FRANCE/MESOPOTAMIA WW1 DIED OF DISEASE 1914 STAR MEDAL 69723 GNR STURGESS R.H.A.

Offered is a 1914 Star with rosette, impressed named 69723 GNR: H. STURGESS. R.H.A. with original ribbon and sewn rosette in lieu of clasp. Comes with copy’s M.I.C., medal rolls, soldier’s effects list, Commonwealth War Graves certificate, June 1915 sick roll and 1911 census.

Gunner Henry Sturgess was born in 1891 at Newbury, Berks. He enlisted at Reading in 1909, the 1911 census records him as stationed in India with the 2^nd Mountain Battery R.G.A. At some stage he transferred to ‘A’ Battery R.H.A who were stationed at Ambala, India. He sailed from Bombay 10/10/ 1914 and landed at Marseilles exactly a month later 11/11/1914 as part of the 7^th (Meerut) Division. In June 1915 he was recorded on the sick and wounded casualty list as suffering from an ‘Injured hip’ with T.B queried.

Due to the suffering of the Indian troops on the Western Front, the Division was transferred to the Mesopotamia theatre in 1916. By this stage Sturgess had been transferred to the 19^th Battery IX Brigade.

Mesopotamia (Iraq) was a particularly nasty place to serve during WW1. Apart from the heat, dust, flies and no amenities for even the basic comforts of life, many soldiers succumbed to disease and conditions that they served in. Gunner Sturgess had been admitted to a field hospital 7/7/1916 with T.B Lungs. He was being transported to England on the Hospital ship SS Galeka, when he died on the 12/7/1916 and was buried at sea. He is commemorated on the Chatby memorial.