Description
Object description
British sapper served with 175th Tunnelling Coy, Royal Engineers on Western Front, 1915-1918
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Stanley, 1891-1915: father's death in mining accident; mother's role in supporting family; compensation payments from colliery owners and union fund; education and passing examination to leave school at 13; work at Charlie Colliery Brickworks, 1904-1912, including description of process of manufacturing bricks from clay and firing in kilns, working conditions, productivity, question of union, relationship with foreman and work in attached clay quarry.
REEL 2 Continues: evening classes; sporting activities; attending Sunday School; work as apprentice stoker with steam engine boilers at Louisa and Charlie Collieries, 1912-1915, including use of steam to drive winding engines and timber saw mills, method of operating boiler and cleaning of boiler; outbreak of war. 4/8/1914; decision not to volunteer after rejection on height grounds from Guards, 9/1914; reasons for move to Charlie Colliery; question of influence of father's death in preference for working above ground; Background to recruitment as sapper with Royal Engineers at Whitehall, London, 6/1915: decision to volunteer with brother following appeal for miners; family reactions; medical with colliery doctor; send off from colliery manager; story of missing train during journey to London.
REEL 3 Continues: medical examination; background to decision to enlist with brother despite rejection of friend on health grounds. Period at Royal Engineers Depot, Chatham, 6/1915: Zeppelin raid; food rations; kitting out; minimal training. Journey out with draft to Ypres area, Belgium, 6/1915: send off; Channel crossing; story of officer's confusion during march to railway station at Le Havre, France; train journey; billets during march. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine during operations with 175 Tunnelling Coy, Royal Engineers in Ypres, Bethune and Somme areas, 6/1915-1/1918: dugouts billets at base at Vlamertinghe; composition of unit and officers; question of influence of freemasonry in selection of NCOs and in relative treatment of newly arrived officers; move into front line in Sanctuary Wood.
REEL 4 Continues: account of mining operations from Sanctuary Wood towards Hooge Chateau, 6/1915-7/1915 including lack of experience in sinking shaft, timber supports, removal of earth by Gurkha working parties, shift system, tools, water pumping, role of Gurkha working parties, prior German mining operations in sector, sound of German digging and use of geophone, close timbered tunnels, role of surveyor Captain John Warnock in setting direction, candle lighting and question of rate of progress; story of hearing sound of German digging and use of boring tool prior to laying, tamping and detonating torpedo tube camouflet mine against German galleries in Maple Copse sector, 1915; account of mining operations from Sanctuary Wood towards Hooge Chateau, 6/1915-7/1915, including sound precautions whilst working; personal morale; hearing German activity in cellars dugouts of Hooge Chateau; laying and tamping mine.
REEL 5 Continues: account of mining operations from Sanctuary Wood towards Hooge Chateau, 6/1915-7/1915, including effects of detonation of mine, digging through clay, question of ventilation and use of candles to indicate poor oxygen supply, drainage, uniform worn underground and its regular replacement; lice problem; nature of dugouts in Sanctuary Wood; food rations, ration parties and cooking arrangements; water supply.
REEL 6 Continues: water supply; latrines; parcels from GB; relationship with other ranks and importance of comradeship; letter contact with GB and question of censorship; gambling games; fatigue; problems drying clothes; personal health; cases of self inflicted wounds and question of malingering; state of morale and effect of absence of civilians; reactions to No 1 Field Punishment; prevalence of soldiers' unofficially extending leave.
REEL 7 Continues: relationship with NCOs and officers including Lieutenant Martin Greener; question of influence of freemasonry amongst officers and examples of differing relative treatment of newly arrived officers seen whilst acting as mess orderly, 1917; story of adjutant threatening sappers refusing to enter dangerous flooded sap; competition on tunnelling progress between teams of sappers and use of rum ration as reward; work on Berlin Sap leading towards Hill 60, 8/1915-4/1916, including use of trucks on rails to remove earth, close timbered construction, role as tunneller's mate; dispute over varying pay levels of sappers.
REEL 8 Continues: work on Berlin Sap leading towards Hill 60, 8/1915-4/1916, including origin of name, subsequent detonation of mine during attack on Messines, 7/6/1917 and commencing drift shaft from railway cutting; period building deep dugouts in chalk terrain in Somme area, 1916; counter-mining operations in Maple Copse sector, Ypres area, 1915, including underground listening posts, use of boring tool prior to laying, tamping and detonating torpedo tube camouflet mine against detected German galleries, infantry attacks to capture surface craters, death of over-age miner given opportunity of demobilisation, geophone duty and effects of tension on personal morale during race to explode camouflet mines before Germans; reactions to German shellfire including initial reactions, developing ability to judge destination, story of close escape from dud German shell in tent and view of German shells falling in Zillebeke Lake.
REEL 9 Continues: German sniping; German shellfire and close escape from shell; question of religion; trench feet problems; German use of gas charge and subsequent use of brazier fire to draw out gas during counter-mining operations in Maple Copse sector, Ypres area, 1915; origin of casualties; equipment used by Proto rescue team; opinion of Major Cowans; effect of winter conditions during period in Somme area, 1916-1917; relationship with other ranks; recreations during periods in billets at Vlamertinghe including drinking habits during visits to estaminets and visit to Poperinghe cinema.
REEL 10 Continues: recreations during periods in billets at Vlamertinghe including visit to Poperinghe cinema and concert parties; GB leave and success in securing extension; building dugouts in Somme area, 1916-1917; German mustard gas shells; tunnelling activity prior to Messines attack, 7/6/1917; method of building footpaths and roads in Ypres area, 1917; detonation of Messines mines, 7/6/1917; comparison of German and British dugouts/pillboxes; method of tamping mines; effects of detonation of Messines mines, 7/6/1917; appointment as officers servant to Captain John Warnock, 1917; improving dugouts.
REEL 11 Continues: makeshift dugout boiler to supply hot water; buying extra supplies from mobile canteen; question of officers' superior food rations; duties as mess orderly and officer's servant; lice problem; officers' drinking habits; duties of acting as Warnock's servant; abdomen and arm wounds from German shell whilst constructing road in Ypres area, 1/1918; evacuation to Boulogne hospital and view of effects of anaesthetic on soldiers; evacuation by hospital ship to GB; liquid diet. Period of hospitalisation and convalescence in Southall, London, 1/1918-2/1918. Story of deliberately failing digging test to avoid further active surface Royal Engineers Depot, Thetford, 2/1918-6/1918. Medical discharge with heart problems after medical board, 6/1918.
REEL 12 Medical discharge with heart problems after medical board, 6/1918. Post-war career: exaggerating symptoms to avoid further reductions in disability pension for heart problems after medical boards; question of cause of heart problems; securing work at Morrison Colliery, Stanley; opinion of war service.
