ABSTRACT
There can be no doubt that the peoples of the British Empire made an immense contribution to the British war effort during the First World War. There has been much greater recognition in recent years of the important part played by soldiers from the so-called White Dominions: Anzacs at Gallipoli, and the impressive fighting reputation of the Canadian and Australian Corps, New Zealand Division and South African Brigade, on the Western Front. 1 The wider British general lay public is only just now beginning to appreciate the undoubted heroism of men of the Indian Army – who held the line on the Western Front for a critical period in 1914–1915 and without whom the British could not have defeated the forces of the Ottoman Empire in Mesopotamia and Palestine. 2
