World War One Service - WITHERS joined the 2nd Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment and served in Bangalore, India in August 1914. He first saw active service during World War One at Tanga, German East Africa, landing there on the 3rd November 1914 with the 27th Indian Brigade.  He moved onto Mombasa on 7th November and commenced operations in East Africa until May 1916, when he moved to South Africa, to allow him time to recover from mass ill-health.

He moved to Egypt, landing at Suez on 18th January 1917 and on the 14th April 1917, he was attached to the 232nd Brigade, 75th Division. The Battalion was moved in rapid succession to the 233rd and 234th Brigades of the same Division, and detached as a result of a medical board on 9 August 1917; he was moved to Sidi Bashr and then placed onto Lines of Communication at Gaza. He moved to France, landing at Marseilles 27th May 1918 and on the 4th June 1918, he was attached to the 94th Brigade, 31st Division and on the 28th June 1918, transferred to 101st Brigade, 34th Division.  He became Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment on the 19th November 1915, and a post he held until 28th June 1917. He was promoted to Temp Major in September 1918 whilst carrying out duties as Assistant Commandant Prisoner of War Camp.  

Egyptian Army Service  - Seconded for service with the Egyptian Army from 4th November 1918 till 16th January 1925 when he transferred to the newly formed Sudan Defence Force (17th January 1925). He was in Darfur, being one of the officers who joined GRIGG's patrol (#99) which was sent out in January 1922 to arrest the dozen surviving leaders of the Fiki Abdullahi Suheina uprising. The patrol was sent out at the end of January, just after the closure of the award period for the Nyala clasp (The Darfur 1921 clasp had expired on 22nd November 1921). In 1924, he was the Officer Commanding, the 11th Sudanese Battalion at the time of its Mutiny at Khartoum. Discontent among Egyptian Officers which infected a minority of the Sudanese soldiers flared into outright mutiny in 1900.

WINGATE, who had recently succeeded KITCHENER as Sirdar and Governor-General of the Sudan, was able to suppress this outbreak without bloodshed, but 24 years later his successor, El Ferik, Sir. Lee STACK Pasha was assassinated by Egyptian Terrorists in Cairo in November 1924. This outrage led to a number of demands and penalties upon the Egyptian Government by the British High Commissioner, ALLENBY. This included the withdrawal of all Egyptian Troops from the Sudan and sparked a series of disturbances within the Egyptian Army, the most serious of which was at Khartoum. The Egyptian Troops themselves presented little problem, but on the 27th November 1924 a small number of Sudanese Officers and men of the 11th Sudanese Battalion seized the Military Hospital compound and having killed a British Doctor and an N.C.O. barricaded themselves in the Officers Mess. Here they held out for many hours against elements of two British Battalions and a Field-Gun, inflicting a number of casualties on the British. Eventually, however, their stronghold was reduced to rubble and most of the mutineers were killed or wounded. Four of the ringleaders were court-martialled and executed.

Major Bramwell Henry Withers, O.B.E. -

Major Withers married Lillian Julia Bibby on the 11th March 1930, and a close friend’s account, recalled that ‘Uncle Bram' as he was known to him, returned to England from Australia, as a young child. The Major spent a good deal of time in the near east. Married but childless; a widower when I knew him, which was when he was retired and living at Murcot (a hamlet on Otmoor, near Oxford). He had a delightful house made from several cottages knocked together, furnished with souvenirs of his army and overseas days.

He is still remembered today (A.D.2000) at Murcot for his good works in the neighbourhood; he did a lot for deprived lads in the way of providing training and opportunities. He was also a J.P. and I have lots of fond memories of him and the times spent in his extraordinary home. I recall one of his cars had, completely by chance, the registration plate OBW 80 which he told us stood for Old Bloody Withers nearly eighty but our mother was told Old Bramwell Withers nearly eighty - no wonder we loved him! He smoked an extraordinary tobacco mix which gave the house its exotic aroma. The place was a warren of many low, rooms and winding, stair ways with floors and walls covered with spears, swords, shields, Indian and African drums, elephant tusks and exotic pieces of furniture, just a wonderful treasure store in which stories were told of the exploits associated with the exhibits.