On this day in Oxfordshire...

ON THIS DAY in the Vale of White Horse, a Zouave deserter from the French Army was being conveyed in the custody of a Cardiff city detective to Folkestone via the Paddington express. A Zouave was a type of French light infantry soldier, famed for their distinctive, colourful North African-inspired uniforms (fez, short jacket, baggy trousers) and aggressive tactics.

While travelling between Uffington and Challow station, Ahmed Ben Mohamed, 31, asked the officer if he might go to the lavatory, which he was permitted to do. In the cubicle he took off his coat and hung it up, the officer meanwhile inserting his foot into the doorway to prevent the door being closed. Suddenly the officer’s foot was kicked away and the door lock was snapped shut. The officer heard glass smashing, and on the door being forced it was found that Mohamed had broken the window and leapt out on to the side of the track. The express was travelling at 60 miles an hour, so his escape was remarkable.

A search was made and Mohamed was ultimately found in a state of collapse in a ditch. He had received severe injuries to the skull, and was cut about the face, but no bones were broken. He was at once taken into Wantage by a local farmer, and attended to at the cottage hospital. It was planned that he would be taken to Folkestone a few days later. An Ahmed Mohamed was buried in Greenwich on 9 June. There was a military hospital on Shooter’s Hill between Greenwich and Blackheath.

The original Zouaves were recruited from Berber tribes in French Algeria during the 1830s, adopting local dress and fighting styles. They became elite light infantry, known for their bravery, and from the very beginning of World War I Zouave regiments and detached battalions saw extensive service on the Western Front.

1  Faringdon Advertiser and Vale of the White Horse Gazette, 26 February 1916

2  UK, Burial and Cremation Index, 1576–2024, Greenwich, Ahmed Mohamed, 9 June 1916.