War Memoir of Robert Ellwood

Ellwood: I wasn’t actually in action at Romani. I had been on, I had had an attack of dysentery that I picked up from eating some bad tinned fowl at Cantara. I had been away with dysentery and I had just returned to the regiment and I was left more or less at headquarters to look after it, you know, and I didn’t actually take part in the fighting but I was there when it took place of course. I lost my greatest friend there.

That was a battle that turned the whole of the Turkish advance on the Suez Canal. Up till then nothing had stopped him, he’d extended his lines of communication – over – stretched them as a matter of fact – but the reverses he suffered there turned the whole thing and he then turned around an went back on to his base and it was there that we had to keep moving up to him all the time. I was in the next fight where we were chasing him at Rafa, Battle of Rafa, I actually took part in that and I was in charge of a troop and actually took part in that fight. I went in support of Charlie Stodart, he was Capt. Stodart at the time and he was in charge of 6th squadron.