Description
Object description
A ms memoir in eight volumes (1206pp, together with a Microfilm copy) recording his service on the Western Front as an NCO with the 17th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own) (106th Brigade, 35th Division), December 1914 - autumn 1917, and the 14th Battalion Tank Corps, June 1918 - January 1919, describing the day to day life of an ordinary soldier in uncomfortable and dangerous conditions, including methods of handling shell shock cases, his reaction to the news of his brother's death, comradeship with the men of the Battalion, army discipline, and the effect on his personality of life in the trenches, while referring to his training in Yorkshire and Wiltshire where he was promoted to Lance-Corporal, the crossing to France (February 1916), his service as Medical Officer's orderly at the Battalion Aid Post, involvement in the Battle of the Somme (July 1916) where his unit was met with bitter fighting and suffered heavy casualties until they were moved near Arras and then to trenches near Chaulnes, the muddy conditions and large numbers of men suffering from trench foot, his posting to the Ypres Salient (1917) where he describes a spell on the Passchendaele ridge before transferring to the Tank Corps as a company medical orderly, taking part in a small attack at Villers Bretonneux before being stationed near Arras and then on the Somme, describing the poor condition of German prisoners and his duties after the Armistice. Together with four photographs of Ernest Sheard, and his brothers Elliott and Herbert.
Content description
A ms memoir in eight volumes (1206pp, together with a Microfilm copy) recording his service on the Western Front as an NCO with the 17th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own) (106th Brigade, 35th Division), December 1914 - autumn 1917, and the 14th Battalion Tank Corps, June 1918 - January 1919, describing the day to day life of an ordinary soldier in uncomfortable and dangerous conditions, including methods of handling shell shock cases, his reaction to the news of his brother's death, comradeship with the men of the Battalion, army discipline, and the effect on his personality of life in the trenches, while referring to his training in Yorkshire and Wiltshire where he was promoted to Lance-Corporal, the crossing to France (February 1916), his service as Medical Officer's orderly at the Battalion Aid Post, involvement in the Battle of the Somme (July 1916) where his unit was met with bitter fighting and suffered heavy casualties until they were moved near Arras and then to trenches near Chaulnes, the muddy conditions and large numbers of men suffering from trench foot, his posting to the Ypres Salient (1917) where he describes a spell on the Passchendaele ridge before transferring to the Tank Corps as a company medical orderly, taking part in a small attack at Villers Bretonneux before being stationed near Arras and then on the Somme, describing the poor condition of German prisoners and his duties after the Armistice. Together with four photographs of Ernest Sheard, and his brothers Elliott and Herbert.
History note
Cataloguer JSK
History note
Catalogue date 2002-04-25