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[Illustration: THE CASTLE ROCK (KASTAMUNI)]
London: John Lane, The Bodley Head New York: John Lane Company. MCMXX
Printed by the Anchor Press Ltd., Tiptree, Essex, England.
TO THE MEMORY OF ALL THOSE BRITISH AND INDIAN OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE KUT GARRISON WHO HAVE SUFFERED AND DIED IN CAPTIVITY THIS BOOK IS REVERENTLY DEDICATED
The experiences related in the following pages are simply the individual fortunes of a subaltern of the Indian Army Reserve of Officers who had his first taste of fighting at the battle of Ctesiphon, and was afterwards taken prisoner by the Turks with the rest of the Kut Garrison, ultimately succeeding in escaping from Asia Minor. It is not intended to generalize in any way, since an individual, unless of exalted rank, sees as a rule only his own small environment and cannot pretend to speak for the majority of his comrades.
The book is published in the hope that it may prove of interest to the many relatives and friends of the Kut prisoners.
Acknowledgments are due to Messrs. Blackwood, the _Times of India_, and the _Pioneer_ for their kind permission to republish those chapters which originally appeared in these papers.
BOAT IN WHICH THE PARTY CROSSED THE BLACK SEA 210
THE THREE OFFICERS AND THREE OF THEIR RESCUERS 226
In India, in the early days of the war, a newly gazetted subaltern of the Indian Army Reserve of Officers was sent for a month's preliminary training to one of the few remaining British regular battalions. Afterwards he was attached to an Indian Regiment, and, if fortunate, went on service with the same battalion. A great number, however, were sent off to join other units in the field. In this way I found myself arriving in Basra on October 2nd, 1915, with a draft for a regiment[1] of whom I had known nothing a few days before leaving India. However, the "Nobody's Child" feeling was very soon a thing of the past, and I was welcomed by a mess full of the best comrades any fellow could desire.