Description
Object description
190 ms letters and cards, written 1913 - 1919, while a Private in the 1/1st Honourable Artillery Company (Lines of Communication troops but, from November, the 8th and 7th Brigades, 3rd Division) principally from September 1914 - circa February 1915 covering his service in London and Essex, in France and in the Western Front trenches prior to being invalided home in December 1914 with frostbite and dysentery and, after his commission into the 5th Battalion The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders (26th Brigade, 9th Division) in Bordon, Hampshire, and near Inverness, Scotland, circa February - October 1915, on the Western Front, October 1915 - July 1916, during the Battle of Loos and the fighting for Delville Wood in the Battle of the Somme, after which he was evacuated home wounded, with the 3rd Battalion Cameron Highlanders and the 40th Training Reserve Battalion in Scotland, circa November 1916 - May 1917, with the 19th Infantry Brigade Depot, the 5th Battalion Cameron Highlanders and 9th Divisional Depot Battalion on the Western Front, circa June - October 1917, after his return to England (? as the result of ill health) in Cromer, Norfolk, with the 202nd Training Reserve Battalion and 51st Battalion Gordon Highlanders, circa November 1917 - March 1918, on the Western Front from April 1918 onwards with the 5th Battalion Cameron Highlanders during and after the German offensive on the Lys, then from circa July 1918 as an instructor with IX Corps School in France and Germany until circa February 1919 when he was appointed Assistant Deputy Demobilisation Officer Corps Schools and then IX Corps Demobilisation Officer prior to his return to England in May 1919; with useful details of Army life, conditions in the trenches and in Germany during the British Occupation and revealing his laid back attitude and quirky sense of humour, also 5 outstanding contemporary ms accounts by him of his service with the HAC in Le Havre and Rouen and of front line conditions on the Western Front and of service with the 5th Battalion Cameron Highlanders during the Battle of the Somme covering in vivid detail the fighting at Longueval and Delville Wood, together with papers collated during his military service, 1914 - 1919, letters received by him from family and friends, 1914 - 1918, papers relating to his sister Edith, a wartime VAD, 1910 - 1919, and correspondence received by his mother in 1915 including a letter dated 4 September from a subaltern in the 10th Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) written very shortly before he was killed by a sniper at Zillebeke.
Content description
190 ms letters and cards, written 1913 - 1919, while a Private in the 1/1st Honourable Artillery Company (Lines of Communication troops but, from November, the 8th and 7th Brigades, 3rd Division) principally from September 1914 - circa February 1915 covering his service in London and Essex, in France and in the Western Front trenches prior to being invalided home in December 1914 with frostbite and dysentery and, after his commission into the 5th Battalion The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders (26th Brigade, 9th Division) in Bordon, Hampshire, and near Inverness, Scotland, circa February - October 1915, on the Western Front, October 1915 - July 1916, during the Battle of Loos and the fighting for Delville Wood in the Battle of the Somme, after which he was evacuated home wounded, with the 3rd Battalion Cameron Highlanders and the 40th Training Reserve Battalion in Scotland, circa November 1916 - May 1917, with the 19th Infantry Brigade Depot, the 5th Battalion Cameron Highlanders and 9th Divisional Depot Battalion on the Western Front, circa June - October 1917, after his return to England (? as the result of ill health) in Cromer, Norfolk, with the 202nd Training Reserve Battalion and 51st Battalion Gordon Highlanders, circa November 1917 - March 1918, on the Western Front from April 1918 onwards with the 5th Battalion Cameron Highlanders during and after the German offensive on the Lys, then from circa July 1918 as an instructor with IX Corps School in France and Germany until circa February 1919 when he was appointed Assistant Deputy Demobilisation Officer Corps Schools and then IX Corps Demobilisation Officer prior to his return to England in May 1919; with useful details of Army life, conditions in the trenches and in Germany during the British Occupation and revealing his laid back attitude and quirky sense of humour, also 5 outstanding contemporary ms accounts by him of his service with the HAC in Le Havre and Rouen and of front line conditions on the Western Front and of service with the 5th Battalion Cameron Highlanders during the Battle of the Somme covering in vivid detail the fighting at Longueval and Delville Wood, together with papers collated during his military service, 1914 - 1919, letters received by him from family and friends, 1914 - 1918, papers relating to his sister Edith, a wartime VAD, 1910 - 1919, and correspondence received by his mother in 1915 including a letter dated 4 September from a subaltern in the 10th Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) written very shortly before he was killed by a sniper at Zillebeke.
History note
Cataloguer AC
History note
Catalogue date 2005-06