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During the four years of World War One, Bristol’s port at Avonmouth serviced over 2,000 ships. Nearly two million tonnes of goods and over two hundred thousand people left the port for not only the Western Front, but also to the Mediterranean and Basra in Mesopotamia (now Iraq).

One of the two hundred thousand soldiers was Private Outrum. Outrum kept his diary between 17 November 1916 and 24 March 1917, during his time with the Royal Army Service Corps in Mesopotamia. This detailed diary recounts his sea journey from Avonmouth to Basra and then overland to Baghdad, with anecdotal detail of his experiences aboard the various ships en route to Iraq and his impressions of the country and its culture.

Outram’s diary tells the story of voyaging out of Avonmouth in great detail, even down to what he ate on board. It also highlights a little known military ‘side show’, the Mesopotamian Theatre of Operations, which is often ignored because of the dominance of public attention on the Western Front in France and Belgium.

Location: Avonmouth Docks, Bristol BS11 9DQ
Image: Avonmouth Docks, courtesy of Know Your Place