Mohammera, Basra, 1915 (c)

Photograph, World War One, Mesopotamia, 1915.

The Palace of the Sheik of Mohammera on the Persian side of the Shatt al-Arab Waterway at Basra. The palace was occupied by No 3 British General Hospital in November 1915.

According to the 'Medical History of the War', Volume IV, the No 3 British General Hospital occupied a palace of the Sheikh of Mohammera on the right bank of the River Tigris, its 'ground floor was somewhat damp and dark, but the first floor was bright and airy'. Steamers would transport casualties to a wooden pier on the riverbank. The hospital could apparently house 150 patients with Indian Army casualties being relegated to tents set up in in the palace grounds.

The photograph was probably taken from on board the SS Franz Ferdinand on which the 1/5th Hampshire Howitzer Battery (Territorial Force), Royal Field Artillery sailed from Bombay to Basra in 1915.

From an album of 210 photographs compiled by Lieutenant Henry Curtis Gallup during his service with the 5th Hampshire Howitzer Battery (Territorial Force) in Mesopotamia during World War One (1914-1918), 1915-1916.

Gallup was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Territorial Force on 28 August 1914 and served in India and Mesopotamia with 1/5th Hampshire Howitzer Battery. He fought in the Battle of Shaiba in April 1915 and took part in the advance towards Baghdad, including the Battle of Es Sinn and capture of Kut in September. Gallup was subsequently held as a prisoner of war in Turkey after his capture at Kut in April 1916.