This web
site is intended to bring together in one place links to web sites about
the experiences of
British Service families and servicemen and women in the Suez Canal
Zone in the turbulent 1950s
Background Under a Treaty signed in 1936 the British maintained a military presence in Egypt, in order to protect the Suez Canal, which was a vital route
to the Far East for Britain. Due to Nationalist action in the mid Forties the British troops withdrew to areas adjacent to the Suez Canal,
setting up encampments and airfields the length of the canal. In October 1951, after the Egyptian government abrogated the
1936 Treaty, mobs attacked British families and their homes in Ismailia. British troops finally left the Suez Canal Zone in 1955.
If you have any experiences you would like to share with others, or know of any web sites not listed, please contact me.
Britain's
Small Wars
Background and many
personal stories of life in the Suez Canal Zone,
as well as many other conflicts in which British military forces have
been involved since 1945
The
Boon Family
LIfe in the
Canal Zone from the perspective of a teenager
The
Dudding Family
The
Canal Zone through the camera of Chief Tech Nigel (Ted) L Dudding Royal
Air Force
Memories of James Hill, Grenadier Guards
'Bill's' web site about service life in the Canal Zone
Bill
Hawkesford's Army memoirs
From
boyhood to demob
Charlie Delta's wide-ranging collection of material about the Canal Zone
The
Joint Air Photographic Intelligence Centre (Middle East)
From
the viewpoint of the airmen who served with JAPIC (ME)
BBC
News 20 November 1951
The
Suez Dossier
A history of Britain's involvement in Egypt after WWII
Wikipedia
The
history of the Suez Canal
A
'fifty years on' look by the newspaper Al Ahram
From the Egyptian perspective