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WOODCOCK F<br />
Private L/10465 Frank Herbert WOODCOCK. 2 nd Battalion, Queen’s Own (Royal West <strong>Kent</strong><br />
Regiment). Died Sunday 30 th April 1916. Born Pluckley. Enlisted Croydon Surrey. Son of Albert<br />
and Celia Woodcock of Pluckley, Ashford, <strong>Kent</strong>. Buried in the Amara War Cemetery, Amara, Iraq.<br />
Grave reference XXI.H.4.<br />
The 1901 census gives –<br />
? Mount, Pluckley<br />
Albert WOODCOCK 48 Agricultural Labourer Bethersden<br />
Celia 40 Pluckley<br />
Nancy E 12 Little Chart<br />
Alfred G 9 Little Chart<br />
Elsie W 7 Pluckley<br />
Lily M 6 Pluckley<br />
Bertie 3 Pluckley<br />
Frank H 2 Pluckley<br />
William C 1 Pluckley<br />
On the 29 th April 1916 Kut fell to the Turkish Army. 8,000 officers and men surrendered on the<br />
orders of Major General Townshend. The Turks treated British soldiers very harshly and force<br />
marched them to Turkey (a distance of over 600 miles). Thousands of men died of mal-treatment<br />
and neglect including many Indian soldiers. Of the 226 West <strong>Kent</strong> men who past into captivity,<br />
only 69 survived their ordeal. Meanwhile the idiotic and egotistical General Townshend was taken<br />
to Constantinople in some style and spent the rest of the war under house arrest in the former<br />
British Embassy. He didn’t give a toss about his men who were treated appallingly.<br />
It would appear that Frank must have died of disease or of maltreatment at the hands of the<br />
Turks.<br />
19
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