Description
Object description
Collection of 72 ms letters (total 203pp), January 1915 - November 1918, written home to his father and sister while serving as a signaller with the 16th Battalion (93rd Brigade, 31st Division) and after March 1918 the 1st Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment (18th Brigade, 6th Division), from December 1915 in Egypt and then from March 1916 in France, describing conditions onboard ship during the voyage out to Egypt, incidents during the voyage which included a brief stop at Malta and a collision with a French steamer, life in Egypt as well as the flora and fauna of the locale, and then his move to France where he provides occasional references to being in the trenches but few descriptions of actual fighting apart from the First Day of the Battle of the Somme (1 July 1916) as seen from the reserve trenches, proceeding to describe his billets, attendance on a course at VIII Corps Signalling School, his opinion of French civilians, Christmas celebrations, his hopes for a commission, the quantity and quality of the food available on the Western Front, a period of leave in Paris, and time spent in hospital with trench fever (June - July 1918) and then recovering from the effects of being gassed (October 1918); together with a photograph of him in civilian garb, an Independent Labour Party pamphlet (8pp) entitled "War Profiteering in the Worsted Trade" by Titus Binns, 1919, and a collection of press cuttings, maps and postcard photographs all dating from the First World War.
Content description
Collection of 72 ms letters (total 203pp), January 1915 - November 1918, written home to his father and sister while serving as a signaller with the 16th Battalion (93rd Brigade, 31st Division) and after March 1918 the 1st Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment (18th Brigade, 6th Division), from December 1915 in Egypt and then from March 1916 in France, describing conditions onboard ship during the voyage out to Egypt, incidents during the voyage which included a brief stop at Malta and a collision with a French steamer, life in Egypt as well as the flora and fauna of the locale, and then his move to France where he provides occasional references to being in the trenches but few descriptions of actual fighting apart from the First Day of the Battle of the Somme (1 July 1916) as seen from the reserve trenches, proceeding to describe his billets, attendance on a course at VIII Corps Signalling School, his opinion of French civilians, Christmas celebrations, his hopes for a commission, the quantity and quality of the food available on the Western Front, a period of leave in Paris, and time spent in hospital with trench fever (June - July 1918) and then recovering from the effects of being gassed (October 1918); together with a photograph of him in civilian garb, an Independent Labour Party pamphlet (8pp) entitled "War Profiteering in the Worsted Trade" by Titus Binns, 1919, and a collection of press cuttings, maps and postcard photographs all dating from the First World War.
History note
Cataloguer APR
History note
Catalogue date 2000-09-07