Private Papers of Major R J Blackadder MC

Ms diary (73pp) with transcription describing his service with 151 Siege Battery RGA (99th Howitzer Brigade RGA), August 1916 - June 1919, from its formation in Scotland through its entire period on the Western Front where it saw action first around Béthune and subsequently on the Somme at Beaumont Hamel (November 1916) until after the retirement to the Hindenburg Line (February 1917), at Arras for the attack on Vimy Ridge (April 1917), behind the Messines Ridge during the attack there (June 1917) and its continuation into Third Ypres, back at Arras for the German Spring Offensive (March 1918), returning to Messines for the closing months of the war, and including good descriptions of the routine of a siege battery, the work of a Forward Observation Officer, counter-battery work, the devastation of the battlefields caused by artillery bombardments and the weather, the difference between France and Belgium, the use of West Indian troops as labour corps and the problems of demobilisation, together with a photograph of the battery's officers on 11 November 1918, four photograph albums of the battery's personnel, and maps of the area around Beaumont Hamel and Wytschaete. Together with 61 letters written mainly to his wife Nancy (12 October 1914-19 August 1918) describing his experiences and his feelings toward the 'huns', together with other related papers.

Ms diary (73pp) with transcription describing his service with 151 Siege Battery RGA (99th Howitzer Brigade RGA), August 1916 - June 1919, from its formation in Scotland through its entire period on the Western Front where it saw action first around Béthune and subsequently on the Somme at Beaumont Hamel (November 1916) until after the retirement to the Hindenburg Line (February 1917), at Arras for the attack on Vimy Ridge (April 1917), behind the Messines Ridge during the attack there (June 1917) and its continuation into Third Ypres, back at Arras for the German Spring Offensive (March 1918), returning to Messines for the closing months of the war, and including good descriptions of the routine of a siege battery, the work of a Forward Observation Officer, counter-battery work, the devastation of the battlefields caused by artillery bombardments and the weather, the difference between France and Belgium, the use of West Indian troops as labour corps and the problems of demobilisation, together with a photograph of the battery's officers on 11 November 1918, four photograph albums of the battery's personnel, and maps of the area around Beaumont Hamel and Wytschaete. Together with 61 letters written mainly to his wife Nancy (12 October 1914-19 August 1918) describing his experiences and his feelings toward the 'huns', together with other related papers.

Cataloguer NS

Catalogue date 1988-02