Current Information:

Age-23

129, Herries Street, Queens Park

Ismailia War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt

Egypt and Palestine

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) which 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 two years of hard fighting as, in a series of battles, the Turkish Army was slowly pushed north out of Palestine.

William Sparshott died from enteric fever (typhoid) on 1st July, 1916, while serving with the 2/10th Middlesex battalion of 160 Brigade, 53rd Division, in Egypt.