Changes

In November 1915, the regiment, under the Commandant, Lieutenant-Colonel E. de V. Wintle was posted to Mesopotamia, where Colonel Wintle commanded the cavalry force under General Tidswell on the Euphrates river. In January 1916, the British garrison in Kut-al-Amara had been invested by the Turks and it was decided to take some pressure off the defenders by sending forward a small force to make a feint from Nasariyeh, through Butaniyeh, towards the flank of the besieging army. Headquarters, two squadrons and the machine-gun section of the 12th Cavalry accompanied this force which, after three weeks at Butaniyeh, was ordered to withdraw to Nasariyeh. During the closing stages of this difficult manoeuvre on 7 February, with a superior number of some 5,000 hostile Arabs pressing in on all sides, the 1500-strong Butaniyeh column got into trouble and it seemed likely it would be cut off from Nasariyeh. Although the retirement was successfully accomplished Colonel Wintle was killed by a shot through the head <ref> [http://www.dnw.co.uk/auction-archive/catalogue-archive/lot.php?auction_id=73&lot_id=49539 Lieutenant-Colonel E. de V. Wintle] www.dnw.co.uk</ref>

== References ==