Images of Egypt at the Firing Line Museum, Cardiff

Private Horace Lewis

Private Horace Lewis

We have become very attached to Horace Lewis, a Private from the Heath, Cardiff, posted in Egypt. It was a joy to read his affectionate postcards to his sister Dorothy in Penarth. The collection of photographs and postcards document his service in Egypt between 1916 and 1919. We discovered that he served in Alexandria, Heliopolis, Cairo, Beirut and Jerusalem, so he got around a bit! In August 1918 he was in hospital, but still managed to stay up-beat in his postcard and comments on the lovely view of the lighthouse only 5 minutes away. We met his ‘pals’, Privates Griffiths and Maass, from Wrexham and Swansea respectively, and saw his barracks. While in Egypt, he saw a range of sites including, the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, views of Alexandria and Pyramids Avenue in Heliopolis. According to his postcards, we were amused to hear that he was ‘still in the Pink’ throughout his service! We were relieved to find that he survived the war and returned to South Wales. His granddaughter kindly supplied us with these images.

Project volunteers: Jessica Scorrer and Mike Rees

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