A line of barefoot girls in headscarves and long patterned skirts carry large clay water jars on their backs past a brick wall. Newton & Co lantern slide no. 50 from the series "The Persians, Kurds, and Nestorians, their manners and customs", attributed by the Nelson Collection to Ernest Hoeltzer, late 19th century; published in The Living Races of Mankind (1901) as "Armenians water-carrying (Nestorians)" and by D'Allemagne (1911) as "Jeunes filles Nestoriennes faisant le métier de porteuses d'eau" (young Nestorian women working as water carriers).

Nestorian (Assyrian) girls carrying water jars

A man on a ladder works at the arched doorway of a brick church; the sign above reads "Syrian Roman Catholic Church" beneath a line of non-Latin script. The agency titled it a Syrian church in Mesopotamia in 1916.

Syrian Catholic church in Mesopotamia during the First World War

Armed men in caps and overcoats stand in a snowy bazaar street in Urmia in 1918, described as Assyrian militia on patrol.

Assyrian militia patrolling in Urmia, 1918

Assyrian recruits in slouch hats with plumes and rifles at the slope parade at RAF Habbaniya after three weeks of training. Photographed by Cecil Beaton in 1942.

Assyrian Levies recruits in uniform after training, Habbaniya, 1942

A line of Assyrian recruits to the Iraq Levies in headcloths, felt caps and striped robes stands in profile against the sky at RAF Habbaniya. Photographed by Cecil Beaton in 1942.

Assyrian recruits to the Iraq Levies at Habbaniya, 1942

An Assyrian dancer in an embroidered jacket and keffiyeh raises a dagger, accompanied by a zurna player and a drummer in patterned national dress, on a parade ground in Iraq. Photographed by Cecil Beaton in 1942.

Assyrian dancer and musicians performing the khigga, 1942

Jilu Assyrian refugees bend over piles of clothing and bedding laid on the ground beside a mud-brick wall while men in caps look on. Photographed by Ariel Varges in 1918.

Jilu Assyrian refugees sorting clothing, 1918

A British soldier in a pith helmet kneels beside a cooking pot with Jilu Assyrian refugee women and children in a desert camp. Photographed by Ariel Varges in 1918.

Jilu Assyrian refugees cooking with a British soldier, 1918

A long line of Jilu Assyrian recruits in tall felt caps faces a New Zealand NCO of Dunsterforce in a slouch hat at Hamadan, August 1918. Photographed by Ariel Varges.

Jilu Assyrian recruits drilling with a New Zealand NCO, Hamadan

Bare-chested Jilu Assyrian recruits line up while a British officer examines one man's eyes and other officers in pith helmets look on, August 1918. Photographed by Ariel Varges during the formation of the Urmia Brigade at Hamadan.

Medical inspection of Jilu Assyrian recruits for the Urmia Brigade

Four refugees, two men and two women, stand in rags and wrapped footwear after reaching the American Relief Station in Urmia, 1918–1919. The War Department caption does not name their community; they were possibly Assyrian or Armenian.

Four refugees reach the American relief station in Urmia

A woman in a headscarf rides a laden horse among a mounted column of refugees from Urmia passing through Bijar in western Persia in 1918. The Australian War Memorial caption speaks of some of the 80,000 refugees from Urmia.

Urmia refugees on horseback trekking through Bijar, 1918

Three Iraq Levies in slouch hats, Sergeant Macko Shmos, Lance Corporal Adoniyo Odisho and Corporal Yoseph Odisho, look over the rail of the ship Orbita as it docks at Liverpool in 1946. They had volunteered as RAF ground crew and came for the London Victory Parade.

Iraq Levies arriving in Liverpool for the 1946 Victory Parade

A British instructor in a slouch hat drills a line of Iraq Levies recruits at Habbaniya who still wear their tribal dress: embroidered jackets, sashes, wide trousers and feathered caps. The Levies were then recruited largely from Assyrians, so many of these men are likely Assyrian.

Iraq Levies recruits drilling at Habbaniya

Eight armed Jilu Assyrian men in tall felt caps, embroidered jackets, sashes and patterned trousers pose against a mud-brick wall, four standing and four seated, 1918. From Major W. Leith-Ross's album at the National Army Museum.

Assyrian fighters from Jilu, 1918

A crowd of armed Assyrian volunteers, some mounted, surround a captured Turkish banner in 1918. The Commons description identifies the rider in the white hat as Agha Petros saluting his men; the photograph comes from Major W. Leith-Ross's album at the National Army Museum.

Assyrian volunteers with a captured Turkish banner, 1918

A British soldier in a pith helmet crouches to tend a small child sitting on a bundle, while a Jilu Assyrian man in a fur cap watches; refugees and tents stand behind. Photographed by Ariel Varges in 1918.

British soldier tending a Jilu Assyrian refugee child

Dozens of Jilu Assyrian orphan children sit on a bank of rubble breaking stones for a new road in Persia, watched by mounted and standing overseers, 1918. Photographed by Ariel Varges.

Jilu Assyrian orphans breaking stones for the Persian road

Women and children from Jilu, some seated on the ground and some standing in long dresses, headscarves and a fur cap, gather in an open camp in western Persia in 1918. Photographed by Ariel Varges.

Jilu Assyrian refugee women and children, 1918

A Jilu Assyrian man in a felt cap and sash, holding a long stick, leads a mule piled with bedding and carrying a young rider; more refugees follow behind. Photographed by Ariel Varges in western Persia in 1918.

Jilu Assyrian refugees with a laden mule, 1918

Assyrian refugees from Jilu, with women, children and bedding loaded on oxen and donkeys, walk down a dirt road through the Asadabad Pass in western Persia, 1918. One of Ariel Varges's photographs of the refugee column on the road from Hamadan to Baqubah.

Jilu Assyrian refugees coming over the Asadabad Pass

Rows of Assyrian Christian men from Jilu, many in torn clothes and felt caps, stand on parade at Hamadan while British NCOs drill them for service with the Urmia Brigade, August 1918. Photographed by Ariel Varges for the British Ministry of Information.

Jilu Assyrian recruits drilled at Hamadan for the Urmia Brigade

Armenian and Syrian (Assyrian) refugees with carts and bundles in the tree-lined avenue leading out of the Kurdish gate of Urmia in 1918.

Armenian and Syrian (Assyrian) refugees at the Kurdish gate, Urmia, 1918

Armed men with rifles and bandoliers, described as "our army of defence", crowded in a street at Urmia in 1918, during the Assyrian defence of the city.

The army of defence at Urmia, 1918

Dr. William Ambrose Shedd, the American missionary (likely the man in the white suit), among refugees seated with their bundles in the city compound at Urmia in 1918.

Faces, places & memories of the Assyrian people.