Khan al-Shilan Project

[Lyn]

Hello,
I've joined the forum to draw your attention to our new project which is entitled, Khan al-Shilan. As you will know it is 101 years ago today that POWs from the Manchester Column were released from Khan al-Shilan in Najaf, Iraq. During their time there, some of the soldiers inscribed the walls of their cells with written messages and drawings. The key goals of our project are to decipher and transcribe as many of these inscriptions as possible and to see if any can be linked to known prisoners. We hope you will find this of interest and we would be very happy to receive any comments or additional information. For further details of the project so far: https://awayfromthewesternfront.org/projects/khan-al-shilan/
Kind regards
Lyn

I can be contacted directly via email - lyn(at)awayfromthewesternfront.org

[Tim Bell]

Hi Lyn,
I read your work with great interest.  You've done a good job and I hope the forum may offer some assistance.  There's an suggestion that many of the POWs were killed by their captors.  Have you found any further evidence of this?
The main thread on the subject is here http://themanchesters.org/forum/index.php?topic=2442.0
I'm tempted to move your new post to this thread, if you're happy.  It's best to keep individual subjects together...
You will see that many forum members have records of events and information on the men.  If you have particular target questions feel free to pose them.
Welcome to the forum.
Tim

[Lyn]

Hi Tim
Thank you for your kind remarks. I haven't found any evidence of the POWs being killed by their captors. Regarding those in Khan al-Shilan, it is reported that a local group was established under a religious scholar's supervision to provide essential food to the prisoners and to allow them to contact their families by mail.

I am keen to hear from descendants of the prisoners as I would like to add further photos to the website.

Do please relocate this post as you see fit - and thank you for the welcome.

Lyn