Lance Sergeant Eleazar John Squire of the 1/4th Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment was killed in action on September 28, 1917 in Mesopotamia.

He is commemorated at the Baghdad war cemetery and also on The Chideock War Memorial.

Eleazar John Squire was born in Chideock in 1891 and was the son of Alfred Squire and Sarah Squire.

Dorset Echo:

He had a brother Joseph and a sister Christina. In the 1901 census his father's occupation is estate foreman and they are living at Bay Cottage, Main Road, Chideock.

The 1911 census shows them living at Glendale, North Chideock where his father was Manor Bailiff and Eleazar was working as a gardener presumably on the Manor Estate. Eleazar was in the church choir and also a bell ringer.

Eleazar joined the 1/4th Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment where he became a Lance Sergeant. He was killed in action of September 28, 1917 in Mesopotamia-modern day Iraq. His two brothers survived the war.

In 1914, Baghdad was the headquarters of the Turkish Army in Mesopotamia. It was the ultimate objective of the Indian Expeditionary Force 'D' and the goal of the force besieged and captured at Kut in 1916. The city finally fell in March 1917, but the position was not fully consolidated until the end of April.

Nevertheless, it had by that time become the Expeditionary Force's advanced base, with two stationary hospitals and three casualty clearing stations.The North Gate Cemetery was begun In April 1917 and has been greatly enlarged since the end of the First World War by graves brought in from other burial grounds in Baghdad and northern Iraq, and from battlefields and cemeteries in Anatolia where Commonwealth prisoners of war were buried by the Turks.At present, 4,160 Commonwealth casualties of the First World War are commemorated by name in the cemetery, many of them on special memorials. Unidentified burials from this period number 2,729.

This is what appeared in Chideock Parish magazine in November 1917: Eliezer John Squire fell in action on September 28th in General Maude's victorious advance in Mesopotamia. The news was received in Chideock with profound regret and the most genuine sorrow.

Ellie Squire, as he was known to most of us belonged to the 1st/4th Dorset Regiment (Territorial), and left with other Chideock men for India in October 1914.

He had lately been promoted to the rank of Sergeant, and the battle in which he fell was his first action. A good son, a faithful Communicant, and a loyal and brave soldier, he has left a bright example.

He had been in the Choir from early boyhood, until the time of his leaving home, and for many years he was one of the ringers.

When called to serve in India, his letters show how much his communions meant to him and how keen he always was in doing all he could to help the Church wherever he was stationed.

His was a life for which we may in deed be thankful, and his death in the hour of victory a brave and noble one.