THE HOLY LAND 

WITH ECHOES OF BRITISH MANDATE 

A doctor travels where the British trod

John Walker-Smith

John Walker Smith (Author)

HOW TO ORDER 

Softback PRICE £10.50 & P & P  UK  £3.00

The Memoir Club, 34 Lynwood Way, South Shields. NE34 8DB

Cheques payable to Lynn Davidson or bank transfer: 

BARCLAYS  20 83 69   83948145

Telephone:  07552086888  Email: memoirclub@email.msn.com 

This book is a memoir of a doctor’s visits to the Holy Land, in 1964 as a Christian pilgrim, and then as a medical lecturer to Jerusalem in 1987 and 1995 as well as to Amman in 1985. Although he is a retired academic, this is not an academic historical text. The facts mentioned are firstly those that were told to him at the time (he kept careful contemporary records) together with additional facts he learnt by reading from books listed in the bibliography.

He records his own experiences and responses as a contemporary witness of the time. These are contrasted and compared with the experiences of two past British visitors Sir Frederick Treves surgeon in 1912, during Turkish/Ottoman occupation, and H V Morton, the author, in 1934 during the British mandate. These witness accounts of how things were perceived during past times, provide an interesting background to the current situation in the Middle East.

PREFACE

At a time when tensions in the Holy Land continue to resonate around the world, John Walker-Smith’s beautifully written memoir of his visits to Jerusalem, coupled with his historical insights, help to guide modern readers through the rich and complex history of the area. It is impossible to resolve the challenges of the present without understanding the region’s past, and John’s thoughtful memoir provides us with unique insights and reflections to deepen our understanding and enlighten all those who wish to see an enduring peace in the Middle East.

Stephen Hickey British Ambassador to Iraq 2019 to 2021 Director of the Middle East Department at the Foreign Office

BOOK LAUNCH

Book Launch Royal College of Physicians

Speech Royal College of Physicians

Also by the author

Medical 

Diseases of the Small Intestine in Childhood Four Editions 1975-1999                                            (4th edition S H Murch co-author) 

Practical Paediatric Gastroenterology, J A Walker-Smith, J R Hamilton and W A Walker                  1st Edition 1983, 2nd Edition 1996 

Autobiography  Enduring Memories 1st Edition 2003, 2nd Edition 2012 

Poetry    Poems of Love and Death 2007  -  Hope, Beauty and Friendship 2023 

Captain John J Watson OBE - The Great Recovery

HOW TO ORDER

SOFTBACK £12.50 UK postage £4.00

 HARDBACK  £20 & UK postage £4.50

By Post: Mail to Lynn Davidson, The Memoir Club, 34 Lynwood Way, South Shields, Tyne & Wear, NE34 8DB cheque payable to Lynn Davidson.

By Email memoirclub@msn.com   OR MOBILE 0755 2086888

Bank transfer details    Lynn Davidson      Barclays

20 83 69        83948145  please insert WATSON as bank reference

Author

The need to write this book began with a visit to the Atatürk Mausoleum in Ankara in 2008, before then the author and his wife, Maureen, had travelled throughout Turkey becoming fascinated by its people, culture and ancient history. It was probably during his first emotional visit to Gallipoli during the mid- 1990s that triggered his admiration of Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic. It explained why during later travels in every city, town and village there could be found a bust of the great man prominently displayed indicating how much he was and is still revered more than eighty-five years after his death in November 1938.

During that visit to the mausoleum, he came across and bought Kamuran Gürün’s book which, on the face of it, disputed the alleged Armenian genocide during 1915. After reading it many times he realised that it was more than its title suggested and was really a researched history of the fall of the Ottoman Empire to the birth of the Turkish Republic, importantly it gave an insight to the man who was Atatürk. 

However, it was the alleged Armenian genocide that was the main subject of Gürün’s book that provided the backbone to the eventual writing of what is sincerely believed to be a true account of how the Republic was born. The research sources used when writing are acknowledged and served to verify the accuracy of what Gürün had recorded after his extensive research, which must be considered to be beyond dispute.

It has taken many years to produce this work and at times it became almost an obsession. Turkey today is there because of Atatürk – lest we forget.

AUTHOR

Captain John Watson was born in Barr, near Girvan in 1939. His career has been long and varied. From joining the Merchant Navy to become Master Foreign Going in 1965 he left to join the ports industry with the British Transport Docks Board in 1966. That was the start of another successful career. He eventually left that organisation and become Harbourmaster and Pilotmaster of Dundee Port Authority and eventually its Chief Executive in 1986 and also Deputy Chairman in 1988. Before the port was privatised at the end of 1995 he was active in the national and worldwide ports industry being appointed as the Chairman of the International Association of Ports and Harbours Marine Operations Committee in 1989. Then in 1992 he was elected as the inaugural Chairman of the new British Ports Association and was nominated and appointed an OBE for his services to the ports industry in that same year.

Between 1996 and 2001 he worked as a management and ports consultant at home and abroad. It was during this time he developed a new career in the conservation and restoration of historic wooden ships which remains his passion today.