Description
Object description
British private served with 9th Bn Royal Fusiliers on Western Front, 1918
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Acton, London, 1900-1918: father's nursery business; education and scholarship to Acton County School, 1912-1916; interest in music and singing; family's Methodist religion; reactions to outbreak of war, 4/8/1914; attitude to Germans and treatment of local German businesses; German schoolboy recalled to join German Army; question of boys joining army; reason for not joining OTC; pre-conceptions of nature of war; news of progress of war; German atrocity stories; opinion of conscientious objectors; German daylight air raid on London, 7/1917; attitude to war; question of effect of war on father's nursery and household servants.
REEL 2 Continues: work for city insurance company, 1916; work as clerk with London department store, 1917, including duties, question of women employees and absence of shortages; question of white feathers; awareness of conditions on Western Front; politics and reading Weekly Herald. Recollections of conscription procedure at Scotland Yard, 7/4/1918: prior return of postcard indicating willingness to be conscripted, 2/1918; medical; swearing in and payment to NCO; quality of conscripts. Kitting out at Hounslow Barracks, 4/1918. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine with 6th (Training) Bn, Middlesex Regt at Kitchener Barracks, Chatham, 4/1918-7/1818: journey and reception; barrack room accommodation.
REEL 3 Continues: food rations; canteen; question of recreations and sport; gymnasium; relationship with NCOs; inspection by Duke of Connaught, relationship with NCOs, other ranks and officers; opinion of army lifestyle; punishment drill for being late back from embarkation leave; opinion of Sergeant Major Warboys' VC; failure to use letters of introduction; pay supplemented by parents; PT; route marches and songs sung.
REEL 4 Continues: reception from civilians during route marches; rifle and observation training; drill; bayonet training; hand grenade training and inserting detonators; gas mask drill; erection of barbed wire; mock attack on trenches; lecture on regimental traditions and not taking POWs; advice from NCOs on conditions on Western Front; attempt to obtain new tunic.
REEL 5 Continues: News of early draft to France, 7/8/1918: reactions; embarkation leave; send off; journey out via Folkestone. Period at Infantry Base Depot, Etaples, 8/1918: conditions of service; opinion of base personnel; guarding German POWs;. Posting to B Coy, 9th Bn, Royal Fusiliers in Somme area, 26/8/1918: division of draft and reactions to leaving Middlesex Regt; train journey; march across old battlefields and training sessions; reception on joining unit and implications of reinforcement drafts.
REEL 6 Continues: Colonel van Someran's reputation; reception; move into front line. Account of attack in Hardecourt sector, 27/8/1918-28/8/1918: prior rum ration; lack of briefing; short preliminary barrage; personal morale; successful advance and consolidation; story of accidentally firing on British troops illustrating lack of training and confused nature of situation; personal morale; deep trench dug; ammunition carrying party; minimal casualties. Period in reserve trenches in Nurlu sector, 8/1918-9/1918: getting lost coming out of line; training; congratulations from Major General Higginson; joining Lewis gun team as ammunition number; attack training; meeting van Someran; march forward to front line; absence of briefing prior to advance and taking up defensive positions, 18/9/1918.
REEL 7 Continues: Verey light signal indicating threat of German counter-attack and arrival of machine gun reinforcements; artillery creeping barrage. Conditions of service in Somme area, 8/1918-9/1918: ration parties; food rations; baths in rest areas; question of shaving; lice problem; latrines; rat and earwig problems. Recollections of operations in Epehy sector, 21/9/1918: prior indications and arrival of reinforcement drafts, 20/9/1918; move up to front line; preliminary bombardment; advance, 21/9/1918; casualties from German machine gun fire; taking shelter in shellhole; withdrawal to front line at night; collecting wounded from No Mans Land; relief and re-organisation into two companies due to casualties; corpse; officer's use of hand grenades during feint attack along communication trench, 23/9/1918.
REEL 8 Continues: feint attack along communication trench and success in enfilading German attack, 23/9/1918; Lewis gunner's wound. Recollections of advance from Vimy towards Orchies, 9/1918-11/1918: story of accidentally discharged pistol; inspection by Major General Higginson whilst on guard duty in camp; state of morale; conversations; move into trenches in Vimy sector; German sniper problem due to gap in trench; unopposed advance in stages; question of booby traps; advance formation employed; casualties and conditions of service during operations against German rearguard positions in Fort Maulde sector.
REEL 9 Continues: school billets; practising changed saluting drill; news of Armistice, 11/11/1918; story illustrating immediate return to peacetime military values; recites 'Oh What a Happy Land is England'. Recollections of period in France, 11/1918-4/1919: shortage of food rations; billets with French family; duties as orderly room clerk and story illustrating attitude to non-war service officers; story of impact of returning accurate stores returns to divisional headquarters; billets with French family. Reactions to casualties on rejoining original Chatham draft at Calais, 4/1918. Period attached to Royal Army Ordnance Corps Depot at Vendroux, 4/1919-7/1919: posting to Sussex Regt on dissolution of 9th Bn Royal Fusiliers; duties in accounts department; protest over introduction of evening parades; question of demobilisation.
REEL 10 Continues: parade in fighting order ready to deal with soldiers protesting against demobilisation delays, 6/1919; story of meeting friend from insurance company in billets during war; question of postings to Russia or Egypt; GB leave. Period on clerical duties allocating German POW working parties with Assistant Controller of Labour at Dunkirk, 7/1919-12/1919. Demobilisation, 12/1919. Post-war career: initial difficulty in securing work in City due to subsidies for employing ex-officers; work as articled clerk; effects of war service. Various aspects of service on Western Front, 1918: story illustrating comradeship in trenches; amusing story of sentries adjusting watch time to shorten guard duty at night in trenches; question of role of religion; story of missing action due to attending non-conformist church parade.
