241546 Lionel Douglas Terry British Army Hampshire Regiment From papers and medals and pictures I have I know my father, Lionel Terry, born 1897, served in Mesopotamia from 1915 (volunteer) till around 1920, transferring to the Hampshire Regiment and later to the police. He ended up in the Civil Service in London.
I know he was a Lewis Gunner and had some special duties because of his languages which included Arabic.
I know he entered Jerusalem with the Army because he sent the book with pictures and pressed flowers presented to British soldiers to his mother and now I have it.
He told stories of a battle against Turkish troops where the goal was to control a field of water melons.
He apparently escaped from captivity in a knife fight and he did have scars all over his body.
At one stage he was blown up which I learned when I was about 15 because whuile he was shaving a opiece of shrapnel came out of a pitted scar neaer his ear and blood ran down his face and aseed-like bit of metal came out.
Unforunately he didn't talk a great deal about the war but when I was about 6 I visited the regimental museum with him and he wore a Dorset tie.
For a time he was in a mounted unit, I have a very old brown photo of him sitting on a horse which had what looks like a short sword under the saddle and another in which he had a large looking pistol on his hip, this in Basra.
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