Jewish Legion

Timeline

• 1974 - Mr Samuel Wolfson, like his brothers, Sir Isaac and the late Charles Wolfson, a generous benefactor of a host of Jewish and non Jewish good causes, bas died at the age of 79. At his request, his body was flown to Israel for burial... In the First World War he was wounded in France. He subsequently volunteered to fight in the Jewish Legion where he saw service as a sergeant under Colonel Patterson and General Allenby He is survived by his wife, a son (Rabbi Aviezer Wolfson) and two daughters.
• 1917 - Harry Furst 'returned to London in 1917 with the late Vladimir Jabotinsky to advocate the creation of Jewish units to serve with Field-Marshal Allenby's army in the campaign against the Turks. When these were formed he joined the 1st Jewish Battalion (38th Royal Fusiliers) and was appointed to the recruiting office in Jerusalem. A powerful platform speaker, Mr. Furst was sincere and outspoken and was a highly respected figure in the Zionist and Labour movements in Great Britain and the Yishuv'.
• 1917 - In the First World War Mr. Lipsey took a prominent part in the recruitment of men for the Jewish Battalions of the Royal Fusiliers. After serving in France he was appointed Adjutant of the First Jewish Battalion (38th Royal Fusiliers), in 1917, and later became Chief Recruiting Officer for Palestine and Egypt with headquarters in Jerusalem. Among the men he enlisted were Mr. Ben-Gurion and Mr. Moshe Sharett. In the last war Mr Lipsey was Recruiting Officer in Scotland for the Jewish Brigade. A native of Glasgow, Mr Lipsey was an auctioneer. He was unmarried.
• 1914-18 - The Beit Hagdudim (Jewish Legion Museum) in Israel holds short biographies and pictures of Scottish participants in the Jewish Battalion including Charles Black, Alexander Berger, N. Walport, Isadore Most, and Ephraim Myer Naftalin. Jabotinsky mentions Harry First as an ardent Zionist and promoter of the Battalion, and both Jabotinsky and Colonel Patterson praise Lieutenant Lipsey for his work recruiting among Palestinian Jews. See Jabotinsky, The Story of the Jewish Legion, pp. 64, 75-76, 114; SJAC, OHP3 Misha Louvish; Patterson, With the Judeans, p. 60.

Resources

• Vladimir Jabotinsky, The Story of the Jewish Legion Translated by Samuel Katz, with a Foreword by Col. John Henry Patterson, New York: Bernard Ackerman.
• Christopher William Smith] Jewry and the First World War: Patriotisms, Identity and the Politics of Integration. History PhD King’s College London June 2017.