Current Information:

Age-27

4, Penwith Road, Southfields

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.

It was a very wet day on 23rd December, 1917 and the next stage of the planned general advance was postponed until the next day. In preparation for this, 60th (London) Division were ordered to occupy Kh. Adase, a hill between Bir Nebala (Bir-a well) and the Nablus road by dawn. 2/18th London of 180 Brigade were handed the task but met  unexpectedly stout resistance and failed after several gallant attempts to reach the summit. They  eventually withdrew to their original line to count the cost of the failed operation during which nearly fifty of their number had been killed and many more wounded. One of those who lost their lives was Harry Flowers.