Description
Object description
British boy drummer and drummer served with 2nd Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders at Maryhill Barracks, Glasgow and Fort George, GB, 1/1911-8/1914; NCO served as bugler with 2nd Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 19th Bde in France, 8/1914-9/1914; served as runner with 2nd Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 19th Bde, 6th Div on Western Front, 10/1914-10/1915
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of enlistment and training as boy drummer with 2nd Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders at Maryhill Barracks, Glasgow, GB, 1/1911-4/1912: question of influence of father's previous service record with unit; segregation of boy soldiers; role of boy soldiers; pay and requirement to pay for new uniform; rations and methods of supplementing them; lack of hot water for washing dixies.
REEL 2 Continues: preparation of barrack room for weekly inspection; organisation and pay of various categories of musicians; active service role of bandsmen as stretcher bearers, platoon buglers and company pipers; sings examples of bugle calls learnt; learning to play drums.
REEL 3 Continues: physical training in gymnasium; obtaining educational certificates; sporting activities; absence of rifle training; accommodation in barracks; coal fatigue; sharing barracks with another unit allocated to security duties during railway strike, 1912. Aspects of period as boy drummer and drummer with 2nd Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders at Fort George, GB, 4/1912-8/1914: accommodation in casements; walking out uniform and recreations.
REEL 4 Continues: company training and promotion to drummer on reaching maturity; beating retreat; routine bugle calls sounded as orderly bugler; disciplinary system; further details of routine bugle calls sounded as orderly bugler; nightly roll call; route marches accompanied by band; music provided for officers' mess guest nights; role of orderly piper; compositions of Bandmaster Frederick Ricketts under the pen name 'Kenneth J Alford' including origins of 'Colonel Bogey' and 'The Great Little Army'; rifle training on becoming drummer; arrival of German merchant navy prisoners of war, 8/1914; mobilisation including question of status of drummers and reservists.
REEL 5 Continues: speed of mobilisation. Aspects of journey from Fort George, GB to Boulogne, France, 10/8/1914-14/8/1914: question of inadequate latrines and rations on train; crossing English Channel aboard SS Seahound.
REEL 6 Continues: Aspects of period as NCO bugler with 2nd Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 19th Bde in France, 14/8/1914-21/8/1914: billeting in school; initial role as lines of communications troops and erecting tents for British Expeditionary Force; move up to Le Cateau, 22/8/1914-25/8/1914. Recollections of operations as NCO bugler with 2nd Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 19th Bde during Battle of Le Cateau, France, 26/8/1914: digging in with entrenching tool; retreat in face of mass German attacks; casualties; question of role as bugler; fetching ammunition; taking wounded soldier to regimental aid post; retreat from Le Cateau; end of retreat and subsequent advance, 9/1914; effect on personal morale, Recollections of period as NCO with 2nd Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 19th Bde, 6th Div on Western Front, 10/1914-10/1915: reorganisation and move forward by train, 10/1914; posting as runner to B Coy; story of narrow escape from bullet failing to penetrate equipment; system of taking messages unread in envelopes.
REEL 7 Continues: role taking messages from battalion headquarters to B Coy headquarters in Armentieres sector, 1914-1915; question of selection of route when taking messages; story of carrying forward food parcel for officers; use of breastwork trenches; role helping to evacuate casualties during Battle of Loos, 25/9/1915; burial party; formation of pipe band to play to troops during rest period and role in carrying forward rations.