Description
Object description
Volumes 1 and 3 (7 September 1914 - December 1915 and 4 July 1916 - 15 July 1917, Volume 2 is missing) of his ms journal (263pp) written for his wife recording his active service in the ranks of the 7th Battalion The Buffs (East Kent) Regiment (55th Brigade, 18th Division), including: his pre-war family background; volunteering in September 1914 and his training in Colchester, Ipswich and Purfleet, Salisbury Plain until the departure for France in July 1915; occupying trenches on the Somme front (repulsing a German attack in September 1915), August - December 1915, when he went home on leave; offensive operations on the Western Front, notably on the Somme, July 1916 and September - November 1916, and during the German Retreat, February - March 1917, from July 1916 until he was wounded in May 1917 in an attack on the Hindenburg Line near Arras; he was hospitalised in Cheltenham until July 1917, when in his last entry he notes that he is to report to Dover for duty once more; and his useful comments on Army life; his wartime marriage; his training; trench conditions; the French and their habits; the strict measures taken against stealing from the local inhabitants and drunkenness; a review by General Sir Charles Monro; shell shortages and his disgust at the miners going on strike; being sick and hospitalised (December 1916). Also included are 34 French postcards of the areas where he served.
Content description
Volumes 1 and 3 (7 September 1914 - December 1915 and 4 July 1916 - 15 July 1917, Volume 2 is missing) of his ms journal (263pp) written for his wife recording his active service in the ranks of the 7th Battalion The Buffs (East Kent) Regiment (55th Brigade, 18th Division), including: his pre-war family background; volunteering in September 1914 and his training in Colchester, Ipswich and Purfleet, Salisbury Plain until the departure for France in July 1915; occupying trenches on the Somme front (repulsing a German attack in September 1915), August - December 1915, when he went home on leave; offensive operations on the Western Front, notably on the Somme, July 1916 and September - November 1916, and during the German Retreat, February - March 1917, from July 1916 until he was wounded in May 1917 in an attack on the Hindenburg Line near Arras; he was hospitalised in Cheltenham until July 1917, when in his last entry he notes that he is to report to Dover for duty once more; and his useful comments on Army life; his wartime marriage; his training; trench conditions; the French and their habits; the strict measures taken against stealing from the local inhabitants and drunkenness; a review by General Sir Charles Monro; shell shortages and his disgust at the miners going on strike; being sick and hospitalised (December 1916). Also included are 34 French postcards of the areas where he served.
History note
Cataloguer SNR
History note
Catalogue date 2000-01-08