Rhys David's Blog

A visit to Tahrir Square to see the magnificent collections held in the Cairo Museum is again possible, albeit as part of an organised group protected by police escort. Tutankhamun’s mask, of course, has pride of place, but only among a host of other treasures from the Egyptian dynasties, most of them unseen in the West. The Egyptian public, in Cairo and Alexandria, is delighted to see visitors back, urging our party to report that conditions are safe again for Westerners, at least in the major cities. One hundred years ago the journey along the Suez Canal between Suez (for Cairo) and Port Said (for Alexandria) which we undertook was being guarded by whole Divisions of the British Army, keen to forestall a possible Turco-Geman attack on Britain’s lifeline to India, Australasia and other British possessions. Among them was Sapper Dewi David, of the Royal Engineers who wrote home with tales of how liner passengers of the day threw parcels out to semi-starving British troops who swam into the middle of the Canal to collect them. How surprised he would have been that extracts from his writings, quoted afresh in my book, Tell Mum Not to Worry*, were being read in 2015 to modern day cruise passengers by a Cambridge professor during a deck lecture on the Canal!
*Tell Mum Not to Worry. Deffro £11.99 ISBN 978-0-9930982-0-8

A flurry orf readings and talks on the book, Tell Mum Not to Worry, has come temporarily to an end but various other engagements are lined up for later in the year. Earlier this month I spoke at Cardiff Cenral Library and at three branch libraries in the city from which the subject of the book Sapper Dewi David originated. Further interest in the book is now expected later in April when the 100th anniversary of the first landings by British troops on Gallipoli is celebrated on April 25th with a service at Westminster Abbey, and a march past down Whitehall. Sapper David was of course one of the men of the 53rd (Welsh) division who served at Gallipoli and he writes mo vingly of the floods late in No vember that persuaded the British to evacuate their positions. On April 2nd there will be a concert of Gallipoli songs at The Place near King's Cross. Copies of the book are still available - just e-mail me on rhys.david@btinternet.com

The World War One letters which form the basis of my book Tell Mum Not to Worry: A Welsh Soldier’s World War One in the Near East (ISBN 978-0-9930982-0-8) are now available through a link on the website of the University of Kent’s Gateways to the First World War. http://www.gatewaysfww.org.uk/useful-...
Gateways is a centre for public engagement with the First World War centenary funded by Britain’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). It aims to encourage and support public interest in the centenary of the First World War. The Centre is managed by the University of Kent in partnership with the Universities of Brighton, Greenwich, Portsmouth, Leeds and Queen Mary, London. It is led by Professor Mark Connelly at Kent with support from the other academic institutions and other organisations.

My thanks to all those who joined me for a very successful launch event for Tell Mum Not to Worry at the Wellfield Bookshop in Cardifff, Wales, on Thursday, January 22nd. A splendid introduction by Professor Donal A. Bailey, formerly professor of early modern history at the University of Winnipeg, led in well to the reading of extracts from the book.

TELL MUM NOT TO WORRY: A Welsh Soldier’s World War One in the Near East. By Rhys David ISBN 978-0-9930982-0-8

My new book is being launched at independent retailer, Wellfield Bookshop, 16 Wellfield Road, Cardiff, CF24 3PB on Thursday, January 22nd between 6pm and 8pm when I will be giving a short reading. Goodreads members in the area are welcome to join me. Please RSVP to the shop (which is in the Roath district of the city) on wellfieldbookshop@outlook.com or see website for phone number.

Outline.
During four years serving with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force in World War One Sapper Dewi David of the Royal Engineers wrote more than 50 letters home to his parents and sister in Wales, totalling 120,000 words. This fascinating new book weaves extracts from the letters into an account of the campaigns in which Sapper David served in Gallipoli, in Egypt, in Sinai, at the battles of Gaza, and in Palestine.

The book offers an intriguing insight into the trials and tribulations, the risks and hardships, the boredom and frustration, and the fun and excitement of military life in twelve chapters, and is illustrated with 24 pages of contemporary photographs plus maps. It will be of particular interest to those who had relatives who served in this theatre of the war and wish to know more about where they were and what they did.

We learn much, too, about society in the Wales of the early years of the 20th century, about the life and leisure and the attitudes and preoccupations of a typical family and about the growing impact of the war on the Home Front. The book vividly highlights a now often forgotten but nevertheless important campaign of World War One, which culminated in the capture of Jerusalem in 1917 and the final defeat of the Ottoman Empire at Megiddo. It is a campaign which will come into stronger focus during the course of the year ahead as the anniversary of the ill-fated expedition to Gallipoli is commemorated.