page_title: Egyptian Labour Corps
section_title: Organisation
hierarchical_section_title: Egyptian Labour Corps / Organisation
caption_attribution_description: English: Adinkerke Military Cemetery, Belgium
context_page_description: The Egyptian Labour Corps was a group of Egyptian labourers who worked for the British Army in Egypt during the First World War's Sinai and Palestine Campaign.
context_section_description: By 1917 the Egyptian Labour Corps had over 55,000 labourers, mainly organized into companies with 12 gangs forming one company. The gang was the working unit consisting of 50 men with a headman, often all belonging to one home village. These men often sang while they worked and this was thought to be an indication that they were happy, but one Egyptian chant sung by the workers was, "Kam Lehloh, Kam Yaum?" which translates as "How many days, how many nights?"
  The Egyptian Labour Corps was described in February 1918 as organised into Companies of 600 men with a Subaltern commanding officer and two junior officers. Three to six of these Companies formed a Camp under an officer commanding Egyptian Labour Corps of an Area. The officers were at first drawn from Arabic speaking Anglo-Egyptians and afterwards NCOs and privates were recruited from British units and trained in Arabic. Their level of proficiency was recognised by a special rate of extra duty pay. Supervision was provided by the reis of each gang and by civilian foremen who were paid from English £1/10/- to English £15/-/- per month. These civilian foremen were graded as 'NCO Foremen' provided with a uniform and treated as acting Non-commissioned officers of the ELC.
  It was found to be 'practicable and advisable' to recruit different companies from different parts of Egypt and new gangs could be trained in particular types of work required to ensure efficient and rapid handling of stores and materiel.
caption: Grave of Sabit Harun Mohamed, Egyptian Labour Corps, in Adinkerke Military Cemetery, Belgium
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