James Munro from 65 Pender Street, Thornbury was unfortunate to be captured by the Turks while acting as an Air Mechanic in support of British forces near Baghdad; his fate remains somewhat clouded;
Although conditions in German prisoner-of-war camps were generally good until 1918 when the Allied blockade of shipping resulted in major food shortages, their Turkish equivalent were rather less so.
Munro (along with another local, William Henry Lord) was one of a group of nine Australian Air Mechanics sent to Kut Al Amara in Mesopotamia in early 1916 to support a British Army force protecting the rich oilfields south of Baghdad.
The Ottoman Army surrounded the town and after a siege of 147 days,the British on 29 April 1916 surrendered their force of around 13,000 men to be made prisoners. Estimates suggest 70% of the British and 50% of the Indian troops died of disease or at the hands of the Ottoman guards during captivity.
Just two of the nine Australian mechanics survived, and the reality is that little is certain of Munro’s fate – the date of death is approximate, and there is some belief he may have died in an American hospital attached to the camp at Adama.
Lord, from Seymour-street, Preston was confirmed as dying in the Adama Hospital, but the date remains uncertain – official War Graves records his date of death as “around 13.7.1916” but his wife on the circular suggested 24 September, 1916; Volume VIII of the official History of the First World War shows 14 April, 1918, the date the A.I.F. officially declared him dead.
Link to the history of James Munro (AFC)
Link to the history of William Henry Lord (AFC)
Link to ozsportshistory.com downloads for WW1
