Description
Object description
British civilian worked in Metallurgy Department, King's College, London University and at Eastchurch Airfield, GB, 1910-1912; driver served with 68th Motor Transport Coy, Army Service Corps at Avonmouth in GB and on Western Front, 8/1914-12/1914; served with Holt Tractor Section, Army Service Corps at North Camp, Aldershot, GB, 1/1915-2/1915; served as driver with 272nd Coy, Army Service Corps attached 12th Siege Bty, Royal Garrison Artillery on Western Front, 3/1915-7/1916; served as driving instructor with 711th Tank Coy, Army Service Corps at Barnham Siding Camp, GB, 7/1916-11/1916; served as instructor with Heavy Branch, Machine Gun Corps and Tank Corps at Bovington and Wareham Camps, GB, 1916-1919
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of work as assistant to Professor A K Huntington in Metallurgy Department, King's College, University of London and in workshops at Eastchurch Airfield, GB, 1910-1912: gold assaying; methods of testing bronzes and brasses; Professor A K Huntington's interest in ballooning; expansion of Eastchurch Airfield; failure of triplane designed for automatic stability by Professor A K Huntington and Lieutenant John Dunne; testing Wolseley Eight Engine.
REEL 2 Continues: monorail take off method employed by biplane flown by Cecil Grace; aircraft flown by Lieutenant John Dunne; contacts with early aviators including John Moore Brabazon; description of Gordon Bennett Air Race; Michelin Mile competition; Daily Mail Air Race.
REEL 3 Continues: Aspects of work as driver for eye surgeon in Bromley, GB, 1912-1914: duties; behaviour of crowds in front of foreign embassies in London, 3/8/1914; eye surgeon's acceptance as work as consulting surgeon for British Army. Aspects of enlistment as private in Army Service Corps at Camberwell Town Hall, London, GB, 8/8/1914: reasons for enlistment; rejection of opportunity to enlist as regular with Royal Flying Corps. Aspects of period as driver with 68th Mechanical Transport Coy, Army Service Corps at Avonmouth, GB and France, 8/1914-12/1914: conditions of service; origins of recruits; successful protest over non-payment of promised enlistment bounty.
REEL 4 Continues: collecting Leyland S Type Lorries; different types of lorries; mobile workshops; attachment to I Indian Corps in France, 9/1914-11/1914. Recollections of period as driver with Holt Tractor Section, Army Service Corps at North Camp, Aldershot, GB, 1/1915-2/1915: training in maintenance and driving of Holt Tractor; technique for turning Holt Tractor using tracks. Aspects of period as Holt Tractor driver with 272nd Coy Army Service Corps attached to 12th Siege Bty Royal Garrison Artillery at Ypres, Belgium, 3/1915-7/1916: method of moving guns; method of preparing and installing BL 9.2 Inch Howitzer in position.
REEL 5 Continues: problems with tree roots; use of Holt Tractor to tow vertical firing 75mm converted anti-aircraft gun during trials; story of using Holt Tractor and steam engine to extricate BL 60 Pounder Heavy Field Guns of 60th Siege Bty Royal Garrison Artillery from shelled gun position at Dickebusch, Belgium; pulling out guns damaged by premature shell explosions; circumstances of being recalled from France for special duty; repassing trade tests at Avonmouth and period at Mottingham, GB, 7/1916. Recollections of period as driving instructor with 711th Tank Coy, Army Service Corps at Barnham Siding Camp, GB, 7/1916-11/1916: secrecy.
REEL 6 Continues: presence of 'Mother' and 'Little Willy' tanks; preparing test grounds; role of driver, brakemen, gearsmen, gunners and loaders in tank crew; incident of cracking unarmoured base of 'Little Willy' going over obstacle; Daimler engines; role training Heavy Branch, Machine Gun Corps in driving tanks; security precaution surrounding arrival of Mark I Tanks at railway sidings and origin of name 'tank'; cadre method of training Heavy Branch, Machine Gun Corps to drive tanks; accommodation. Recollections of period as instructor with Heavy Branch, Machine Gun Corps and Tank Corps at Bovington and Wareham Camps, GB, 1916-1919: move to Bovington Camp, 11/1916.
REEL 7 Continues: establishment of training centres, promotion to sergeant and transfer to Heavy Branch, Machine Gun Corps; status of instructors; comparison of Mark I, Mark IV and Whippet Tanks and question of removal of tails; petrol saving device; night exercises with Canadian and US tanks at Wareham; method of getting tank out of shell crater; experiments in use of grapnels to clear wire.
REEL 8 Continues: experiments in unrolling canvas from rear of tank to cover barbed wire; experiments in use of paravane to cut wire; obstacle course; experiments in fitting periscopes; strength of German barbed wire; reasons for failure of fascines in trench crossing; methods of disguising lost stores, 1919; cleaning tanks; reaction to delayed demobilisation, 1919.