Farrer, Basil (Oral history)

British private served with 3rd Bn Green Howards in GB, 1913; served as stretcher bearer with Field Hospital, No 5 Ambulance Train and 13th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps on Western Front,, 1914-1916; served as stretcher bearer with 2nd Bn Green Howards on Western Front, 1915-1916; served as NCO with Army Pay Corps office in Nottingham, 1917-1919; lived in France, 1921-1939; served as NCO interpreter with Hirings Directorate, Royal Engineers in France, 1939-1940; served as billeting NCO in Nottingham area, 1940-1943; served as NCO interpreter with Headquarters, 8th Corps and 21st Army Group in North West Europe, 1944-1945

REEL 1 Background in Bradford area, Yorks 1897-1913. Background to recruitment underage with friend into 3rd (Special Reserve) Bn Green Howards, 10/5/1913: reasons; attitudes to army; procedure; overnight stay at Halifax Barracks; story of avoiding friend's relatives. Recollections of conditions of service, daily routine and training at Richmond Barracks, 5/1913-11/1913: morning routine; walking out uniform; saluting drill; importance of regimental history; link of pay and promotion to proficiency pay and educational certificates; route marches; gymnasium; bayonet training; .miniature rifle range training. REEL 2 Continues: rifle training and cleaning; clock code; obstacle course; reactions to army discipline; relationship with ORs, NCOs and officers; guard duty; visits to Richmond and question of drinking habits; barrack layout; kit inspections; functions of different uniforms; use of button stick; regimental battalion system; decision to become regular. REEL 3 Continues: background to decision to become regular with Royal Army Medical Corps; question of active service; family reaction. Recollections of training with Royal Army Medical Corps Depot at Aldershot Barracks, 11/1913-5/1914: medical training; rifle shooting for cash rewards; recreations including attending 'Penny Gaffe' music hall and visits to Union Jack Club, London; question of attacks on soldiers; medical exams. Recollections of period as quartermaster's clerk at Military Hospital, Royal Army Medical Corps, Woolwich, 5/1914-8/1914: hut accommodation; duties; mobilisation arrangements; visits to London; story of naive reaction to homosexual approach by civilian; reaction to bad language. REEL 4 Continues: Outbreak of war and mobilisation to Colchester Barracks, 8/1914: lack of prior knowledge; arrangements; uniform and kit; reactions and state of morale; story of holding horses. Voyage to Boulogne, France, 14/8/1914-15/8/1914: issue of field dressing and pay book; reaction to Kitchener's advice booklet; question of Kitchener's and regulars' attitude to territorials; view of Royal Navy escort; French territorial dock guard; contacts with Royal Flying Corps; visit to estaminet. REEL 5 Continues: reception from French civilians; camp; reading of King's regulations. Period with General Hospital, Royal Army Medical Corps at Amiens, 8/1914-9/1914: issue of field postcards; first casualties; ignorance of BEF retreat; evacuation of hospital and various moves. Recollections of missions evacuating casualties aboard No 5 Ambulance Train, Royal Army Medical Corps from various railheads to coastal ports, 9/1914-11/1914: formation with mixed British and French personnel; view of German air raid on Paris, 3/9/1914. view of French cavalry; initial reaction to German shellfire; loading train with casualties; reaction to sight of seriously wounded. REEL 6 Continues: duties on train; unloading train; ignorance of progress of war; situation on move to Ypres area 10/1914; ban on giving souvenirs to French civilians; story of meeting wounded soldier from 2nd Bn Green Howards; view of Indian troops; question of frequency of trips and situation during First Battle of Ypres. Period as ward orderly with base hospital at Maritime Station, Boulogne, 1914-1915: duties; story of accidentally stealing sergeant major's cap badge; reason for volunteering for front line service. Period as stretcher bearer with 13th Field Ambulance Royal Army Medical Corps attached to 13th Bde, 5th Div in Ypres area, 1915: situation; dugouts in railway embankment near Hellfire Corner; kit; non-combatant status; duties evacuating wounded from regimental aid posts to casualty clearing station. REEL 7 Continues: duties evacuating wounded from regimental aid posts to casualty clearing station; German shellfire; role of Royal Army Medical Corps; nicknames given RAMC and question of pilfering from casualties; view of post mortum in billet; food rations; divisional move south to relieve French units. Period in Somme area, 1915: story of mess cow left behind by French; rest periods at Corbie; identification parade; initial pay in gold on arrival in France, 1914; visits to estaminets. REEL 8 Continues: reasons for application to return to infantry, ca 10/1915. Period at Honfleur, Le Havre, 11/1915-12/1915: training including Mills hand grenades; concert parties; sings, 'I Want To Go Home' and 'Hey Ho , Poor Old Number 9'; medical officers' nicknames; second hand story of Corporal William Anderson VC; working parties in docks; guard duties. Joining 2nd Bn Yorkshire Regt at Oissy, 12/1915: use of basic French; reception; role as stretcher bearer on posting to B Coy; question of regular nature of unit; night patrols clearing estaminets and story of drunk soldier missing time expired discharge through court martial sentence. REEL 9 Continues: story of drunk soldier missing discharge as time expired regular through court martial sentence; reorganisation of 21st Bde and transfer to 30th Div; move to Somme area, 1/1916. Recollections of conditions of service and lifestyle in Carnoy/Maricourt sector, Somme area, 1/1916-6/1916: situation; nature of trenches and dugouts; question of readiness for immediate action; ration parties; issue of rum ration; cigarette ration and question of importance of smoking. REEL 10 Continues: ammunition supply; state of uniform; shaving; latrines; lice and rat problems; acclimatisation to corpses; trench feet; personal health and morale; stand to; duties as stretcher bearer; state of casualties; inclination to concentrate on wounded from own unit during attack; desire for 'Blighty wound'; recreations and question of boredom. REEL 11 Continues: reason stretcher bearers were excused other duties; food rations; night sentry duty; story of bringing in listening patrol casualty from No Man's Land and capture of pursuing German soldier; sector's quiet nature; German shellfire; story of illustrating pre-war policy of recruiting Londoners for unit; story of friend killed whilst sniping; German sniping. REEL 12 Continues: story of German gas shell bombardment whilst in reserve at previously unshelled Bomfrey Farm, 1/1916; attitude to gas; state of morale; relationship with other ranks, NCOs and officers; question of having volunteered for front line service; tours of duty. Recollections of rest periods at Bray, 1/1916-6/1916: cleaning kit, billets; quarry working party; recreations; story of being granted leave during general's inspection, 12/1915-1/1916; story of losing money playing Crown and Anchor having missed leave boat at Le Havre. REEL 13 Continues: leave in Bradford, 1/1916; visits to estaminets; relationship with French civilians; attitude to women and brothels ; parcel and letter contact with GB. Recollections of preparations for Somme offensive, 6/1916-7/1916: training on mock battlefield; lack of briefing; gift from French civilian; preliminary bombardment; reactions to issue of hand grenades to attacking troops; absence of personal weapons for stretcher bearers; lecture on use of bayonet; issue of clubs to bombing parties; attitude to general staff; ignorance of nature of German dugouts; working party digging jumping off trenches. REEL 14 Continues: Recollections of attack towards Montauban, 1/7/1916: lack of briefing; personal morale; going over top; duties as stretcher bearer and concentration on wounded from own unit; German fire; story of rescuing wounded officer and missing chance of Military Medal; question of German barbed wire; dramatic view of corpse; moving back into reserve; state of morale. Recollections of attack through Bernafay Wood towards Trones Wood, 8/7/1916: situation; medical officer's nickname; advance in close formation; question of German spys infiltrating British lines; close escape from German shell; story of soldier missing at subsequent roll call; question of success of attack; sheltering in captured German dugout. REEL 15 Continues: Period in reserve, 8/7/1916-20/7/1916. Aspects of attack from Trones Wood towards Guillemont, 23/7/1916: story of meeting padre distributing cigarettes; ground conditions; ammunition supply and rations. Recollections of period at Givenchy, Bethune area, 7/1916-10/1916: state of unit; French civilian selling newspapers in front line; trench mortars; rifle grenades; mining activity; question of atrocities committed by British troops. Recollections of period in Somme area, 10/1916: hand grenade accidents. REEL 16 Continues: jam tin hand grenades; reserve role; view of ammunition column re-supplying artillery unit under fire; treatment of German corpse; identity discs; move into line in Warlencourt sector; story of being wounded in arm. Periods at Rouen, Warrington and St Helens hospitals, 10/1916-12/1916: operation to prevent gangrene infection; pain caused by untrained nurses changing dressings; reaction to 'Blighty wound'. Periods at Richmond Barracks and West Hartlepool, 1917: state of health; recommendation for discharge on health grounds following medical board; attitude to return to active service; story of soldier feigning deafness to medical board; cancellation of discharge and posting to Army Pay Corps. Recollections of period as clerk with Army Pay Corps offices at Nottingham, 1917-1918: role dealing with accounts of Labour Corps; office personnel; story of acting as best man for Canadian soldier getting married prior to active service on Western Front. REEL 17 Continues: conditions of service in billets and relationship with family whose son was in army; recreations; studying French and shorthand for post-war career; story of death of son of billet family, mother's premonition and impact on family; hospital visits; learning to drive; duties; promotion to corporal; location of offices; card indexes; role of women; letters from soldiers' wives. REEL 18 Continues: reaction to women workers; reaction to civilian promoted to captain; degree of military discipline; efforts to return to active service; reactions to Armistice, 11/11/1918. Period with APC offices at Wimeroux, 1918-1919: duties dealing with officers' pay accounts; learning French; reactions to discharge as unfit for further service with disability pension. Work as clerk at APC office, Nottingham, 1919-1920: civilian status; studying; industrial dispute over overtime, dismissal and subsequent re-instatment thanks to intervention of Nottingham Old Comrades Association; closure of office and decision to work in Spain or France. Recollections of work in Paris, 1920-1939: accepting initial offer of accommodation, 12/1920. REEL 19 Continues: reception and accommodation; securing work as bilingual secretary in shipping office, 1921; nature of relationship between French and British; move to work at Cunard Line freight office, 1922; French attitude to First World War and possibility of renewed outbreak of war; realisation of approach of war, 1938. Recollections of impromptu speech at banquet attended by representatives of British Legion and French veterans at Les Invalides, 4/8/1939: prior ceremony at French Tomb of Unknown Soldier/ Unknown Warrior (Tombeau du Soldat Inconnu) at Arch de Triomphe; selection as French speaking veteran. REEL 20 Continues: content of speech including use of story of incident at Chateau de Fontainbleu illustrating theme of kinship between GB and France; subsequent broadcast of speech on Paris radio as propaganda and consequent reputation. Visit to register as British resident with British Military Attaché, 1938. Outbreak of war, 3/9/1939: first news whilst on holiday at Deauville; train journey to Paris; reactions of French reservists and civilians. Background to enlistment as sergeant interpreter with Royal Engineers 10/11/1939: lack of availability of commissions; negotiation with Cunard over continuation of salary during war service. Period with Hirings Directorate, Royal Engineers at GHQ Headquarters, BEF at Le Mans and Rouen, 11/1939-5/1940: role negotiating payments for requisitioned property; situation following German attack 5/1940; refugees on roads; securing reunification of family at Le Mans, 28/5/1940. REEL 21 Continues: arrangements to evacuate family, 12/6/1940; fears for family safety following sinking of Lancastria; evacuation via St Malo to GB, 16/6/1940-18-6/1940. Period as assistant quartering commandant at Hardwick House, Nottingham, 8/1940-12/1943: prior situation as Royal Engineers sergeant without specialist qualifications; role requisitioning property and securing billets; story of being dissuaded by officer from volunteering for specialist duties with Intelligence Corps; question of civilian opposition to billeting troops. Period with Royal Engineers Depot, Halifax, 121943-6/1944: situation as Royal Engineers sergeant without specialist qualification; story of failing interview due to C3 medical category and securing A1 grade; rejecting posting to Field Coy. Motorbike training during period at Interpreters' Pool, Royal Engineers, Great Central Hotel, Marylebone, London, 6/1944-7/1944: motorbike training. REEL 22 Continues: question of adequacy of motorbike training. Period as interpreter with VIII Corps, 7/1944-8/1944: role settling claims by French civilians for any looting by British troop; importance of maintaining morale French civilian; adjudicating role of town mayors. Period attached to at Headquarters, 21st Army Group, 8/1944-7/1945: movements; role as interpreters' pool clerk; story illustrating reception from Belgian civilians on liberation of Brussels, Belgium; detachment to Works Directorate, Royal Engineers and role redirecting timber exports from Switzerland to British military depots; VE Day, 8/5/1945; demobilisation, 7/1945. Post-war career with Cunard Line: difficulties in negotiating re-employment in GB due to status as Paris staff; inadequate pension. REEL 23 Continues: return to work at Paris office, 1946; effect on health of treatment by Cunard. Introduces and recites own poems inspired by question of official recognition of First World War service.