KILLED BY TREACHERY.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 July 1918, Page 6

KILLED BY TREACHERY.

«■» MAJOR C. SOMMERVILLE'S DEATH. It appears from information just to hand, that Major Charles Sommerville, who died in Palestine last Easter, was done to death by the treachery of villagers, who had pretended friendship with the British. Major John Sommerville, D.5.0., brother of the deceased, has received an account of the affair in letters from the colonel and other officers of the Wellington Mounted Rifles Regiment. General Chaytor's column was retiring to Jericho after a raid on the Hedjaz railway, east of the Jordan, and the Wellington Mounted Rifles were acting as rearguard, when they passed through a village full of supposedly friendly jtatives. These latter had previously denounced to General Chaytor by the Arabs, who asked leave to remove them. The villagers appeared well-disposed, and were given a guard to protect them from the Arabs. Just beyond the village was a steep defile about three miles long, and the column had passed into this when Major Sommerville's squadron, the last of the rearguard, was subjected to a fusillade from natives lying behind boulders on each side of the road. Three officers and eight men were killed and eigtft wounded, including the Major, whose injuries were such that he died next day in a hospital at Jericho. The mounted riflemen took prompt vengeance, and over thirty of the enemy were killed and many more wounded. It was proved that these men had come from the village near-by. Major Sommerville was a son of the late Col. J. R. Sommerville of Wanganui. He served in South Africa, and was twice mentioned in dispatches. He left for Egypt with the loth Reinforcements in July, 1916, and fought at Maghdala and nearly a]l the subsequent battles in Palestine, being wounded at the first battle of Gaza. A younger brother was killed at Gallipoli.