Description
Object description
British private served with 11th Bn East Lancashire Regt in GB, Egypt and on Western Front, 1914-1916; served with 6th Bn East Lancashire Regt in Mesopotamia, 1917
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Chorley area, Lancs, 1898-1914: family circumstances; education; work as weaver in mill; work at rubber works; football activities. Background to enlistment underage and training with 11th Bn East Lancashire Regt at Chorley, 17/9/1914: reasons for joining with rest football team; passing medical; mother's reaction; home billets; route marches and drill; reactions to army discipline; relationship with NCOs. Aspects of period at training in GB, 2/1915-12/1915: billets at Caernarvon; question of underage status and relationship with Colonel Rickman and other ranks; morning route march; food rations; relationship with officers; football activities; nature of training; question of move to reserve unit and Colonel Rickman's awareness of underage status; nature of training on move to Cannock Chase, 5/1915.
REEL 2 Continues: question of movements. Aspects of period in Port Said, Egypt, 1/1916-3/1916. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine in Beaumont Hamel/Serre sector, Somme area, France, 3/1916-6/1916: reaction on leaving Egypt; story illustrating innocence; reception on arrival in Marseilles; first approach to front line via underground passage from sugar factory; nature of trenches and dugouts; wet conditions; barbed wire; food rations; water supply; cigarette and rum rations; rest period shower baths; lice problem; rat and corpse problem; effects of wet conditions; question of stand to; improving trenches; posting as Colonel Rickman's runner and solo reconnaissance patrols in No Man's Land.
REEL 3 Continues: solo reconnaissance patrols in No Man's Land including looking for gaps in wire, identifying German officers' positions, view of German patrols, reporting to Colonel Rickman and ground conditions; sleeping arrangements; German shellfire and sniping; question of use of rifle; state of morale. Recollections of attack on Serre, 1/7/1916: role in guiding troops; prior preparations; preliminary bombardments; carrying hand grenades and bandoleers; role in guiding troops; question of use of prior reports from Snailham's reconnaissance patrols; situation in jumping off trench; officer's failure to lead attack across No Man's Land.
REEL 4 Continues: German shell landing in jumping off trench; situation on moving into No Man's Land, shrapnel leg wound and taking shelter in shell hole; prior rum ration; dislocated shoulder; crawling back to British front line, 7pm; story of being threatened by MP; crawling back to ambulance; medical treatment at Doullens; shrapnel leg wound and taking shelter in shell hole; reaction to casualties. Evacuation to Southampton, GB, 7/1916. Period in Trafford Hall Hospital, Manchester, 7/1916-1/1917: personal morale; medical. Voyage out with draft for Mesopotamia, 1/1917.
REEL 5 Continues: Voyage out with draft to Baghdad, Mesopotamia, 1/1917. Recollections of period with 6th Bn East Lancashire Regt in Mesopotamia, 2/1917-5/1917: selection as colonel's runner; situation on Diyaila River Plain and Shaak el Tukan Pass; opinion of colonel; role as runner; situation in Shaak el Tukan Pass; relationship with other ranks; status of having Western Front experience; nature of reconnaissance patrol activity in Shaak-el-Tukan Pass and story of clash with Turkish patrol; attacks to drive Turks back from Pass; story of Colonel adopting orphan Arab boy; attack of dysentery and malaria; story of swimming across river to raid stores depot; effects of hot climate.
REEL 6 Continues: food rations; water supply; hospitalisation with dysentery and malaria in Baghdad. Evacuation on hospital ship and hospitalisation in India, 1917-1918. Evacuation by hospital ship to GB and demobilisation, 12/1918. Post-war career: continuing health problems and difficulty in acclimatising to climate; advantage of football skills to gain employment; work at rubber works; effect of war service on possible football career.