Just joined this forum because I came across this thread. The "W. Dormer" referred to earlier was my grandfather William Russell Dormer. He was I believe a cousin of Eric.
My grandfather joined the SIH in 1916 as a private, and was in the cavalry on his horse "Napoleon". In August 1917 he was retrained as an infantryman when the squadrons were dismounted, and was captured on March 21 1918. Sent eventually to a POW camp in Sclayn in Belgium, he and his fellow prisoners finally walked free after the Armistice and wended their way back to the Allied lines, running into the Canadians on the way.
Because he had not joined up in 1914 he was not eligible for demob immediately after the Armistice and was sent to Damascus as part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force for some time until his demob became permitted.
Some of the letters he wrote back to his parents while on his return to Dun Laoghaire (Kingstown as it was then) are in my possession, and if you read between the lines you can see just how affected he had been by his experiences.
RRTB.
