Description
Object description
A well-written series of 179 ms letters, a number quite detailed and humorous and each with a ts transcript, written to his family home in Walthamstow describing his training with the 5th Battalion Rifle Brigade on the Isle of Sheppey (September 1914 - January 1915), his service in an Infantry Base Depot near Le Havre (February 1915) and as a rifleman with the 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade (4th Division) on the Western Front (March 1915 - June 1916) including 2nd Ypres, in hospitals in Gloucestershire and the West Midlands (July - August 1916, gun shot wound to the shoulder), at the Rifle Brigade depot at Winchester (September - October 1916), with the 5th Rifle Brigade on Sheppey (October - December 1916 and again April - June 1917) and at Sutton Coldfield infantry depot (December 1916 - April 1917), at 47 Infantry Base Depot, Le Havre (June 1917) and then as a signaller with the 16th Battalion Rifle Brigade (39th Division) on the Western Front (July 1917 - April 1918) including operations during 3rd Ypres and the March 1918 retreat on the Somme, at base depots in France (April -June 1918), in hospitals in France (July - August 1918, bayonet wound), convalescent in SE England (August - September 1918) and at infantry depots at Perham Down (October - November 1918) and Sutton Coldfield again (November 1918 - January 1919). The letters include useful references to scares about German landings in England in 1914, conditions in the trenches, an inspection by Sir John French (24 July 1915), relations with French civilians, a German air raid on Sheerness (8 June 1917) and American troops (4 May 1918), also numerous comments on the Army's organisation of infantry depots in this country and the behaviour and morale of the soldiers in them.
Content description
A well-written series of 179 ms letters, a number quite detailed and humorous and each with a ts transcript, written to his family home in Walthamstow describing his training with the 5th Battalion Rifle Brigade on the Isle of Sheppey (September 1914 - January 1915), his service in an Infantry Base Depot near Le Havre (February 1915) and as a rifleman with the 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade (4th Division) on the Western Front (March 1915 - June 1916) including 2nd Ypres, in hospitals in Gloucestershire and the West Midlands (July - August 1916, gun shot wound to the shoulder), at the Rifle Brigade depot at Winchester (September - October 1916), with the 5th Rifle Brigade on Sheppey (October - December 1916 and again April - June 1917) and at Sutton Coldfield infantry depot (December 1916 - April 1917), at 47 Infantry Base Depot, Le Havre (June 1917) and then as a signaller with the 16th Battalion Rifle Brigade (39th Division) on the Western Front (July 1917 - April 1918) including operations during 3rd Ypres and the March 1918 retreat on the Somme, at base depots in France (April -June 1918), in hospitals in France (July - August 1918, bayonet wound), convalescent in SE England (August - September 1918) and at infantry depots at Perham Down (October - November 1918) and Sutton Coldfield again (November 1918 - January 1919). The letters include useful references to scares about German landings in England in 1914, conditions in the trenches, an inspection by Sir John French (24 July 1915), relations with French civilians, a German air raid on Sheerness (8 June 1917) and American troops (4 May 1918), also numerous comments on the Army's organisation of infantry depots in this country and the behaviour and morale of the soldiers in them.
History note
Cataloguer RWAS
History note
Catalogue date 1987-03