Maurice was my Grandmother's cousin. He came from Wellow on the Isle of Wight and worked as a dairyman. He joined the Royal Field Artillery in September 1914 and took part in the Mesopotamia campaign. He went through the siege of Kut-El-Amara which took place for 5 months ending on 29 April 1916 when the garrison surrendered because they were near starvation. His family were aware of the terrible conditions during the siege and they wrote several times to the War Office hoping for news of him. But nothing more was heard of Maurice until 1919, when a repatriated POW informed the authorities that Maurice had died three years earlier in 1916 aged 22 on the march from Baghdad to the POW camp.  

Martin Hooper