Description
Object description
British private served with 8th Bn King's Own Shropshire Light Infantry in Salonika, Greece, 1915-1916
Content description
REEL 1: Aspects of background, 1896-1914: education and OTC training at Haileybury, 1910-1912; visit to Paris, France, 1912; work in family business; Recollections of period with 6th Bn Somerset Light Infantry at Aldershot, 9/1914-1/1915: enlistment despite poor eyesight at Bristol, 1/9/1914; route march; family reactions; immediate promotion to corporal; conditions of service; relationship with officers, NCOs and other ranks; Christmas celebrations, 25/12/1914; nature of training. Recollections of period at Officers' Cadet Training Unit at Oxford, 1/1915-2/1915: background to selection for commission; tactical exercise. Period with 8th Bn Somerset Light Infantry at Leighton Buzzard, 2/1915-9/1915: reception and nature of officers' mess; relationship with other ranks and supplying extra pairs of socks; training; reaction to being left behind on posting of unit to Western Front, 8/1915. Period with 9th Bn Somerset Light Infantry at Swanage, 8/1915-9/1915: appointment as battalion bombing officer; near accidents during night bombing exercise; reactions to being left behind by 8th Bn Somerset Light Infantry. Aspects of period with 16 Platoon, D Coy, 8th Bn Somerset Light Infantry in Armentieres sector, France, 9/1915-11/1915: reception; billets in asylum; German shellfire; situation in front line.
REEL 2 Continues: conditions of service and daily routine; role as battalion bombing officer; letter contact with GB; story of being wounded in leg and hand on reconnaissance patrol, 19/11/1915; evacuation to Boulogne; gas gangrene complications and operation after decision not to amputate. Period of hospitalisation and convalescence in London, 11/1915-12/1916: medical treatment; second hand story of injury in horse accident to George V; rapid recovery. Period with 9th Bn Somerset Light Infantry at Swanage, 1916: nature of hand grenade course; training role as bombing officer; use of hand grenades in trench raid tactics; expectation of return to 8th Bn Somerset Light Infantry. Period with 8th Bn Somerset Light Infantry in Somme area, 9/1916-11/1916: appointment as battalion bombing officer and to command Headquarters Coy; selection and training of bombers; state of unit; use of catapult hand grenade projector. Recollections of attack in Beaucourt sector, 18/11/1916: problems with wounded leg; move into Happy Valley.
REEL 3 Continues: view of tank; advancing along communications trench in No Man's Land to establish forward post, 17/11/1916; problems with wounded leg and refusing opportunity to be evacuated; casualties from German snipers and taking orders forward to A and B Coys during attack; evacuation due to state of leg, 19/11/1916. Period at Boulogne Camp, 11/1916: meeting operating surgeon from previous visit; electrical treatment. Aspects of period in Somme, 9/1916-11/1916: censoring letters; reason for becoming teetotal; conditions of service; German shellfire; role of officer's servant; opinion of Colonel Holidayman; question of value of religion. Period in charge of guard at Ammunition Dump at Dieppe Racecourse, 1917-1918: expansion of dump; question of security checks and increasing size of guard; patrols; composition of unit; background to change to shotguns for guards; role inspecting guards; accommodation; question of recreations and visits to Dieppe.
REEL 4 Continues: question of return to active service; stories of acting as defending officer at courts martial including successfully defending Sergeant Major Nicholls on charges resulting from collision of Medici and Darrow and defending soldiers charged with stealing from docks; story of drunken soldier; promotion to captain; awareness of situation at front; effects of influenza epidemic; passive mutiny over demobilisation process amongst guards unit; demobilisation. Story of post-war meeting with inventor of Stokes mortar.
