Description
Object description
British NCO served with Royal Engineers Signal Service and Royal Corps of Signals on Western Front and in Russia, 1915-1923
Content description
REEL 1: Background in Yorkshire, 1898-1913: family; joined Territorial Army, 4/1913; transferred to Regular Army and reaction to outbreak of war, 8/1914. Recollections of operations with Royal Engineers Signal Service on Western Front, 1915-1918: description of journey to France, 13/Apr/1915; role as wireless operator; question of previous telegraphy experience; transferred from Royal Army Medical Corps to Royal Engineers Signals Section, 9/1915; description of role at Wireless Direction Finding Station, Ypres, Belgium; use of canvas signals on ground for aircraft; daily routine and living conditions; memory of collecting corpses; description of accommodation in sap on banks of Yser Canal; problem of contracting trench fever and treatment; opinion of rations; story of setting up aerial in tree; comments on development of signals technology during war; question of sending messages in code and sector covered; story of being wounded by shellfire; description of an estaminet; story of organizing newspaper for infantry; sap nicknamed Marconi House; two memories of men being killed and wounded in trenches.
REEL 2 Continues: pre-war career as entertainer; amusing story of champagne; memory of concert given by Harry Lauder; question of troops singing and obscene lyrics; sings song; opinion of Germans and German POWs; attitude to war; story of gas attack at Ypres, 4/1915; casualties and removal of corpses; reaction to death; further description of living conditions in sap on Yser Canal; washing facilities and problem of lice; transferred to Mons area and posted to 52nd Lowland Div Wireless Coy, 1918; story of receiving news of Armistice, 11/11/1918; memory of men killed after Armistice; duties as sergeant in charge of signals units in Namur and Charleroi, Belgium, 1918-1919.
REEL 3 Continues: question of rank. Recollections of operations in Russia, 1919-1923: story of journey to Russia via France and Italy, 1919; arrival in port of Novorossiysk, Russia, 1919; first impression of town and conditions; political situation and attitude of Russian people; accommodation; story of sentry frozen to death; various aspects of social life; amusing story of attending ballet; posted to Allied HQ in Sebastopol, 2/1920 and role in charge of wireless station; posted to Djankoi and role in communications between Cossack and Allied armies; daily life and conditions; amusing story of Russian officer; opinion of Cossacks; recreational activities; memory of executed Bolshevik men and women at railway station.
REEL 4 Continues: question of political situation in Russia; memory of Cossack General Slachoff; opinion of Russian military discipline; description of daily life in Crimea; further comments on nature of communications work between British and Russian staff in Sebastopol; social life and recreational activities in Sebastopol; posted to HQ Army of the Black Sea, Constantinople, 6/1920; further comments on signals work and problem of language; story of visiting British cemetery in Crimea; reflections on period in Russia and purpose of intervention; attitude to Bolsheviks; question of Russian society and class structure.
