Description
Object description
British civilian munitions worker in Glasgow, 1915-1916; served as private with 238th Coy Machine Gun Corps in GB, on Western Front and in Mesopotamia 1917-1918
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Glasgow area, 1895-1915: family circumstances; education; work in packing and wholesale drapery sections in department store; recreations; failed attempt to raise Boys' Brigade; question of approach of war; reactions to outbreak of war, 4/8/1914; question of recruitment and father's reaction to attempt to enlist; father's military service; effect of war on wholesale drapery section and reaction to introduction of women workers; registering under Derby scheme, 12/1915. Recollections of work on assignment as munitions worker in 6" shell section, Elswick Ordnance Factory, Alexandria, Glasgow, 12/1915-12/1916: duties polishing inside of shells and review of stages of production line; inspection of shells; productivity.
REEL 2 Continues: question of safety precautions; role of foreman; question of trades union; pay; relationship with workers; duties as assistant inspector of shells tracking individual numbering of shells; rejected shells. Call up under Derby Scheme to join King's Own Scottish Borderers at Recruitment Office, Bath Street, Glasgow, 12/1916: meeting friend and grant of immediate leave; mother's reaction; reactions. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine during training with B Coy, 9th Bn King's Own Scottish Borderers at Kinghorn Camp, 1/1917-4/1917: reception; billets; relationship with NCO and other ranks; reactions to army lifestyle; morning routine; drill; route marches including songs sung and importance of care of feet; rifle training; breathing and gas mask training; drill competition.
REEL 3 Continues: drill competition; rifle training, cleaning and inspection; bayonet training; tactical training; question of adequacy of training; food rations; recreations; kit inspections; winning 'stick' to be guard orderly; story of clash between regimental sergeant major and new officer over drill; opinion of officers; transfer of B Coy to join Highland Light Infantry at Hawick, 4/1917; selection for draft to join Machine Gun Corps, 4/1917. Recollections of training with 4 Section, 238th Machine Gun Coy at Harrowby and Belton Park Camps, Grantham and Clipstone Camp, Mansfield, 4/1917-7/1917: reception at Harrowby Camp; hand grenade training and near accident; trench digging.
REEL 4 Continues: move to Belton Park Camp, 4/1917; Vickers machine gun training including role of team members, mechanism and stripping of gun, reliability of ammunition, aiming and firing methods, opinion of instructors and story problem with slipping tripod; story of demonstrating Barr and Stroud Mark IV range finder during inspection by French general; role as scout/runner; tactical exercises at Clipstone Camp, 6/1917. Journey out to Le Havre, France, 7/19176: prior practice move; mule transport; submarine watch during Channel crossing aboard Sudmark. Period in Le Havre Camp, 7/1917.
REEL 5 Continues: Period in Le Havre Camp, 7/1917. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine in Hill 60 sector, Ypres area, 7/1917-9/1917: train journey; base at Dickebusch; occupation of former German pillbox; nature of trenches and machine gun position; story of being partially buried by German shell whilst acting as runner to machine gun post in No Man's Land and subsequent effects; equipment carried; lack of use of Barr and Stroud; ration parties and problems with muddy ground conditions; reaction to first view of tanks; story of delivering message personally to General Haig at Canal Bank dugouts; story of inspection by Haig; food rations; water supplies; question of washing and shaving; question of rum and cigarette rations; emergency rations.
REEL 6 Continues: use of iron to avoid lice problem; absence of rats; use of soap rubbed on feet to avoid trench feet in wet conditions; latrines; disposal of rubbish; meals; duties as officer's servant and question of officers' superior conditions of service; duties as runner including liaison with signallers, route taken from Hill 60 to Ypres and story of taking message to Tubby Clayton at Toc H, Poperinghe; acting as reserve team member in machine gun post and use of periscope to see German infantry massing in trenches; German sniper casualty; German observation aircraft and question of firing at aircraft; German sniper problem; question of opening fire on targets; German shellfire.
REEL 7 Continues: question of minenwerfer fire; German gas shells and gas mask; personal morale; shell shock case; rest periods at Dickebush and Meteren including billets, preparations for return to line, question of spit and polish, duties as runner, canteen, parcels and letter contact with GB; relationship with Belgian civilians, visits to estaminets, acting as officers' mess orderly, story of German shell hitting hut immediately after religious service; attack in Menin Road sector, 20/9/1917, including taking message back to Dickebushe, preliminary artillery and machine gun bombardment, effect on morale and reactions to casualties; close escape from German shell in tent at Dickebush. Period at Longeville, 9/1917: reinforcement drafts; training; train journey to Marseilles.
REEL 8 Continues: train journey to Marseilles. Recollections of voyage aboard Mnemone to Basra, Mesopotamia, Turkey, 10/1917-11/1917: transfer to 18th Indian Div; conditions; sailing in convoy and submarine alarm; coaling ship; Biblical interest in Mesopotamia; accident whilst passing through Suez Canal at Port Tewfik; story of officer falling overboard during transfer to smaller ship; disembarkation at Basra. Recollections of initial period in Mesopotamia, 11/1917: sand problem on march to Makina Camp, Basra; impressions of Basra; sand goggles; tropical kit and opinion of spine pad; move to Nassiriyah to Amarah; opinion of Arabs; inspection of Arab café kitchens; question of suitability of climate for British troops; health and VD warnings; anti-mosquito precautions; visit to cinema and training at Amarah; question of use for barrage rather than direct firing; voyage up River Tigris to Kut-el-Amarah.
REEL 9 Continues: voyage up River Tigris to Kut-el-Amarah, 12/1917; food rations; efficiency of postal services; food rations; water supply; latrines; Turkish monument erected to British casualties during siege of Kut, 1915-1916; question of Turkish treatment of Armenian Christians and British POWs; march in light order to Baghdad; 12/1917-1/1918; crossing Tigris on pontoon bridge period in camp at Ironbridge Camp, Hinadi, 1/1918-3/1918; route marches and mirages; period at Sumara Camp, 3/1918; biblical stories relating to area; precautions against Arabs stealing rifles; relationship with Arabs and precautions taken on going out. Recollections in Akyab and Kirckuk area, 3/1918-10/1918: barrage machine gun fire; marsh gases from oil fields; situation; periods at Sumara including melon planting by Arabs, swimming in Tigris and role as unpaid lance corporal waiting in officers' mess, HQ Coy; letter from friend dying from sandfly fever.
REEL 10 Continues: duties at HQ Coy office; tracing maps for attack; background to refusal of application for clerk's position with Anglo-Persian Oil Company; hospitalisation for attack of dysentery, 6/1918-7/1918. Operations in Fatah Gorge area, 9/1918-10/1918: night out flanking march into Hindu Kush hills; water shortage and polluted well; firing machine guns into Turkish camp in Fatah Gorge and subsequent discovery that Turkish camp was deserted; advance under Turkish shellfire through cornfield which caught fire; Turkish withdrawal and advance to Lesser Zhab; role as clerk with HQ Coy office; crossing Lesser Zhab, Turkish shellfire and subsequent retreat; collapse with malaria and dysentery whilst loading wagon carts; evacuation by carts to railhead hospital; period in convalescent camp on Tigris island; news of Turkish surrender, 2/11/1918; Turkish POWs; journey with mule convoy to Mosul. Period at Mosul, 11/1918-2/1919: relapse with dysentery and hospitalisation; question of demobilisation; state of health; opinion of Major Bainbridge; pay fraud case; writing testimonials from Major Bainbridge; unit involvement in punitive operations against Kurds.
REEL 11 Continues: unit involvement in punitive operations against Kurds. Return to GB, 2/1919-5/1919: journey back to Basra; period at Deolali Camp, India; voyage back to Liverpool; demobilisation. Post-war career: letter from Major Bainbridge; effects of war service; reaction to difficulty in finding work and inadequate pay offer from former employers, 5/1919-10/1919; passing accountancy correspondence course; background to securing work with shipping export company; passing Institute of Grocers qualification and promotion; marriage. Recollections of work as senior area inspector of ships' provisions with Board of Trade based at Liverpool, 1939-1945: prior qualification as inspector, 1926; role inspecting provisions and geographical area of responsibility; stories illustrating effects and operation of 'Ships Stores Control Order', 12/2/1940.
REEL 12 Continues: arranging for supervision of rice rations supplied to lodging houses of Lascar and Chinese seamen; question of excessive bureaucracy; role inspecting quality of ships' provisions; role inspecting ships' store rooms, galleys and lifeboat stores; success as fire watcher in putting out incendiary bomb direct hit and subsequent destruction of office at Canning Place during German air raid, 5/1941; loss of records; story of provisioning troopship illustrating duties; daily routine and efficiency of area operations; move to office in Liver Buildings; story of being mined during voyage aboard Munster from Belfast to Liverpool, 6/2/1940 ,including initial situation trapped in cabin, escape, story of assisting mother and baby into lifeboat, abandoning ship in lifeboat, rescue by coastal collier and question of panic; post-war career.