Description
Object description
British private served with 2nd and 5th Bn, Middlesex Regt on Western Front, 1917-1918; POW in Germany, 1918
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in London, Ascot and Reading, 1899-1917: family circumstances; education; Boy Scouts activities including meetings with Lord Roberts and Baden-Powell; work in hotel in London, ca 1913-1914, including initial role as pantry boy, story of beating from German porter, promotion to page boy, staff of foreign origin and background to decision to leave.
REEL 2 Continues: work as ostler's assistant at hotel in Reading, ca 1914-1915; outbreak of war, 4/8/1914; failure of attempt to join up underage; work as footman in private house in London, ca 1915-1917, including complement of servants, entertaining parties of wounded soldiers from hospital, employer's provision and service with ambulance for French Army and stories of household dog; stories of working behind bar at wine merchants in London, 1917.
REEL 3 Continues: stories of working behind bar at wine merchants in London, 1917. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine with Training Reserve Bn, Middlesex Regt at Aldershot Barracks, Colchester and Norwich, 6/1917-10/1917: initial call up to report to Chelsea Barracks, London; reactions; medical; pay and allowance to mother; reception; stories illustrating money making ruses of old soldier; uniform; boxing match; role as right hand man during route marches; relationship with NCOs including practical jokes and instruction to write to parents; minimal contact with officers; night trench digging; problem with weak bladders.
REEL 4 Continues: method of overcoming weak bladders; method of digging trenches on Western Front, 1918; nature of training; subsequent relevance of gas mask training; reactions to military discipline and lifestyle; barrack room sleeping arrangements; food rations; minimal contact with civilians; move to Colchester, ca 11/1917; nature of training; anti-VD precautions; recreations and attempted ban on gambling; move to Norwich, ca 1/1918; billets; attending NCO training course. Background to posting with draft to Infantry Base Depot, Etaples, France, ca 3/1918: news of posting; promotion to corporal; reactions to lack of embarkation leave; awareness of high NCO casualties unofficial removal of corporal's stripes during Channel crossing; story of officer's reaction to soldier's loss of nerve on first experience in action.
REEL 5 Continues: reactions to lack of embarkation leave and posting overseas; Channel crossing and initial role as NCO; chaotic situation at Etaples. Recollections of period with battalion of Middlesex Regt in Villers Bretonneux sector, Somme area, ca 3/1918-5/1918: prior selection for draft and movements; movements between shell holes in makeshift front line; use of hand grenades; isolated situation; capture of German prisoner and learning of impending German attack; German bombardment; firing rifles at advancing German troops. REEL 6 Continues: story of being captured by German soldier; discovery of shrapnel wound; move back towards German lines and orders to assist seriously wounded German soldier; joining main body of British POWs and separation of wounded; nature of trenches; food rations; water supply; near accident with rifle grenade; absence of rats; near accident with rifle grenade; opinion that both British and Germans were firing onto front line; reaction to corpse; terrain and situation; absence of German troops during patrol in front line area. Recollections of initial period as POW, ca 5/1918: collection and processing of German and British corpses; conditions; state of morale of British POWs and German guards; mass burial of British corpses; English speaking wounded German soldier during train journey to Valenciennes, 1918. REEL 7 Period in hospital at Valenciennes, ca 5/1918: state of wounded German soldiers; story of British POW selling boots for cigarettes; state of gas victims; medical treatment and piece of shrapnel left in body; conditions. Recollections of period in Namur Cavalry Barracks, ca 5/1918: conditions; treatment by English speaking German officer; question of hostility between Germans and Russians; problems during train journey to Cologne, Germany. Recollections of period at Dulman Camp, Cologne area, Germany,: varied nationalities of POWs; light working party duty assisting in transport of latrine manure to local farms; makeshift cigarettes; food; threat to shoot POWs attempting to escape; influenza epidemic; Red Cross parcels for long standing POW and absence of stealing amongst POWs; personal morale; role of NCOs. Period at POW camp in Munster area, 1918: illustration of shortage of rubber; shortage of German men.
REEL 8 Continues: arrival at camp; national origin of POWs; work parties on farm; wooden clogs; German guards discovery of food stolen during farm work parties; cooked cat; absence of food parcels; reactions to first news of Armistice and celebratory visit to local German pub, 11/1918; recreations and use of camp pay in canteen; lice problem and bath. Period at Munster POW Camp, 11/1918: photograph session in paper suit; uniform; reaction of German guards to end of war and situation; theft of personal souvenirs; story of intervening in preventing Italian POWs attacking Russian POW; train journey to Netherlands.
REEL 9 Period at Eriskie and Rotterdam in Netherlands, ca 11/1918-12/1918: reception; priority for long term POWs in rota for return to GB; new uniforms; recreations. Period in GB, 1918-1919: reception on arrival at Hull; leave; reporting to collect pay at Mill Hill Barracks; duties as officer's servant; Period as guard at Donnington Hall German Officers' POW Camp, 1919: reception of Admiral von Scheer on arrival at camp after scuttling of High Seas Fleet; conditions for German POWs; disarming of guards after shooting incident; demobilisation, 12/1919. Post-war career: difficulties in finding work; story of securing position as shop porter and subsequent promotion.
