Taking Mesopotamia

The story is about my father, 2nd Lt. Thomas Charles Lewis, who recorded his time in Mesopotamia/ Iraq in 1916 using a Box Brownie camera. He fought in Basra and was wounded at Kut al Amara and invalided back to India (where all troops in Iraq were stationed at that time). Through photographs, poetry and witness statements, I can show how I believe the current crisis in Iraq stems directly from the involvement of British and Indian troops in the region during the First World War. A British and Indian force (Force D) landed at Fao on the Shatt al-Arab River on November 6, 1914, so this is the 100 year anniversary of the beginning of British involvement in that conflict (to protect the oil pipeline) which I believe led to our current involvement in the terrible devastation happening in that country. I have submitted images of a hand-drawn map showing the Battle of Adhaim in Iraq in 1917; a page from the Intelligence Reports of the South Wales Borderers War Diaries and also a photo of my father when he joined up in 1914. He died in 1944 aged nearly 50 when I was a few months old. My father's story can be found in my book, Taking Mesopotamia.