PRISONER IN TUKEY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17234, 9 August 1919, Page 10

PRISONER IN TUKEY.

j $(Ji©flßß'a : gXPSej^NOES,' \ ;<WBI/ry :OF OAPjOBS. PBAW ON -RR-nmN HOME. [W t|!^S©B»M , K.-rrQWK COBSIESPOSqpiI?!.] ..*■ CHBisTCBUKCH, Friday. A New Zealand soldier, who had a Unique {career at 'the front, passed away in the ChJ»tchnr§h Hospitol this week, as a result of lan attach of pneumonia, m the perann of Corporal Albert John Shoebridge. The late. Corporal Shoebridge, who came from palmerstou North, and was 32 years of age,' 'left with the Main Body, attached to the Wellington Infantry Regiment. ' He served on o'a'Jipoli from the Janding on April'2s, until the advance at Buvia Bay, in August, 1915. During the latter operations which commenced on August 6, and extended over several days, he had bis right aim shattered, and while endeavouring to return to the beach, some two or three miles from the actual scene of battle, he was captured by the Turks, A niap of the ' peninsula being found in his pocket saved him from immediate execution, and he was taken to headquarters. His repeated replies, "I don't know," to questions put to him through an interpreter, exasperated the Turkish officers, who threatened him with revolvers, but an attack of faintness, throuph loss of blood, intervened. His wound* were dressed by a doctor, but lie was roughly handled by the Turks, and fainted several times during the two-mile walk through the communication trenches* Finally, on We refusing to walk, he was taken by Bferetehf>r-bearews to a clearing station, and treated skilfully by an Armenian doctor. The journey to the Sea of Marmora wis completed in a cart, and Corporal Shoebridge chad, as a companion, another wounded New Zea lander, who wa* killed on , the journey through being attacked by Turk sh women. Corporal Shoebridpe was transferred to a hospital sh ; ? and later he reached Constantinople, being sent to the Maltyre Hospital, where he was put to bed unwashed. Boiled wheat thereafter formed his chief fowl, though the American Embassy supplied estra comforts. He underwent an operation, and was transferred to another, hosp'tel, where his quarters consisted of a cellar, curtained with cobwebs, the windows being boarded up, the floor bare, and the door looted- One blanket and one mattress served as bsdding for three men, and the food was boiled wheat. The daughter of the Dutch Ambassador and the Sisters of Mercy replaced the, men's clothing and supplied them with food. When their wounds were healed 'they were transferred to a Turkish orison, , where 37 men slept and ate in on underI ground room, 12ft equnre. infested virth ' rats and vermin. There Cesrporal Shoe- | bridge and his comrades witnessed fearful ! cruelty to prisoners of the Turks, who ■ were 'lashed with whips on the soles of their feet, and beaten with canes till they /Vera raw. Apain the American Ambassa<!or aes'sted them, and they were re,mov6is to Asia Minor. The journey was made in a railway truck w'tbout any BB3ts, and took 39 hours. Th"y were quartered at an old Armenian Monas'ery, and when they were sufficiently recover?d they were sent to work at stone-breaking at Angora, where many died of feyer. English end Indian prisoners from Bagdad ann Kut-el-Amara arrived there mere skeletons, with pitiable tales of suffering and brutality, »n«S many died. After many months in various camps, Corporal Shcebridse returned to Constantinople, where the preliminaries were arranged for his rep-triation to England, which was accomplished after a year's j negotiations. After a period in an English i hospital he returned to New Zealand, arriving at the end of September, 1918. ' Owing to the injury ''to his arm he was unable to resume his pre-war occupation, md came to : Btehurch fop treatment. i The late Corporal Sboebridg® was married I a few weeks -ago.