Lieutenant E K Venables

A collection of papers relating to his service in Egypt and Palestine with a RAMC Field Ambulance unit attached to the Welsh Border Mounted Brigade (April - December 1916) and then with the Egyptian Labour Corps (1917 - 1919), comprising 4 ms diaries describing his voyage to Egypt in the HMT ARCADIAN, the countryside of Egypt and the customs of its people, his training with the ELC and experiences with the 39th Company up to and including the 3rd Battle of Gaza (October - November 1917); a ts memoir (51 pp) outlining the establishment of the ELC and its sources of recruitment, referring to the nature of the work undertaken including railway and road construction; photocopies of 12 ms letters (167pp) written home, September 1917 - October 1918, describing the quality of Egyptian labourers, the reaction of native workers to shelling and aerial attacks, his experiences during the 3rd Battle of Gaza and the subsequent British advance, and conditions in Palestine during the winter months; plus two photograph albums and photocopies of a few related maps and notes.

Unrestricted

He began his army service in 1916 serving with a Field Ambulance unit of the RAMC attached to the Welsh Border Mounted Brigade and was posted to Egypt in April 1916. A year later he was commissioned and posted to the Egyptian Labour Corps and placed in charge of work parties repairing and building roads. Finally in the autumn of 1918 he was given command of 39th Company ELC, 10th Division Engineers which was involved in laying railway tracks to enable supplies to be brought up to the front line. After the war he stayed on in Egypt as an English language teacher.

The account of his experiences given in his diaries, letters and memoir deals more with the life and experiences of the lower ranks than of the officers. He spoke Arabic and his accounts include sympathetic descriptions of the local people and their land and way of life as well as the men under him. He reflects the typical attitude of patriarchal affection for the peasants and dislike of "urbanised natives".