Andrew William Bogie

Sergeant Andrew Bogie, Regimental Number 200023, of the1/4th (T.F.) Battalion Hampshire Regiment, died of illness, aged 34, in Yarbaschi (now Yarbashi, Turkey), as a Prisoner of War, on the 22nd September 1916.

Andrew joined the Hampshire Regiment and as part of the 1/4th (Territorial Force) Battalion he was deployed to Mesopotamia. In that Battalion were others who had done their teacher training in Winchester. The Battalion landed at Basra with the 33rd Indian Brigade. With oil interests in the area Mesopotamia was of considerable strategic value. With Basra secure the troops advanced towards Baghdad, capturing Nasiriyeh and Kut-al-Amara. An attempt to capture Ctesiphon (pronounced Tessifon) failed and the force retreated to Kut-al-Amara where they had accumulated supplies for the proposed advance on Baghdad. They were pursued by Turkish troops during their retreat and decided to stay in Kut and defend the town.

From 7th December 1915 until 29th April 1916 Kut al Amara was besieged by the Ottoman Army. Inside the town were roughly 20,811 people, including many of the local citizens, the sick and wounded and a fighting force of about 13,000 British and Indian soldiers. In the course of the siege they were subjected to sniper fire, ground and aerial bombardment and intermittent assaults on their frontline defences from Turkish troops. Weather conditions were appalling both in extremes of heat and incessant rain causing flooding. They were plagued by insects and sand storms. Disease and illness were rife and as the siege wore on rations were running out and the men were daily closer to starvation. It was under these dreadful circumstances that Andrew Bogie impressed his Commanding Officer sufficiently to be mentioned in dispatches and to be awarded the Military Medal.  In The London Gazette of 19th October 1916, from The War Office, The Government of India has received from Lieutenant General Sir Percy Lake the following list of names of officers and others recommended by Major-General Townshend for distinguished service during the defence of Kut-al-Amarah. Among those mentioned was ‘Bogie, Acting Co Qrms-Serjt A.W.’

His Military Medal was not gazetted until 1919, but was again in reference to the defence of Kut.  In The London Gazette of 21st October 1919: ‘His Majesty the KING has been graciously pleased to approve the award of the Military Medal to the undermentioned Warrant Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers and Men for bravery in connection with the defence of Kut-al-Amara. Hampshire Regiment 149A CQM Sjt Bogie A W 1/4th Bn T.F. (Winchester).’

On 29th April 1916, the Garrison within Kut surrendered to the Turkish Commander, and for Andrew, as well as all the other men, another terrible ordeal began.  As Prisoners of War they were marched over long distances, with little or no regard paid to their physical condition, with inadequate food and water and under the control of guards who treated their suffering with indifference or cruelty.

‘On 6th May 1916, the Turks began the 1200 mile forced march of the British and Indian prisoners across the Syrian Desert from Kut. Mounted Arab and Kurdish guards prodded over 2500 British soldiers with rifle butts and whips on the long death march. Starvation, thirst, disease and exhaustion thinned out the British column, and only 837 soldiers survived the march and the years in captivity.’ (Steuer, K.)

The Other Ranks suffered particularly harsh treatment.  An illustration of the way the prisoners were treated can be found in a letter written by RSM Leach (also an alumni of Winchester Training College), about Private Woods of the 1/4th Hants. This extract also shows that Andrew Bogie had become sufficiently proficient in the Turkish language to act as an interpreter:

‘During the march on the night of 12th-13th June, Pte Woods who had considerably fallen away through weakness fell out on the march. On arriving at the rest camp on the morning of the 13th Pte Woods was missing. After about an hour after arrival it was reported to me that a man of the Hants Regt was lying helpless close to where the camels were unloaded. I had the man fetched and on being brought to me found him in an utterly exhausted condition. His belt had been stolen by the escort, and his shirt was very much torn. His body was one mass of scars and bruises which he accounted for by the brutal treatment he had suffered. He was flogged and kicked and hit with rifles and was absolutely unable to pick out or recognise the man who had treated him this way owing to his weak condition. I took him with Coy. QM Sgt Bogie (acting as interpreter) to Kashmi Effendi, and showed him how the man had been treated , but owing to the man not being able to pick his assailants no visible sign of notice seemed to be taken. Pte Woods died a short time later.’

’In general, the Turks did not follow Western rules and regulations in dealing with war prisoners. Captured soldiers were herded like sheep by mounted Arab troopers who freely used sticks and whips to keep stragglers marching. Food was very scarce, and the POWs rarely had access to fresh water. The desert climate where most of the campaigning took place had a debilitating impact on prisoners, especially the heat and dust. Often Turkish troops and guards relieved captives of their water bottles, boots and uniforms, leaving the POWs in an assortment of rags—Ottoman officers exercised very little control over their men. When prisoners collapsed exhausted, starved or ill, many were left to fend for themselves in hovels. These mud-walled “shelters” were often filled with vermin and soldiers had to resort to begging from passing Arabs for scraps of food. Many of these invalids were robbed, stripped of their last clothing and left to die. After marching across the desert, the remaining POWs entered prison camps where they received insufficient food and faced epidemics of dysentery, cholera and malaria.’ Steuer, K. Pursuit of an Unparalleled Opportunity.