Colonel R.A. Spackman

Spackman served as the medical officer for the Indian 48th Bombay Pioneers. Spackman’s observations as a junior officer accompanying Townshend’s advance towards Baghdad are anecdotally interesting, however his perspective serves as a very small microcosm of the overall advance and doesn’t necessarily add much to the history of the campaign. His view after the surrender however does add a different perspective since he did not go straight to Anatolia like many of his comrades. He stayed back in Baghdad and Mosul to treat British wounded until the Turks moved him in 1917 back to a prisoner-of-war camp. Spackman relates his acquaintances with the likes of Maj E. W. C Sandes, Capt Hill (See Road to En-Dor), and Leonard Woolley, as well as his not-so-kind remarks about his run in with Sven Hedin. A brief, but interesting point of view from a junior medical officer.… (mehr)