Current Information:

Age-23

Born-Croydon

Jerusalem War Cemetery

After the Western Front, the second largest theatre of war between 1914 and 1918 was Egypt and Palestine. Britain had long had a foothold in Egypt guarding the vitally important Suez Canal and when war was declared against Turkey (the Ottoman Empire) who controlled all of what is now known as the Middle East, British troops were sent to guard the canal from attacks from the north. For the first two years of the war the British forces were on the defensive as the Turks, backed by the Germans, made a number of attempts against the canal but an important victory in August 1916 at Rumani relieved the pressure and the British force was then able to move onto the offensive and advance north into Palestine. There followed the First and Second Battles of Gaza in March and in April, 1917 in which the British tried but failed to break through the Turkish line that stretched from the coast at Gaza across the desert to Beersheba and it was not until November of 1917, in the Third Battle of Gaza that Turkish resistance here was broken. The following month saw the capture of Jerusalem after which the Egyptian Expeditionary Force continued their thrust northwards, capturing more and more Arab territory.

But it was not all plain sailing. The Turks were determined fighters and put up a stout resistance. British intelligence had discovered that the enemy were planning a desperate attack to recover Jerusalem. This was launched at 1.30am on 27th December, astride the Nablus road where the country is very broken and the roads extremely winding. The main attack fell on 60th (London) Division and after a hard day of fighting with many casualties, the attack was repulsed without gain to the enemy. The attacks against 53rd Division were only on its outposts but nevertheless were equally determined. The Division was holding a long line covering Jerusalem from north-east, east and south-east with its left flank on Wadi Anata. 160 Brigade took the brunt of the action when at dawn the Turks  attacked White Hill and Ras ez Zamby, captured from them on 21st December. Ras ez Zamby was lost but a company of 2/10th Middlesex retook it and although 2/4th Royal West Surrey (Queens) withdrew from White Hill, their machine-guns prevented the enemy from reoccupying it in force. On the southern flank, 4 ½ miles south of Ras ez Zamby, another company of 2/10th Middlesex were in an exposed position at Deir Ibn Obeid where there was an ancient monastery. They were attacked by Turkish cavalry who rode to within half a mile and dismounted. They brought up two mountain guns but these had little impact on the monastery walls. Nevertheless 2/10th Middlesex were in danger of being surrounded but managed to extricate themselves the next morning. Both battalions suffered casualties, one of whom was Edward Browne of 2/4th Royal West Surrey (Queens).