshpande. [This review first app…
The Indian Corps in France by Lt Col J W B Merewether
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Reprint of 2nd edition, 1918, Naval & Military Press 1996. £29.95, 550pp. ISBN 1-84342-038-4 [This review first appeared in Stand To! No. 49 April 1997] This work was first published in December 1917 and was reprinted twice in the following year. There was also a second edition in 1919. There were also Indian editions in English with India…
Sepoys in the Trenches: The Indian Corps on the Western Front 1914-1915
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Hardback, 274pp. Spellmount, 2000, price £24.95 ISBN 1 86227 054 6. [This review first appeared in Stand To! No. 60 January 2001] Who amongst us has not been intrigued and moved by the long lists of Indian names on the Menin Gate, or on the impressive Indian memorial near Neuve Chapelle? This book tells the story behind those names, from t…
'The Indian Army during WW1 - an Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry perspective' with Stephen Barker
Stephen looks at a most interesting and also possibly under researched Great War theme. our presentation will appeal to those interested in the Indian Army and the OBLI
Dr Adam Prime
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Dr Adam Prime BA(Hons), MA, PhD A native of the Staffordshire Moorlands, Adam graduated from the University of Salford in 2011 with a BA(Hons) in Contemporary Military and International History. He followed that with an MA in Military History from the University of Chester. In 2013, he was awarded a PhD studentship from the University of…
29 December 1915 : Colonel Ernest Swiney
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His father was George (Colonel, Bengali Rifles) and mother Mary. Location of Cheltenham (cc OpenStreetMap) At the 1871 England Census, age 7, Ernest was living in 38 Lansdown Terrace, Cheltenham with his mother (a Colonel’s wife), four siblings, grandmother (a Colonel’s widow), Aunt (a Colonel’s widow) and three servants (cook, parlour maid a…
Neuve Chapelle with Ross Beadle
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Ross reassess the Battle of Neuve Chapelle and discuss what went wrong but what succeeded
Ep. 247 – The Punjab Record Project – Dr Gavin Rand
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Historian Dr Gavin Rand, Principal Lecturer at the University of Greenwich talks about the recent discovery and digitisation of 320k records of troops from the Punjab who fought for the British Empire during the Great War. Your browser does not support the audio element. …
India's Great War by Dr Adam Prime
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This talk looks at India's contribution to the First World War in every sense of the word. It takes in the huge recruitment boom. It also looks at the experiences of Indian soldiers (and their British officers) on the Western Front, in Gallipoli, in Mesopotamia and in the Middle East. Finally, it looks at India itself and the actions undertaken the…
Ep.258 – Dissent and indiscipline in the Indian Army during WW1 – Dr Adam Prime
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Dr Adam Prime talks about his research into dissent and indiscipline in the Indian Army during the Great War. Your browser does not support the audio element. Adam outlines the number of incidents of dissent, ill-discipline and mutiny by I…
Ep. 265 – The Indian Army in the First World War – Dr Andrew Jarboe
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Historian and teacher Dr Andrew T. Jarboe talks about his recent book Indian Soldiers in World War I: Race and Representation in an Imperial War, published by University of Nebraska Press in 2021. Your browser does not support the audio element. …
'The Egyptian Expeditionary Force in the First World War' with Dr Adam Prime
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Dr Adam Prime will be talking about the 1st Battle of the Suez Canal, February 1915. This battle saw the Ottomans make a serious attempt to cut the Canal - 'the jugular vein of the British Empire' - and get repulsed by the largely Indian Army garrison. If you have attended one of our talks before you should receive the details automatically. …
India's Great War
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Dr Adam Prime, lecturer in the Politics and Contemporary History at Salford University talks about his research into the Indian Army during the Great War. He will explain how the Indian Army came about with its origins in the defence of the East India Company from 1757. A hundred years later when the British Army needed to defend the Northwest Fron…
'Indian Army in the First World War: Oxf and Bucks Perspectives'
For our march meeting, Stephen Barker makes a welcome return and, on this occasion, will speak on the 'Indian Army in the First World War: Oxf and Bucks Perspectives'. During 1914-18, the 1st Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry fought in Iraq as part of the British Indian Army. Many of the soldiers who died in the campaign are commemorated on war m…
'The Neuve Chapelle Memorial: Commemorating the Indian Corps on the Western Front' with Mark Connelly
India made a huge contribution to the British Empire's war effort between 1914 and 1918 including the despatch of over a million men to the fighting fronts. An Indian Corps arrived on the Western Front in the autumn of 1914 and played a vital role in the defensive battles around Ypres. In the spring it took part in the series of offensives launched…