HMS Tarantula, Mesopotamia, 1919 (c)

Photograph, Mesopotamia, 1919 (c). From an album compiled by Major William Leith-Ross, Army Staff and 13th Frontier Force Rifles, 1918-1920.

Tarantula was an Insect class gunboat, built with a shallow draught, designed for riverine and coastal deployment, From 1916 the Tarantula was part of the Royal Navy's River Tigris flotilla.

In 1916 Leith-Ross, a veteran of the Western Front, was attached to the intelligence staff of the Indian Expeditionary Force's headquarters in Mesopotamia. Throughout 1916 and 1917 he travelled by motor vehicle and aircraft to reconnoitre, photograph, survey and report on the British area of operations.

From January to September 1918 he was seconded to Dunsterforce, the British Military Mission to the Caucasus. After this, Leith-Ross continued to serve in Mesopotamia until late 1919.