Description
Object description
British private served as Holt Tractor driver with Mechanical Transport Section, Army Service Corps attached to Siege Batteries of Royal Artillery in GB and on Western Front, 1915-1918
Content description
REEL 1: Background in Hampton, GB, 1893-1915: family; education; mechanical engineering apprenticeship; description of employment as fitter at Greenwich and Chatham dockyards; description of employment on sugar plantation in British Guiana, 1914; social life and recreational activities; religious beliefs; relations with workforce; reaction to outbreak of war, 8/1914; death of brother on active service; story of enlisting with Army Service Corps in London, 10/1915; reaction of parents. Aspects of training with Army Service Corps in GB, 1915: posted to Grove Park and issued with uniform and kit; posted to Aldershot for basic training and training as driver.
REEL 2 Continues: assigned to Holt Tractor section and nature of duties; promoted lance-corporal and attached to 81st Siege Bty; description of transporting 8 Howitzers from Avonmouth to Boulogne. Recollections of operations as Holt Tractor driver with Army Service Corps on Western Front, 1916-1918: transportation of guns to Bertrancourt, Somme area; description of driving Holt Tractor; training loading and unloading guns; description of gun positions; accommodation in camp; rations; daily routine and duties with 81st Siege Bty; question of danger; guns taken by horses to final positions; problem of noise of engines; first impressions of tanks; question of making souvenirs out of bullets and shrapnel; maintenance work on tractors; problem of cutting signal wires with tracks; question of mechanical reliability; cleaning and replacing tracks and problem of mud; promoted sergeant and attached to 91st Siege Bty; description of moving and transporting 9.2 Howitzers.
REEL 3 Continues: moved to De Panne north of Dunkirk; accommodation; story of being wounded by bomb dropped from aircraft; nature of wounds and medical treatment at Etaples base camp; posted back to 91st Siege Bty at Albert, Somme, 12/1916; memory of Christmas dinner; role as sergeant in charge of caterpillar section; description of vehicles and duties of team; communications with Bty Commander; opinion of Bty Commander; relations with other members of section; comparison of 5 and 6 cylinder Holt Tractors; description of role during German offensive, 21/Mar/1918; memory of preliminary barrage; description of loading and moving 9.2 Howitzers; story of rum ration; question of fear under fire; memory of dead German in road; attitude to Germans.
REEL 4 Continues: attitude to conditions for infantry; communication with home; liking for condensed milk; religious beliefs; reaction to news of Armistice, 11/11/1918; question of guns firing up until 11o'clock; dismantling and removal of guns to railheads; story of demobilization, 1919. Aspects of post-war life and employment. Aspects of period as officer with 39th County of London Bn Home Guard in Hampton, Middlesex, 1939-1945