Description
Object description
423 ms letters to his family covering his service: as Second in Command and then (from June 1916) as Commanding Officer of the 10th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment (101st Infantry Brigade, 34th Division) at camps near York, Andover and Warminster in England (August 1915 – January 1916), in France and on the Western Front (April – December 1916) during the Battles of the Somme; in France with 57th Labour Group (August – December 1917) and as a staff officer at VIII Corps and XIX Corps (December 1917 - ?March 1919), then finally as Commanding Officer Hazebrouck Sub Area BEF (March - October 1919), with much evidence of his deep love and affection for his family, excellent references to the unrelenting stress of being in command and his own low spirits after losing many of his officers, good descriptions of the Somme Offensive, especially during the Battle of Albert and at Bazentin and Mametz Wood and conditions in front line trenches, useful details about the composition of his battalion and his officers (including calibre), occasional pessimistic references to the progress of the war and dissatisfaction with the veracity of newspaper reports, mention of the overwhelming and exhausting nature of his duties as a staff officer and mentions of influenza cases (June 1918), the Armistice (November 1918) and the Peace Treaty (June 1919), also 11 ms letters from his son Sub Lieutenant Edward Cordeaux (who served in the destroyers HMS LAPWING (1916) and HMS TENACIOUS (1917) and in HMS EXCELLENT, Portsmouth and mentions the Battle of Jutland) and 3 ms letters from his son John Cordeaux (who was a cadet at the Royal Naval College Osborne (1916) and served in the training cruiser HMS CORNWALL in 1919).
Content description
423 ms letters to his family covering his service: as Second in Command and then (from June 1916) as Commanding Officer of the 10th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment (101st Infantry Brigade, 34th Division) at camps near York, Andover and Warminster in England (August 1915 – January 1916), in France and on the Western Front (April – December 1916) during the Battles of the Somme; in France with 57th Labour Group (August – December 1917) and as a staff officer at VIII Corps and XIX Corps (December 1917 - ?March 1919), then finally as Commanding Officer Hazebrouck Sub Area BEF (March - October 1919), with much evidence of his deep love and affection for his family, excellent references to the unrelenting stress of being in command and his own low spirits after losing many of his officers, good descriptions of the Somme Offensive, especially during the Battle of Albert and at Bazentin and Mametz Wood and conditions in front line trenches, useful details about the composition of his battalion and his officers (including calibre), occasional pessimistic references to the progress of the war and dissatisfaction with the veracity of newspaper reports, mention of the overwhelming and exhausting nature of his duties as a staff officer and mentions of influenza cases (June 1918), the Armistice (November 1918) and the Peace Treaty (June 1919), also 11 ms letters from his son Sub Lieutenant Edward Cordeaux (who served in the destroyers HMS LAPWING (1916) and HMS TENACIOUS (1917) and in HMS EXCELLENT, Portsmouth and mentions the Battle of Jutland) and 3 ms letters from his son John Cordeaux (who was a cadet at the Royal Naval College Osborne (1916) and served in the training cruiser HMS CORNWALL in 1919).
History note
Cataloguer AC