Description
Object description
British officer served with 1/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, Lancashire Fusiliers Bde, East Lancashire Div in GB and Egypt, 11/1913-5/1915; served with 1/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, 125th Bde, 42nd (East Lancashire) Div at Gallipoli, Turkey, Egypt and on Western Front, 5/1915-6/1918
Content description
REEL 1 Background in GB, 1894-1912: family; education at Uppingham School, 1904-1912. Aspects of enlistment and training as officer with 1/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, Lancashire Fusiliers Bde, East Lancashire Div in Bury, GB, 11/1913-8/1914: joining Territorial Army and basic training; mobilising to join No 3 Platoon, A Coy at Bury Drill Hall, 4/8/1914. Aspects of period as officer with 1/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, Lancashire Fusiliers Bde, East Lancashire Div at Turton Camp, GB, 8/1914-9/1914; volunteering for overseas service; story illustrating effect of military discipline. Aspects of voyage aboard HMT Menominee from GB to Egypt, 9/1914: seasickness; sings song, 'Homeland'. Recollections of period as officer with 1/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, Lancashire Fusiliers Bde, East Lancashire Div at Abbassia Barracks, Cairo and Mustapha Pasha Barracks, Alexandria, Egypt, 9/1914-4/1915: training; orderly officer duties; mess life; footballing activities; question of prior knowledge of posting to Gallipoli; bartering with Egyptian civilians; platoon NCOs; effect of smallpox vaccinations.
REEL 2 Continues: smallpox case; uniform and equipment; Recollections of operations as officer with 1/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, 125th Bde, 42nd (East Lancashire) Div at Gully Ravine, Cape Helles, Gallipoli, Turkey, 5/5/1915-7/5/1915: voyage from Egypt via Mudros, Lemnos Island, Greece to Cape Helles, 5/1915; situation on landing at W Beach, 5/5/1915; move inland to Pink Farm, 6/5/1915; accompanying brigadier as liaison officer during tour of front line in sector held by 1/6th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers; return to platoon duties. Account of attack as officer with 1/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, 125th Bde, 42nd (East Lancashire) Div along Fusilier Bluff, Gallipoli, Turkey, 7/5/1915: briefing and tactics; problems posed by scrub; personal morale; night move up towards front line; increasing fire during rushes forward to British front line; move towards sea; breakdown of attack in No Man's Land; sheltering on cliff face; question of casualties; personal morale. Recollections of operations as officer with 1/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, 125th Bde, 42nd (East Lancashire) Div in White Trench, Gallipoli, Turkey, 8/5/1915-3/6/1915: initial construction of trench; evening sentry inspection.
REEL 3 Continues: living conditions; working parties unloading stores from beach; effects of rain during period in 2nd Australian Line; nearby Eski Line; story of sending underclothes back to GB to be washed; question of lice problem; football pitch in Gully Ravine; story of failure of attempt to obtain extra ration from quartermaster sergeant, 3/6/1915. Account of attack as officer with 1/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, 125th Bde, 42nd (East Lancashire) Div towards Krithia, Gallipoli, Turkey, 4/6/1915: role holding front line whilst 1/8th (Ardwick) Bn Manchester Regt attacked; positions near Krithia Nullah; bombardment and ruse to fool Turks; attack of 1/8th (Ardwick) Bn Manchester Regt; personal morale; story of wounding in chest and arm whilst attempting to rescue wounded soldier; return to front line; evacuation; view from front line.
REEL 4 Continues: Aspects of medical evacuation from Gallipoli, Turkey to and hospitalisation in Alexandria, Egypt, 6/1915-7/1915: evacuation by stretcher to beach, 4/6/1915-5/6/1915; voyage aboard hospital ship to Alexandria, 6/1916; changing state of personal morale during period in hospital at Alexandria, 6/1915-7/1915. Recollections of operations as officer with 1/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, 125th Bde, 42nd (East Lancashire) Div at Cape Helles, Gallipoli, Turkey, 7/1915-9/1915: reception by Major-General Sir William Douglas; initial positions in K11 Trench during attack by 52nd Div at Krithia Nullah, 15/7/1915; troops' efforts to obtain self-inflicted wounds; story of Turkish listening patrol; nature of fighting; fly problem; surprise at absence of cholera; presence of unburied corpses; milk diet during evacuation with dysentery to Mudros, Lemnos Island, Greece, 3/8/1915; state of unit; move into positions in Bury Trench, Fusilier Bluff; rest camp at Gully Beach; unit morale; character of Gully Ravine; method of avoiding finding sentries asleep; self-inflicted wounds; duties as bombing officer and use of jam tin bombs; story of dispute with officer over working party duty.
REEL 5 Continues: rest periods; sea bathing; role as bombing officers; effects of fatigue; opinion of Turkish troops; opinion of strategic situation at Gallipoli; evacuation with dysentery to Mudros, Lemnos Island, Greece, 15/9/1915; story of failed ruse to secure passage on HMT Aquitania prior to voyage to GB, 9/1915; period with 3/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers at Royal Tunbridge Wells, GB, 1915-1916. Recollections of operations as officer with 1/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, 125th Bde, 42nd (East Lancashire) Div in Egypt, 5/1916-2/1917: reaction to rejoining unit at Suez, 5/1916; state of unit.movements; digging trenches at Balley Bunion; story illustrating excessive thirst suffered by troops during march from Romani to Katia Oasis, 8/1916; advance to El-Arish, 12/1916; conditions of service; relations with other ranks; re-equiping for Western Front; story of failed torpedo attack on SS Megantic during voyage from Egypt to Marseille, France, 2/1917.
REEL 6 Continues: Recollections of operations as officer with 1/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, 125th Bde, 42nd (East Lancashire) Div on Somme, France, 3/1917-8/1917: in billets at Liercourt; German withdrawal to Hindenburg Line during period of trench experience with 1st Div at Villers-Carbonnel, 3/1917; flight in brother's Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c aircraft; movements; role commanding successful fighting patrol attacking German sentry post in Femy Wood; question of dugouts; German barbed wire; question of tanks; absence of sleep; story of narrow escape from minenwerfer; opinion of British trench mortar teams.
REEL 7 Continues: trench digging and rats in rest at Biaches; leave periods; personal morale. Recollections of period in Ypres area, Belgium, 8/1917-9/1917: situation; support line positions at Billcot Pillbox; story illustrating opinion of Major-General Bertram Mitford; breastwork trenches; route to front line, ground conditions and use of duckboards; story of narrow escape from shell on ration party duty and subsequent brief shell shock; support role and story of calling up artillery fire on German counter-attack during attack on Borry Farm, 6/9/1917; informal truce to collect corpses from no mans land; opinion of high command and strategic situation; issue of rum ration.
REEL 8 Continues: story of getting lost on Frezenberg Ridge; daylight reconnaissance; derelict tanks; story illustrating courage of stretcher-bearers under fire. Aspects of operations as officer with 1/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, 125th Bde, 42nd (East Lancashire) Div in Nieuport area, Belgium, 9/1917-11/1917: situation in positions across Yser Canal; regular artillery shelling at road junction. Recollections of operations as officer with 1/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, 125th Bde, 42nd (East Lancashire) Div at Givenchy-en-Gohelle, France, 11/1917-2/1918: situation; German raid; German Christmas and New Year gas bombardments; dugouts; absence of rats; washing; officers drinking habits. Aspects of period as officer with 1/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, 125th Bde, 42nd (East Lancashire) Div in divisional reserve at Houchin, France, 2/1918-3/1918: assignment to battalion cadre and subsequent capture of replacement during German offensive, 3/1918; ruse to extend leave in GB. Aspects of operations as officer with 1/5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, 125th Bde, 42nd (East Lancashire) Div at Gommecourt, France, 4/1918-6/1918: situation.
REEL 9 Continues: situation; value of experience in avoiding artillery shells; cancellation of raid using artillery box barrage method planned to pre-empt German attack; question of determining landing point of shells and evasive action. Aspects of hospitalisation in France and medical evacation to GB, 7/1918: hospitalisation with influenza at Rouen, France, 7/1918; evacuation to GB, 7/1918; posting to 4/5th Bn Lancashire Fusliers in Scarborough, GB, 7/1918-1/1919. Aspects of demobilisation in GB, 1/1919: reasons for not rejoining Territorial Army; reserve officer status; reported stories illustrating courage and character of Victoria Cross winner Lieutenant-Colonel Neville Marshall.
