Egypt - Alexandria

Alexandria, located on the Mediterranean Sea, is the second largest city in Egypt.  Cyril Sladden’s ship stopped there in July 1915 on his way to the Dardanelles.  In April 1915 Alexandria had become the centre of operations for the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign.

Cyril described it as “a very eastern city, with a good many traces of French influence, some little of English, and lots of Greeks and Italians about looking very prosperous”.  He sent a picture postcard to his mother of Place Mohamed Aly, describing it as “the centre of the best part of the city, which consists largely of poor class streets”.

Cyril was back in Alexandria in mid-September 1915 after having spent a few weeks in hospital in Malta.  He found that the only respectable entertainment was a cinema, the shops were mainly kept by French or Greeks, that it was mainly a commercial city but with all the business of a big military base added to it.  As an alternative to the “bare sand and a tent” which the authorities provided, he paid to stay either at The Majestic Hotel or the Union Club.