Description
Object description
Two ts memoirs: the first (5pp) covering his service 1914 - 1918 initially with the 1/8th Battalion London Regiment, the Post Office Rifles (140th Brigade, 47th Division) describing his enlistment in December 1914 aged 16, joining the battalion for the Battle of Loos (September 1915), his reaction to the battlefield, conditions in the line and carrying gas cylinders up to the front, then on discovery of his age his transfer to Divisional HQ as a member of the HQ Guard and escort to an unspecified Brigade Major on his tours of inspection round the front line of the Somme and the Ypres Salient, both of which he fully describes and contrasts, before finally applying to join the RFC, joining them after briefly being drawn into a composite battalion of reserves at Arras on 21 March 1918 as the RFC became part of the newly formed RAF with whom he completed his training as a pilot; the second (6pp) describing in detail his formative role in the development of the RAF Postal Service from 1942 to 1945 first as assistant to and then in the position of Assistant Director of Organisation (Mails), from the initiation of a co-ordinated service with the RE Postal Service through the question of how to deal with overseas post using airgraphs or air letters to the introduction of a full Post Office counter-service employing a large proportion of WAAFs, including a humorous anecdote concerned with Air Chief Marshal Lord Trenchard.
Content description
Two ts memoirs: the first (5pp) covering his service 1914 - 1918 initially with the 1/8th Battalion London Regiment, the Post Office Rifles (140th Brigade, 47th Division) describing his enlistment in December 1914 aged 16, joining the battalion for the Battle of Loos (September 1915), his reaction to the battlefield, conditions in the line and carrying gas cylinders up to the front, then on discovery of his age his transfer to Divisional HQ as a member of the HQ Guard and escort to an unspecified Brigade Major on his tours of inspection round the front line of the Somme and the Ypres Salient, both of which he fully describes and contrasts, before finally applying to join the RFC, joining them after briefly being drawn into a composite battalion of reserves at Arras on 21 March 1918 as the RFC became part of the newly formed RAF with whom he completed his training as a pilot; the second (6pp) describing in detail his formative role in the development of the RAF Postal Service from 1942 to 1945 first as assistant to and then in the position of Assistant Director of Organisation (Mails), from the initiation of a co-ordinated service with the RE Postal Service through the question of how to deal with overseas post using airgraphs or air letters to the introduction of a full Post Office counter-service employing a large proportion of WAAFs, including a humorous anecdote concerned with Air Chief Marshal Lord Trenchard.
History note
Cataloguer NS
History note
Catalogue date 1988-10