Description
Object description
British NCO served with 12th Bn Royal Fusiliers in GB and on Western Front, 1914-1916; served as officer with 8th and 9th Bns Royal Fusiliers on Western Front, 1917-1918; present at Etaples Mutiny, 9/1917; served with Somerset Light Infantry in GB, 1939-1941; served with Royal Indian Catering Corps in India, 1941-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Windsor, 1896-1910: memory of Queen Victoria; preparatory school; education as boarder at public school including syllabus, patriotic attitudes; drill. Recollections of working at pawnbrokers in Ladbroke Grove and South Kensington, London, 1910-1912: duties as warehouse boy and description of pawn system; duties as pawn ticket writer; nature of customers. Recollections of work as actor, 1912-1914: initial duties as 'utility' actor; nature, composition and repertoire of touring company; dissolution of company; work as circus clown; state of family; acting in touring musical comedy; acting in play at London Palladium.
REEL 2 Continues: approach of war; celebrations on outbreak of war outside Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace; 4/8/1914; decision to volunteer, working notice at work and reactions; pre-conceptions of nature of war. Recruitment into Royal Fusiliers at Munster Road Recruitment Office, Fulham, 28/8/1914: advice not to put actor as civilian employment; competition between regimental recruiting sergeants; medical. Reception into 4 Coy 12th Bn Royal Fusiliers at White City and Hounslow Barracks, 9/1914: personal possession; chaotic situation at White City; drill; absence of uniform; state of unit. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine at Shoreham Camp, 9/1914-8/1915: reception; gradual issue of uniform and equipment; food rations.
REEL 3 Continues: food rations; tent accommodation; relationship with other ranks and NCOs; duties on promotion to acting unpaid lance corporal; opinion of officers; sporting activities; visits to local towns, drinking habits and relationship with civilians; period in winter billets in Shoreham and Brighton, 12/1914-1/1915; new hut accommodation at Shoreham Camp; beds; kit inspections; route marches including band, songs sung and reception from civilians; bayonet and rifle training; fatal rifle accident at Loos, France, 9/1915; passing as second class rifle shot at Pirbright range.
REEL 4 Continues: question of relevance and adequacy of training; pride in regiment; question of Gallipoli posting. Journey out to Loos sector, 9/1915. Aspects of operations in Loos sector, Bethune area, 9/1915: reaction to returning wounded; initial impressions on approach to Fosse 8 sector; story of separation from ration party and joining in attack with Scottish troops; story of rescuing wounded soldier; rejoining unit. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine mainly in Zillebeke and Sanctuary Wood sectors, Ypres area, 10/1915-2/1916: initial attachment for trench experience to 1st Bn Royal Fusiliers; presence of Royal Naval detachment; German sniper; nature of trenches; food, water and rum rations; washing and shaving; latrines; lice problem and baths at Renninghelst.
REEL 5 Continues: rat and mice problems; burial of corpses; question of effect of cold and wet conditions; state of health; use of periscopes at stand to; verbal exchanges with German troops; morning inspection; daytime routine duties and recreations; reconnaissance patrols; wiring parties; German shellfire, sniping; hand grenades; machine gun fire; question of use of rifle; state of morale; shortage of officers; rest periods including food rations, standard of appearance expected.
REEL 6 Continues: rest periods including military punishments, working parties assisting Royal Engineers, training, football activities, organising company concert parties, visits to estaminets, relationship with Belgian civilians, letter and parcel contact with GB; story of slight shrapnel wrist wound and treatment at regimental aid post, 2/1916; story of being wounded in leg by sniper in tree, evacuation by stretcher and medical treatment, 2/1916. Hospitalisation and convalescence in London, 2/1916-8/1916: question of 'Blighty' wound; medical treatment. Periods with 14th and 5th Bns Royal Fusiliers at Dover, 1916. nature of duties; reasons for application for commission. Recollections of period with No 10 Officers Cadet Bn at Kimnel Park, 12/1916-2/1917: visits to Rhyl; syllabus; confidence in command skills; visit to officers' mess; question of status as 'gentleman'.
REEL 7 Continues: question of origin and suitability of cadets; shortage of officers. Commission into 5th Bn Royal Fusiliers at Dover, 3/1917: story of underage soldier; inadequacy of pay to cover billet expenses. Period at Infantry Base Depot, Etaples, 3/1917: officers servants; training in Bull Ring; opinion of instructors. Recollections of period with 8 Platoon, D Coy 8th Bn Royal Fusiliers in Arras and Somme areas, 4/1917-5/1917: reception from Major Sam Saunders; analysis of officers' drinking habits in and out of front line; story of drunken officer on working party; duties of officer's servant; relationship with other ranks; story of hungover soldiers from drinking brandy sediment during successful attack in Arras area, 9/4/1917.
REEL 8 Continues: officers' food rations supplemented by company mess; story illustrating shortage of officers; company mess dugout; duties as platoon commander; writing articles for 'Continental Daily Mail'; methods leading reconnaissance patrols and story of taking German prisoner; story of successful daytime raid in Somme area including timed box barrage and being followed into No Man's Land by dog, reaching German support line, taking German prisoners and evacuation of casualties; failed night raid; story of being concussed, deafened and wounded by German shell, 5/1917.
REEL 9 Continues: Hospitalisation and convalescence in France, 1917. Story of meeting actor prior to raid. Recollections of period with No 17 Infantry Base Depot, 9/1917: reaction to training; feeling faint and refusal to do further Bull Ring training. Account and analysis of events during mutiny at Etaples, 9/1917: recreational visit to Paris Plage; reactions to presence of troops in Etaples; orders from adjutant to prevent mutinous troops crossing Etaples bridge with armed party of Royal Fusiliers from 17 Infantry Bde Depot conversation with mutineers; reasons for abandoning bridge and allowing mutinous troops through; return to 17 Infantry Bde Depot; joining group of officers and failed attempt to close estaminet in Etaples; return to 17 Infantry Bde Depot; avoiding senior officers prior to return to unit; behaviour of mutinous troops in Etaples, 20.00, 9/1917; absence of signs of mutiny during parade of Royal Fusiliers on first return to 17 Infantry Bde Depot; reports of origins of mutiny and shooting of Military Police; question of sympathy for mutinous troops due to conduct of instructors; opinion of Brigadier Thompson and opinion of his training methods; disposition of armed party of Royal Fusiliers holding Etaples bridge; gathering crowd of mutinous troops in front of bridge and absence of ringleaders; state of morale amongst armed party of Royal Fusiliers.
REEL 10 Continues: state of morale amongst armed party of Royal Fusiliers; question of sympathy for mutinous troops; personal morale; lack of revolver; lack of expedience in coping with mutiny; reasons for abandoning bridge and allowing mutinous troops through; return to 17 Infantry Bde Depot; joining group of officers and failed attempt to close estaminet in Etaples; behaviour of mutinous troops in Etaples; avoiding senior officers prior to return to unit; rumours as to subsequent events; absence of ringleaders and scepticism as to reported ability of Percy Topliss to impersonate officer. Recollections of period in Arras and Cambrai areas, 9/1917-1/1918: visit to officers' club in Arras; attack with tanks on Lone Farm, Cambrai area, 11/1917, including tank crew's refusal to proceed beyond No Man's Land, success despite lack of tank assistance, successful German counter-attack; story of ignoring drunken soldier during retreat.
REEL 11 Continues: GB leave, 12/1917-1/1918; posting to 8th Platoon B Coy 9th Bn Royal Fusiliers on disbandment of 8th Bn Royal Fusiliers. Recollections of period on Western Front, 2/1918-11/1918: initial dispute with company commander over seniority and reaction of Colonel van Someran; relationship between 8th and 9th Bns Royal Fusiliers; stories illustrating relationship with Portuguese troops; opinion of van Someran; quiet nature of Armentieres sector; recreations during rest periods including sporting activities, concert parties, gambling card games, visits to Amiens and question of relationship with French women.
REEL 12 Continues: recreations during rest periods including question of relationship with French women, visits to restaurants and bars in Amiens; emergency soldiers; emergency move to Somme area on German offensive, 3/1918; situation and nature of retreat; 3/1918; story of prior successful raid with 8th Bn Royal Fusiliers on Twin Copse Trench, Arras area, 4/1917, including prioir reconnaisance, rushing objective and reactions to personally shooting two German; nature of retreat, 3/1918; story of guarding shot down Sopwith Camel; situation; opinion of quality of reinforcement drafts; German offensive in Somme area, 4/1918, including question of prior warning, view of C Coy counter-attack; use of Lewis gun and success in holding line.
REEL 13 Continues: German offensive in Somme area, 5/1918, including question of decline in quality of German troops, story of sending runners to bring down artillery fire on German sniper in Albert church and consequent fall of leaning Virgin; recall to battalion headquarters and forming defensive line with headquarters personnel; corporal's loss of nerve; reconnaissance to locate origin of SOS signal; reactions to German shellfire; qualities as officer; story of hitting drunk Australian soldier. Story of being wounded during attack in Somme area, 8/8/1918: confused situation prior to decision to advance; severe leg wounds from German machine gun fire in No Man's Land; applying tourniquet to leg; troops refusal to advance and question of 'shell hole droppers'; further shrapnel knee wound; state of legs; evacuation on stretcher by German POWs; ambulance evauation and initial medical treatment; amputation of left leg at casualty clearing station; story of post war employment of sergeant who took over command during attack; strategic situation; volunteering to return to unit with artificial leg. Hospitalisation in Somerville College, Oxford, 1918-1919.
REEL 14 Continues: state of right leg; successful fitting of artificial leg; question of attending Victory Parade; Armistice Day celebrations, 11/11/1918; volunteering to join RAF and consequent delay in demobilisation; work as touring company manager during sick leave; resignation of commission, 11/1919. Post-war career, 1919-1939: work as actor; meeting with Bruce Bairnsfeather; question of effects of war service; pension and gratuities; review of varied work career in theatre, restaurants, publican and hotelier; joining Emergency Reserve of Officers, 1938. Recollections of service with with 8th Bn Somerset Light Infantry in GB, 1939-1941: removal from Emergency Reserve of Officers owing to physical condition, 1939; background to registering for call up as private initially with National Defence Company, 1939; guard duties at BBC; story of building cookhouse; story of local attempts to stop application for commission; story of passing medicals as B2 and award of commission in unit; question of original completion of medical forms omitting mention of loss of leg.
REEL 15 Continues: question of original completion of medical forms omitting mention of loss of leg; relationship with officers; role guarding Westlands Airfield, Yeovil; relationship with officers and other ranks; providing labour for local farmers; inability to march at light infantry pace; move out of officers' mess; story of crash of P2 experimental aircraft and flight with test pilot; background to volunteering for India service to avoid demobilisation. Service with Royal Indian Catering Corps, Indian Army mainly at Rawalpindi, India, 1941-1945: prior interview; initial role as messing officer; work as depot supervising officer; acting as officers' mess secretary; posting as station staff officer, organising officers' hotel accommodation; stories illustrating relationship with Indian civilians and servants;horse racing activities; return to GB, 7/1945. Demobilisation, 11/1945. Post-war career and marriage.
