Family :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

At the outbreak of war the British, together with Indian troops, resolved to protect oil supply in the region by occupying the area around Basra at Abadan. This evolved into a series of campaigns towards Baghdad against the Turkish forces as Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) was part of the Ottoman Empire. Meetings in late 1914 and into 1915 led the Viceroy and Indian government at Simla to reconsider the limited involvement of troops and they decided to order further advances with a view to securing the Shatt-al-Hai, a canal connecting the Tigris and Euphrates river and potentially capturing Baghdad. The British government disagreed and wished to conserve forces for the Western front. The Viceroy was given permission to act as it wished, but told in no uncertain terms that no reinforcements should be expected.

The initial success experienced by the British and Indian forces quickly disintegrated in the face of Ottoman opposition. The Siege of Kut-Al-Amara began on 7th December with the besieging of an 8,000 strong British-Indian garrison in the town of Kut, 100 miles south of Baghdad, by the Ottoman Army. These campaigns produced few tactical benefits, indeed the catastrophic defeat at Kut in 1916 was a major setback. Badhdad was eventually taken in March 1917.

The conditions in Mesopotamia were dreadful. The climate, sickness and disease produced large losses in addition to battle casualties. About as many men died of disease as were killed in action. The Mesopotamia front was part of a strategy hoping for success at lower cost than the Western Front but no decisive victory was achieved.

Detail :

De Ruvigny's : HOLME, BERTRAM LESTER, M.A., 2nd Lieut. 12th (Reserve) Battn. The Royal Welsh Fusiliers, only s. of Geoffrey Gosset Holme, of Bryn Afon Penmon, near Beaumaris, Anglesey, by his wife, Jessie, dau. of the late Rev. Canon Major Lester, of Liverpool; b. Park Road, West Birkenhead, 22 Aug 1888; educ. Marlborough College, and Queens' College Cambridge (M.A.); was some time Tutor to the sons of the Russian Admiral of the Black Sea Fleet, and Governor of Sevastopol, and at the outbreak of war was living in Petrograd, holding a post int he Law Schools there; left Russia Nov. 1914, for England; gazetted 2nd Lieut. 12th Royal Welsh Fusiliers 18 Dec. 1914; went to the Mediteranean, and took part int he evactualtions of Suvla Bay and Helles; was Team. Staff Capt. in Egypt, and there joined the expedition for the relief of Kut-al-Amara, Mesopotamia; was wounded in action at Sann-i-yat, Mesopotamia, 10 April 1916, and died of his wounds on the 25th. Buried at Aligherbi, on the River Tigris; unm.

Masonic :

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley