Notes
Recovered 21.08.2023 from https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/633584/t-gosney/
PRIVATE T GOSNEY
Service Number: 8443
Dorsetshire Regiment 2nd Bn.
Date of Death 26 July 1916
Buried BAGHDAD (NORTH GATE) WAR CEMETERY XXI. C. 42. Iraq
http://www.piddlevalley.info/history_great_war.php#11
He was Private FREDERICK THOMAS GOSNEY, who served with the 2nd Dorsets. He died in Mespotamia (Iraq). The son of Frederick and Elizabeth Mary Gosney, he was born in Leigh and was baptised there on 23rd November 1888. The family moved to Piddletrenthide and Frederick Gosney is on the 1914 Electoral Roll for the Parish.
The 2nd Battalion landed in Mesopotamia on 6th November 1914 where they formed part of an Anglo-Indian Expeditionary Force. Various actions were fought against the Turks, and the 2nd Dorsets took part in the successful attack on Kut-el Amara on 28th September 1915. The Battalion did well in that battle, eight Distinguished Conduct Medals were awarded to its soldiers.
The Expeditionary Force began an advance towards Baghdad but, having suffered a severe defeat at Ctesiphon in November, it withdrew to Kut-el Amara. There the Force was besieged from 7th December 1915 to 29th April 1916. On that day they surrendered. Starvation and sickness had taken their toll and nearly 12,000 troops were taken into captivity. Of these, 12 officers and 400 other ranks came from the 2nd Dorsets. Thomas Gosney was one of them. The Turks did not treat their prisoners kindly and dreadful privations were suffered. At the end of the War only 132 men of the Battalion had survived. Thomas Gosney was reported as having died of dysentery on 26th July 1916. He is buried in the Baghdad North Gate War Cemetery.