Darby, Edward (Oral history)

British private served as bus driver and mechanic with Motor Transport Auxiliary, Army Service Corps on Western Front, 1914-1915

REEL 1: [Soundtrack from London Transport Museum video, including recollections by George Gwynn, Edward Darby and Florence Cordell], precedes interview] Interview with Edward Darby: Background in London, 1891-1914: family; early memories of horse-drawn buses; employment with blacksmith making horse shoes; story of killing rats for sport; memory of dung cart; description of horses being killed and taken to knacker's yard; driving conditions in London; problem of pollution; street lighting; cleaning and maintenance of buses in depot; replacement of cushions; hours of work; story of pigeons; competition between bus companies. REEL 2 Continues: bus fares; description of different liveries for each company; memory of outbreak of war, 8/1914; employment as chauffeur and question of going to America; reaction to War Office appeal for mechanics and drivers. Aspects of period as private with Army Service Corps in GB, 1914: story of enlistment, Whitehall, London, 19/Oct/1914; attestation; sent to Grove Park; medical; issued with uniform; pay; army number; posted to Hammersmith Garage; drove bus to Grove Park; slept in hospital; question of military training; drove to Ascot Racecourse; problem of lack of officers; drove to Marlborough; issued with rifle; drove to Avonmouth; embarkation aboard transport ship used by Belgian refugees; description of voyage to France and conditions aboard ship; problem of seasickness; disembarked at Rouen. Aspects of operations as bus driver and mechanic with Army Service Corps on Western Front, 1914-1915: opinion of rations; route march; slept on bus; problem with tying up puttees; description of buses being cut in half to make lorries; slept in driver's seat; posted to Abbeville; story of buying bread; description of terrain and trenches; attached to 2nd Cavalry Div at Hazebrouck; use of tarpaulins to provide cover for bus; use of bus as mobile workshop; story of using bus to pull guns out of mud; description of being under German shellfire; summary of war service, 1915-1918.