Current Information:

Age-30

11, Auckland Street, Vauxhall

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 179 Brigade of 60th (London) Division and after a hard day of fighting with many casualties, the attack was repulsed without gain to the enemy. There was also action on the front held by 181 Brigade, when at 2.30am a determined assault had been made on the advanced  position of 2/24th London between Wadi ed Dumm and Wadi Beit Hannina. It was immediately repulsed but three further attacks were made over the next four hours and the position became untenable. As a result of this the line was withdrawn to the less exposed southern flank of the ridge and by 6pm activity had ceased. 2/24th London suffered a number of casualties in this action, on of whom was William Newnham who was killed.