Description
Object description
Ms diary (134pp) covering his service as a regular officer with the 2nd Battalion Essex Regiment (12th Infantry Brigade, 4th Division) in England, July - August 1914, and on the Western Front, August 1914 – June 1915, together with 45 ms letters and cards to his family dated August 1914 – August 1918 and 33 ms letters to Sir Henry and Lady Cunynghame dated 11 August 1914 - 15 November 1918 containing useful references to the outbreak of war, coastal defence duties and rounding up Germans and his experiences as a machine gun officer and platoon commander in France and Belgium, the courts martial of two British infantry battalion commanders who had been prepared to negotiate the surrender of their troops to the Germans at St Quentin (5 September 1914)and German New Year celebrations and good descriptions of the retreat from Mons and the Battles of the Marne, the Aisne and 2nd Ypres, conditions in the trenches and gas attacks (May 1915); 5 notebooks (14pp, 15pp, 41pp, 59pp and 25pp dated 1915 - 1919) containing operation orders issued while he was acting adjutant (1915), battalion orders and other messages issued while he was CO of the 1/4th Battalion London Regiment (168th Brigade, 56th Division, March – April 1917), messages concerning the deployment of units during the Battle of Cambrai, while he was CO of the 2nd/4th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment (187th Brigade, 62nd Division, November 1917) and other draft battalion orders, orders for the Battle of Cambrai, service records, papers dating mainly from 1935 (in English, French and German) while he was serving with the British Contingent in the Saar at the time of the Plebiscite, including a framed souvenir with signatures; three albums containing photographs, postcards, trench maps, signals, nominal rolls, programmes and other items of ephemera dating between 1913 and 1924 and relating principally to the 2nd and 15th Battalions, Essex Regiment on the Western Front, in Malta and in Istanbul; 50 ms letters and postcards relating to the Williams-Freeman family written between August 1914 and September 1919 covering the impact of war on family life, views on conscription, billeting, separation allowances, comforts for the troops, the death of a son on active service and life in submarines; 13 ms letters from servicemen received by the Cunynghames during the First World War, with a reference (29 November 1915) to Ivor Novello's attempts to secure a commission; and nine printed trench maps.
Content description
Ms diary (134pp) covering his service as a regular officer with the 2nd Battalion Essex Regiment (12th Infantry Brigade, 4th Division) in England, July - August 1914, and on the Western Front, August 1914 – June 1915, together with 45 ms letters and cards to his family dated August 1914 – August 1918 and 33 ms letters to Sir Henry and Lady Cunynghame dated 11 August 1914 - 15 November 1918 containing useful references to the outbreak of war, coastal defence duties and rounding up Germans and his experiences as a machine gun officer and platoon commander in France and Belgium, the courts martial of two British infantry battalion commanders who had been prepared to negotiate the surrender of their troops to the Germans at St Quentin (5 September 1914)and German New Year celebrations and good descriptions of the retreat from Mons and the Battles of the Marne, the Aisne and 2nd Ypres, conditions in the trenches and gas attacks (May 1915); 5 notebooks (14pp, 15pp, 41pp, 59pp and 25pp dated 1915 - 1919) containing operation orders issued while he was acting adjutant (1915), battalion orders and other messages issued while he was CO of the 1/4th Battalion London Regiment (168th Brigade, 56th Division, March – April 1917), messages concerning the deployment of units during the Battle of Cambrai, while he was CO of the 2nd/4th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment (187th Brigade, 62nd Division, November 1917) and other draft battalion orders, orders for the Battle of Cambrai, service records, papers dating mainly from 1935 (in English, French and German) while he was serving with the British Contingent in the Saar at the time of the Plebiscite, including a framed souvenir with signatures; three albums containing photographs, postcards, trench maps, signals, nominal rolls, programmes and other items of ephemera dating between 1913 and 1924 and relating principally to the 2nd and 15th Battalions, Essex Regiment on the Western Front, in Malta and in Istanbul; 50 ms letters and postcards relating to the Williams-Freeman family written between August 1914 and September 1919 covering the impact of war on family life, views on conscription, billeting, separation allowances, comforts for the troops, the death of a son on active service and life in submarines; 13 ms letters from servicemen received by the Cunynghames during the First World War, with a reference (29 November 1915) to Ivor Novello's attempts to secure a commission; and nine printed trench maps.
History note
Cataloguer AC