Description
Object description
An extremely well written series of 77 ms letters covering his service as an NCO with the 10th Battalion Royal Fusiliers (111th Brigade, 37th Division) on the Western Front, August 1915 - July 1916, and with the 25th Battalion Royal Fusiliers in South and East Africa, February 1917 - January 1918, describing his pre-embarkation training on Salisbury Plain, conditions in France and the discomforts of trench life, artillery bombardments and the sensations of being under fire, his involvement in the attack on Pozieres during the opening phases of the Battle of the Somme (July 1916) in which he was wounded, evacuation back to Mile End Hospital, East London and, following his recovery, his posting to Dover in October 1916 to join the 6th (Reserve) Battalion and later the 32nd (Training Reserve) Battalion Royal Fusiliers. In February 1917 he embarked for South Africa where he joined the 25th Battalion Royal Fusiliers on garrison duty at Wynberg and Cape Town, before returning to active service in July 1917 in East Africa where he describes skirmishes with the Germans, the burdens of being acting CQMS, and periods spent in hospital at Dar-es-Salaam suffering from dysentery and in Durban with an attack of fever. With the original letters is a copy of Chris Holland and Rob Phillips' THE GREAT WAR LETTERS OF ROLAND MOUNTFORT (Leicester: Matador, 2009) in which all the letters are reproduced in full, and in their correct chronological sequence.
Content description
An extremely well written series of 77 ms letters covering his service as an NCO with the 10th Battalion Royal Fusiliers (111th Brigade, 37th Division) on the Western Front, August 1915 - July 1916, and with the 25th Battalion Royal Fusiliers in South and East Africa, February 1917 - January 1918, describing his pre-embarkation training on Salisbury Plain, conditions in France and the discomforts of trench life, artillery bombardments and the sensations of being under fire, his involvement in the attack on Pozieres during the opening phases of the Battle of the Somme (July 1916) in which he was wounded, evacuation back to Mile End Hospital, East London and, following his recovery, his posting to Dover in October 1916 to join the 6th (Reserve) Battalion and later the 32nd (Training Reserve) Battalion Royal Fusiliers. In February 1917 he embarked for South Africa where he joined the 25th Battalion Royal Fusiliers on garrison duty at Wynberg and Cape Town, before returning to active service in July 1917 in East Africa where he describes skirmishes with the Germans, the burdens of being acting CQMS, and periods spent in hospital at Dar-es-Salaam suffering from dysentery and in Durban with an attack of fever. With the original letters is a copy of Chris Holland and Rob Phillips' THE GREAT WAR LETTERS OF ROLAND MOUNTFORT (Leicester: Matador, 2009) in which all the letters are reproduced in full, and in their correct chronological sequence.
History note
Cataloguer APR
History note
Catalogue date 2001-03-23