Category: Projects
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Finsbury Rifles: Away from the Western Front, 25th October – 22nd November 1916
General Sir Archibald Murray inspects D Company at Kubri East General Sir Archibald Murray (1860 – 1945) was an experienced and decorated staff officer who had fought in South Africa and had served in France in the opening months of the First World War. In January 1916 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief…
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Finsbury Rifles: Away from the Western Front. 20th October – 24 October 1916
Out with the mobile column The mobile columns of camels delivered supplies from the railhead at El Kubri to the outposts of the Suez Canal Defences. This also included small forward camps far out in the Sinai Desert that monitored enemy positions. Although the food, water and equipment were vital,…
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Finsbury Rifles : Away from the Western Front. 24th September 1916 to 19th October
Sidi Bishr Sidi Bishr was an extensive Allied army base to the north east of Alexandria. It housed an open-air rest and recuperation camp for other ranks. Men were sent there from the different battalions guarding the Suez Canal during 1916 and appreciated the change of scene and better…
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Finsbury Rifles : Away from the Western Front. 25th August 2016 to 23rd September 1916.
Loading Camels The 1/11 Finsbury Rifles were split at this point. While half the battalion stayed at Halfway House for specialist training and the never-ending maintenance and repair of the defence system, the remaining two companies were sent to the army base at Kubri. This was also the railhead for…
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The Finsbury Rifles: From Islington to Egypt, Palestine and Syria. Private View and Storytelling Celebration!
Islington Museum is one of a number of partners around the country contributing to Away from the Western Front, a two year project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. This project looks to explore the heritage of the men and women from Britain and its former Empire who served in the campaigns…
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Finsbury Rifles: Away from the Western Front. 3rd August to 24th August 1916.
Specialist training Training was carried out intensively whenever a unit was away from the front line. It formed an important part of a soldier’s life, especially given the rapid development of new tactics and technologies as well as the large turnover of men in any given unit. On top of…
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Finsbury Rifles: Away from the Western Front. 17th July to 2nd August 1916.
Work on defences The defence posts by the Suez Canal included a network of communication trenches. Maintaining these trenches was a never ending task involving an immense amount of hard physical labour by the men. The trenches were lined with sandbags and boards but these gradually rotted away because of…
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Finsbury Rifles: Away from the Western Front. 9th July to 15th July 1916.
Here we see a reference to Captain AL Lewthwaite, a member of the Rifles, who’s spectacular photography collections survives as part of the Imperial War Museum’s archive, providing a personal record of day to day life away from the Western Front. We link to the archive throughout this blog, but…
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Finsbury Rifles: Away from the Western Front. 3rd July 1916 to 8th July 1916.
Date 3 to 5/6/16 Work on defences as usual. Battn finding usual guards and picquets. Date 6/6/16 Work on defences as usual.2nd Lt Pethybridge (Sherwood Foresters) and 2nd Lt Hutchinson (S. Staffs Regiment) arrived from Base Detail Camp attached to Battn for duty. Date 7/6/16 Work on defences as…
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Finsbury Rifles: Away from the Western Front. 25th June to 2nd July 1916.
In recent posts we have seen various divine services taking place. Often these would be open air and represent some of the few times that the men could come together collectively, outside of battle. Location SHALLUFA EAST Date 25/6/16 Voluntary divine service. Battalion finding guards and outposts. 2nd Lt Allen…
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