If so he was entitled to the Queen’s South Africa Medal with the clasp “Orange Free State”. By the date of the photograph (1910) he was already in India and is mentioned as having been being initiated into the Masons (Ubique in the East Lodge No. 3338) at Kirkee, Bombay on 1 June 1911 at which date he had also already been promoted to Quartemaster Sergeant.
With the outbreak of war in 1914 Bonaker found himself attached to the 6th (Poona) Division of the Indian Army, under Major-General Charles Townshend, who led the failed British invasion of Turkish-occupied Mesopotamia in 1915. Outfought by the Turks at Ctesiphon, Townshend retreated south along the Tigris River to the town of Kut el Amara (Kut) about 100 miles south of Bagdad. Townshend seems to have decided on Kut as a defensive position for his British and Indian troops because the town was protected on three sides by a horseshoe bend in the river in much the same way that Gordon’s Khartoum was by the Nile in the Sudan some 30 years before – and in the end it proved as much good for Townshendand his men.
Townshend’s division – AQMS William Bonaker included – was soon surrounded and Kut besieged. The investment began on 15 December, 1915 and would come to an end on 29April 1916. As previously mentioned, in many ways the siege and fall of Kut mirrored events at Khartoum in 1884-85 although with some marked differences. By all accounts Townshend was (particularly based on his actions after the surrender) not of the same stuff either professionally or personally that made up “Chinese” Gordon. Additionally while Gordon had under his command some 7000 dispirited Egyptian troops, Townshend took over 11,000 British and Indian troops into Kut before it was cut off. It should also be mentioned that Gordon died defending his city while Townshend spent the rest of the war living a relatively comfortable life as “guest” of the Ottoman Empire and becoming a pariah in post war Britain as a result. His men did not fare so well.
Details of the Siege of Kut will not be gone into here. In the end it was a lack of food and supplies that brought upon the Anglo-Indian capitulation. At some point during the siege Bonaker found himself Mentioned in Despatches with the mention appearing in the 19 October 1916 edition of the London Gazette. The mention would ultimately be upgraded to the Distinguished Conduct Medal posthumously in the London Gazette on 23 October 1919. The circumstances of Bonaker’s specific award are not listed in the Gazette but the War office statement for all of the D.C.M.s awarded that day reads in part: “…for gallantry and distinguished service rendered in connection with the defense of Kut-al-Amarah.”
British attempts to ransom the Kut garrison with an offer to the Turks of £2 million came to nothing and on 6 May 1916 the remnants of the Kut garrison began a nightmarish 1,200-mile march into captivity. The Turkish and Arab guards, treated with brutality and contempt by their own officers passed this on to the captives in kind who were forced on with whip and rifle butt and provided with little water and less food. Over 2500 British soldiers began the trek along with almost 7000 Indian troops and around 3000 Indian followers and non-combatants. Along the way those troops who became too weak to go on where simply left behind to die or be robbed of what little they had and the killed by locals.
Armament Quartermaster Sergeant William Henry Bonaker, D.C.M. was one of those who survived the death march and found himself interred at Afion Karahissa, a town in the hills of central Turkey. British officers along with their French and Russian counterparts captured in other campaigns were housed in the upper camp and enlisted men, Bonaker included, were confined in a lower camp. When the British POWs arrived, they were greeted by some 10,000 Armenians who had been held there by the Turks since 1915. The POWs were allowed to live the town’s houses, and this offered them protection of the inclement weather of the region although supplies of food and medicine were in short supply or non-existent. The supply problem was exasperated by the fact that the Turks were totally ill-prepared to care for a large number of POWs. Offers by the American YMCA (The U.S. was still neutral at this time) to supply the POWs with necessities were rejected by Ottoman Minister of War Enver Pasha even after the plan was endorsed by the Ottoman’s own German allies. Eventually supplies for the Red Cross began to arrive but it was not until 1918 that there began to be enough food and clothing for all the men. This did William Bonaker little good as he died at Afion Karahissa on 30 December 1916.
At the end of the war the final British report on the matter stated the almost 3,330 British and Indian soldiers captured at Kut el Amara had died in captivity while some 2,200 were simply never seen again after the surrender. William Henry Bonaker was initially buried at Afion Karahissa but after the war his body was moved to the British Baghdad (North Gate) War Cemetery. Imperial War Graves Commission records show that his widow Maud Mary requested the simplest of epitaphs be engraved on her husband’s headstone: “A Kut Hero”.
In addition to the Distinguished Conduct Medal T/184 Armament Quarter Master Sergeant William Henry Bonaker was entitled to the 1914-15 Star and the British War and War and Victory Medals. It is unknown of Bonaker saw any active service in India prior to World War One.
Cabinet Photograph
Unknown Photographer
British India
1910