Our Smallest Ally

Our Smallest Ally: a brief account of the Assyrian Nation in the Great War is a book published in 1920 by William A. Wigram.[1]

Our Smallest Ally: a brief account of the Assyrian Nation in the Great War
AuthorWilliam Ainger Wigram
LanguageEnglish
GenreNon-fiction
Publication date
1920

Can Great Britain, now that she is responsible for order in the country, afford to neglect so valuable a military asset as this nation has proved itself to be?

— William Ainger Wigram, Our Smallest Ally

Wigram, an Anglican priest part of the Archbishop of Canterbury's mission to the Assyrians,[2] gives his first hand account of Assyrian contributions during the Great War.

The Assyrian Nation

The Assyrian Nation was led by their Patriarch, Shimun XIX Benyamin, the circumstances of which were partly due to the Millet (Ottoman Empire) system, in which religious bodies were treated as ethnic groups and were separated and afforded local autonomy. Upon joining on the side of the Allies during World War I, the Patriarch was special commander of one of the Battalions.

Shimun XIX Benyamin or Mar Benyamin Shimun XIX, led the Assyrian Nation to side with the Allies, assassinated in 1918

Later, a third battalion was organized, under the special command of the Assyrian Patriarch.

— H. H. Austin Brigadier-General, Our Smallest Ally

The efforts of the Patriarch's Assyrians on the side of Russia during the war, prior to the overthrow of Czar Nicholas II, were recognized in 1917 on the date of October the 25th, when 200 grade four Cross of St. George medals (pictured below) were delivered to Mar Benyamin to distribute to his soldiers that showed valor.[3]

Fourth order of St. George medal

In addition, the Patriarch was decorated with the Order of St. Anna (pictured below) and was promised another additional order that only the Czar himself was able to bestow. However, the Bolshevik uprising in 1917, during the October Revolution prevented this second decoration being awarded to Mar Benyamin.[3]

Star of the Order of St. Anna

The assassination of Mar Benyamin took place in 1918 on March 3, and although historical consensus on the event of the assassination of the Czar's Romanov family is not fully established, 17 July 1918 would be the date given by Yakov Yurovsky, the chief executioner of the Romanov family.

Read online

The book is in the catalogue of the United States' Library of Congress, the de facto library of the country, available for reading online, and in person under the classification: D568.5 .W5

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See also

References
  1. Wigram, William Ainger (1920). Our Smallest Ally ; Wigram, W[illiam] A[inger] ; A Brief Account of the Assyrian Nation in the Great War. Introd. by General H.H. Austin. Soc. for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
  2. "The Church of the East and the Church of England". www.atour.com. Retrieved 2019-11-03.
  3. "Mar Benyamin Shimun | Mar Shimun Memorial Foundation". Retrieved 2019-11-09.
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