Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Private J. Hazan, Zion Mule Corps

1914-15 Star (625 Pte. J. Hazan. Zion Mule C.); British War and Victory Medals (T4-232813 Dvr. J. Hazan. A.S.C.) mounted for wear, contact marks, nearly extremely fine, rare to unit (3) £500-£700

Joseph (Joussef) Hazan was born in 1897 and attested in Egypt for service with the Zion Mule Corps, the first Jewish military unit to be raised during the Great War. The idea of a Jewish regiment had been formulated by the Zionist activist, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, who had been instrumental in persuading expelled Palestinian Jews, of both Ashkenazi (Eastern European) and Sephardic (North African, Portuguese and Spanish) heritage, to enlist to fight against the Turks. Together with Joseph Trumpeldor, a one-armed veteran of the Russo-Japanese war, he had lobbied the British Commander in Egypt, General Sir John Maxwell, of the need for a Jewish regiment, but the only suggested response was the Zion Mule Corps, the first draft of whom, left for Gallipoli in April 1915.

Although the Corps was only employed in a transport role, some 650 Jewish men enlisted under their first commander, Colonel John Patterson, an Irish Protestant, who was well versed in both Jewish history and the Bible stories of his youth. He ensured that daily orders were given in Hebrew, Kosher food was provided for his men, (including unleavened bread during Passover), and encouraged the depiction of traditional Jewish symbols throughout the unit.

Acutely aware that the Jewish people had not possessed an army for almost two millennia, as a boy, Patterson had read about Joab who had been appointed by King David to command his army. He saw himself in a similar light, even looking the other way when some of the Muleteers actually took up arms and fought, during a charge on Turkish positions, alongside the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. Yet their role as Muleteers led them to become increasingly frustrated and distant from their aim to oust the Turks from Palestine.

In June 1915, just two months following their April arrival in Gallipoli, 75 members of the first draft requested repatriation to Egypt. Patterson, much to Trumpeldor’s exasperation, had the three ringleaders tied to the wheels of a wagon, flogged and put on a punishment ration of bread and water for three days, explaining that, if the Zion Mule Corps was to become the nucleus of a Jewish army, then there had to be both unity and discipline. He recalled the example of Moses berating the wandering and squabbling children of Israel before entering the Promised Land.

Due to heavy losses, a second draft left for Gallipoli in September 1915, of which Hazan appears to have been a member, as the date of entry on both of his Medal Index Cards is noted as 3 September 1915. At the end of the Gallipoli campaign, the Zion Mule Corps returned to Egypt before being disbanded on 26 May 1916. Some of their men appear to have transferred to the Army Service Corps, and over a hundred travelled to London to enlist in the 20th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers.

After the Great War, and taking the surname of ‘Chazan’, he settled in Glasgow, Scotland, where he died, aged 84, on 10 January 1961. Sold with copy Medal Index Cards, copy medal roll extracts and a scanned photograph of the recipient, with his wife, in later life.