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| NEWSLETTER | | | | SIKH PIONEERS AND SIKH LIGHT INFANTRY ASSOCIATION | | | | DECEMBER 2006 NEWSLETTER | | | | | 3. The Quest for Pte. Croghan (concluded) | | | | | ………………. not as a private soldier anymore, nor as a corporal but as a fully fledged Second Lieutenant.
Before being commissioned, however, he was transferred to the Military Foot Police sometime after he arrived in India. His daughter has discovered this from his letters. It was his military police uniform that we see him wearing in the photograph published in the Daily Mail, originally taken in Madras on August 10th 1917. Presumably it was while serving with the Military Police that he was encouraged to apply for Officer Training School. A little over a year after the photograph was taken, on October 7th 1918, Samuel received his Commission in the Indian Army Reserve of Officers, and his name first appears in the Indian Army List of January 1919. I assume he then went on leave, because exactly three weeks later he was attached to the 1st Battalion of the 26th Punjabis a regiment compromised of two companies of Sikhs. One of Afridis and one of Punjabi Musulmans. He only seems to have stayed with this Regiment for a few months. His letters reveal that he was on leave in Bangalore at the beginning of March 1919. This is where he was lucky enough to win a motor bike in a raffle. On March 7th 1919, probably just after returning from this very profitable leave, he was attached to the 32nd and stayed with them for the remainder of his time in the army.
On October 7th that year exactly a year after he had been commissioned, he was given his second pip and becomes Lt Croghan. Our last glimpse of him as a serving officer is in the April Indian Army List of 1920 in which he is still listed as being attached to the Regiment. Sometime between April and November of the same year, he leaves the army. This conclusion is drawn from the November Indian Army List of 1920 in which we find him listed in the Indian Army Reserve of Officers with the note “released”. He remains on the Indian Army Reserve of Officers until April 1922 when his name is listed for the last time. By then he had been back in England for nearly two years.
What operations was Samuel Croghan involved in during his eighteen months or so from the time of his appointment to the Regiment on March 7th 1919 until his release sometime before November 1920? The obvious source of information is MacMunn, from whom we learn that in April 1917 the 1st Battalion of the 32nd had sailed from Karachi to Basra on the Franz Ferdinand, a “captured Hun Steamer” to use MacMunn’s words in the idiom of the time. They were to remain in Iraq for exactly four years, returning in April 1921. I thought the army would want to make use of Samuel’s experience in Iraq and send him to join the 1st Battalion. The recently discovered letters referred to above suggest this was not the case but a brief summary of the 1st Battalion’s operations while in Iraq may be of interest.
Much of their time was sent working on the repair and maintenance of roads and railways. After their arrival in Basra in 1917 they worked with the 34th on the Baghdad-Samarra Railway, and in the Summer of 1918 on the Tekrit Railway. The 32nd then abandoned its pioneer role to take part in the offensive that was launched to bring all of Iraq under British control. This was successful and in October 1918 it ended with the surrender of the Turks at Sharquat and the capture of over 11,000 prisoners with their guns and equipment.
The dramatic events of July 1920 are succinctly described by MacMunn: “In July 1920, the Arab Rebellion broke out, the two companies at work in Persia came down, and the whole Regiment was sent to the Euphrates.” One company was sent to Hillah where they formed part of a column of cavalry and infantry, with a field battery, that set out for Diwaniyia. Heavily attacked, they attempted a night retirement to Hillah which ended in confusion and disaster with the loss of thirty two lives. Meanwhile the rest of the 32nd were occupied building blockhouses for the new Euphrates Railway which were constantly under attack. They distinguished themselves at their post at Jarboyal where they fought off a number of severe attacks for several days before being rescued by the arrival of a relief column.
Their last offensive operation in October 1920 was a punitive expedition to Kifl. Their final role in Iraq can best be described in MacMunns’ own words as “disarmament operations (following) the suppression of the rebellion, demolishing unnecessary posts etc, till in March 1921 came the order from India, when General Sir Theodore Fraser, temporarily commanding in Iraq, inspected the Regiment and spoke to it in terms of unmeasured praise of its long service in Mesopotamia and above all in holding of the Hillah Diwaniyia section of the railway and the defence of Jarboyal”. Their period of service in Iraq was over. On the 21st April 1912 the Regiment arrived in Karachi after an absence of four years. In September they were back in their own lines in Sialkot.
There were two other battalions in the Regiment during this period and we shall have a quick look at MacMunn’s very brief summary of their operations before deciding where Samuel was posted. The 2nd Battalion was raised at Sialkot in 1917, went to the Middle East in the following February, and did not return to India until 1921 when it was disbanded. The 3rd Battalion had an even shorter life. It was raised at Sialkot in 1917, took part in the suppression of riots in the Punjab in 1919 and was disbanded in the same year.
So where was Samuel? We can rule out the Middle East. According to his daughter, his letters reveal that he was in Sialkot in 1919, and there are references to Afghanistan. In a letter of June 26th 1919 it appears that he is running C and D companies of one of the Battalions, and he mentions that he is president of the Regimental Mess. When I first heard this I thought that he might have been with the companies that had been sent to Persia, especially as he had made references to Afghanistan in earlier letters. Now I think the balance of probabilities is that he was with the 3rd Battalion and it is possible that Samuel, only a Second Lieutenant in the Summer of 1919, could have found himself in a senior position. It is quite possible that this was the tie when he was made up to Captain which is the rank he held when he returned to England. As we know junior officers can be called upon to take on quite awesome responsibilities in an emergency, and it may be pertinent to remember that Samuel was twenty five in 1919 not a nineteen year old subaltern. So my guess is that he served with the 3rd Battalion, and when they returned from the Punjab, I think it likely that he spent the remainder of his service days in Sialkot. We know he was there in March 1920 when he was bitten by a wild dog that was suspected of having rabies. He spent a fortnight being treated at the Pasteur Institute which was situated in the popular hill station of Kasauli.
As we have seen in the Indian Army List of November, 1920, Samuel was released some time in the latter part of that year and boarded a troop ship bound for home, with much to reflect on since the outward journey five years earlier. Meanwhile Kathleen, the girl who had written those letters in 1915, was waiting for him in Norwich. Samuel arrived with a gift of silk from India that was to be used to make her wedding dress. After a parting of seven long years they lost no further time and were married in March 1921.
Of course our story should end here, but those of us who write for friends and family are usually criticized if we dare finish without answering the question “what happened next?” After his youthful experiences, the remainder of Samuel’s life followed a more conventional path. He returned to the District Valuer’s Office in Norwich, and rose to be a manager. He remained there until his retirement. After retirement, he and Kathleen continued to live in Norwich. He died in 1969 at the age of seventy six. Kathleen survived him by eight years dying in 1977 at the age of eighty two.
In conclusion we must pay tribute to the builder who found these letters, realized their significance, and tracked down Samuel’s daughter, Patricia Moseley with the help of the Daily Mail journalists David Wilkes and Andrew Levy.
| | | Kim Wynes
June 2006. |
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