Boswell’s Galloping Farmers 3: To Kill A Louse

Episode 3 of a six part audio drama based on the memoir of Alexander (Sandy) Barclay, who fought in the infamous Gallipoli campaign of 1915.

By turns brutal, horrific and funny, the series tells of the real experiences of the men who volunteered as cavalrymen in the Ayrshire Yeomanry, only to have their horses taken away. They were retained in trench warfare and sent to Gallipoli (now in modern day Turkiye), where they were out manned, out gunned and outflanked at every turn.

As the campaign progresses, the fighting becomes more desperate. Sandy and the men serving with him come to realise that being shot at, bombed and shelled is bad enough. But the men in the opposing trenches are not the only enemy they have to face. As the weather turns, and the winter kit has still not arrived, they are in real danger of freezing to death. Add to that the problem of the lice...

"The Medical Officer came up with another solution – he sent out an order that every man had to shave all of the hair off his body, since the lice liked to hang on to hair."