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Copy.
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at Fernhill,
Wootton Bridge,
Isle of Wight.
June 25th 1918.
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To the Secretary,
War Office,
LONDON, S.W.
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Sir,
I have
the honour to solicit consideration of the following case by the Army Council.
In 1914
my late husband Capt. H.G. Brodie, 103rd Mahratta Light Infantry, went to
Mesopotamia with the Indian Expeditionary Force. He was wounded on December
2nd 1915, in the retreat from Ctesiphon, and as the Medical Officer who
attended to him said he could not possibly live long with the injuries he
had received, he was left on the field, and I was told he had been killed
in action. However six weeks later I heard that he had been taken prisoner
by the Turks. In March 1917 he was sent with four other Officers to Constantinople
in reprisal for the alleged ill-treatment of Turkish Officer prisoners in
Egypt. Shortly before he went to Constantinople I heard he was going to
have the bullets extracted. There seems no reason to doubt that the cruel
treatment he received in Constantinople, when already weakened by three
serious wounds and an operation caused his death on April 26th 1917. As
I have a little girl whose present pension is only £35 a year, I am
very anxious to get the gratuity which is given when an Officer "suffers
violent death, due directly or wholly to war service". If I should
die it is quite impossible that she could be brought up and educated on
her pension. My application to the India Office for the gratuity, was refused
on the grounds that the condition was not fulfilled. I venture to suggest
that the very exceptional circumstances of my husband's death justify a
ruling that he did in fact suffer violent death due directly or wholly to
war service.
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I have, etc.
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(Sd.) E. BRODIE.
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