The Battle of Mesopotamia
KILNINVER-BORN Private Robert McKelvie Campbell, 1st Battalion Seaforth Highlanders, died from his wounds on April 14, 1916, aged 26, at the Battle of Bait Asia and Sannaiyat in the Persian Gulf.
Helen Glennie records: ‘The siege of Kut-al-Amara, Mesopotamia, lasted 147 days between December 7, 1915, and April 29, 1916. There were several battles that took place to relieve Kut Garrison. One was the Battle of Bait Asia and Sannaiyat from April 7-22, the last before the Kut Garrison surrendered on April 29, 1916. After the surrender, Kut Garrison troops were marched to captivity across the desert by the Turks. Dead and dying were left where they fell. Robert has no known grave and is commemorated on The Basra Memorial, Iraq.
‘The Basra Memorial commemorates more than 40,000 members of Commonwealth forces who died in operations in Mesopotamia from autumn 1914 to August 1921, and whose graves are not known.’