Sir Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend CB, DSO

Born in 1861. From a military family, Townshend won the CB following his command of the beleagured garrison at Chitral, and the DSO for his part in the Nile Expedition under Kitchener in 1898. He was appointed to command the 6th (Poona) Division in Mesopotamia. Winning a brilliant and imaginative victory at Amara, he was pushed into unwise advances and was soundly defeated at Ctesiphon. Retreating to Kut-al-Amara, his Division was cut off and eventually surrendered to the Turkish forces. 9,000 men went into captivity, where they were very harshly treated. Townshened himself, while held in captivity, was treated extremely well by his captors. He never admitted to fault in his panic-stricken calls for urgent relief at Kut, thet led to premature assembly of a relieving force that always then struggled to achieve its objective.