Description
Object description
British private served with 1/7th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers on Western Front, 1918
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Manchester area, GB, 1899-1917: family circumstances; education and passing exam to leave school at 13; work as office boy for stamp manufacturing firm, 1912-1913; duties as clerk with Belfast Steam Company, 1913-1917; attending night school and accountancy qualifications; weekly routine.
REEL 2 Continues: activities with 47th Coy, Boys' Brigade, 1913-1917, including role as side drummer in bugle band, football, uniform, parades, camps and joining band recruited from Boys' Brigade to play at training parades for conscientious objectors in Non-Combatant Corps, 1916-1917; recruitment drive following outbreak of war, 4/8/1914; question of effects of German submarine campaign; opinion of contribution of women workers towards war effort; promotion to corporal and badges in Boys' Brigade. Recollections of call up to Ladysmith Barracks, Stalybridge, 8/1917: question of claiming reserved occupation status of work; pay and allotments to mother; medical; kitting out; parents' reaction. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine during training with 3/6th and 5th (Reserve) Bn, King' Liverpool Regt at Park Hall Camp, Oswestry, 8/1917-3/1918: change from black to brass buttons; hut accommodation and orderly duty.
REEL 3 Continues: preparing for kit inspections; story of being wrongly reported for poor turn out on parade; reactions to discipline; absence of swearing and story of NCO forced to publicly apologise to other ranks; relationship with other ranks; canteen; relationship with NCOs and officers; duties acting as company clerk; food rations; female cooks; attitude to sex; drill; rifle training and firing course at Kinmel Park Camp, Rhyl; bayonet and hand grenade training.
REEL 4 Continues: gas mask training; competitions between platoons; tactical training in France; lectures; question of adequacy of training; route marches; church parades; relationship with civilians; composition of unit; news of posting to Western Front, 3/1918. Journey out to Infantry Base Depot, Etaples, France, 3/1918-4/1918: embarkation at Folkestone; kit carried and issue of steel helmet; dispersal of unit in drafts. Recollections of operations with B Coy, 1/7th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers in Somme area, 4/1918: reception and refusal of opportunity to join bugle band of joining unit in reserve at Bapaume; state of unit; work improving old trench lines in Hebuterne sector; situation; relationship with French civilians and story of dispute over water.
REEL 5 Continues: relationship with French civilians and question of their involvement in spying for Germans; communication trenches; nature of trenches and dugouts; deep dugout in chalk quarry; personal kit and dugout; rations parties; food rations; German ration party arrangements; question of water supply from shell holes; rum ration issued with coffee prior to attacks; cigarette rations from US and story of starting smoking to alleviate toothache; question of prevalence of smoking and story of attack from German aircraft illustrating necessity for care at night; parcels from GB.
REEL 6 Continues: parcel and letter contact with GB; ammunition and hand grenade supply; rest period baths; lice problem; latrines; question of personal appearance; disposal of rubbish; question of rat problem; corpses; burial procedure and marking wooden crosses; effects of wet conditions; duties as company runner and story of developing problem with feet; soldiers visiting brothels and consequent VD problem.
REEL 7 Continues: sentry duty and use of periscopes; recreations including gambling on cards and conversations; German shell fire; machine gun attacks by German aircraft; question of small arms fire; German snipers; role reloading panniers as No 2 with Lewis gun team; attending courses in use of rifle grenades and hand grenades including 'egg' bombs and lack of employment in action; view of preparations for tear gas attack; story of being caught without gas mask in German gas attack.
REEL 8 Continues: night sentry duty; reconnaissance patrols; story of failure of patrol by US soldiers to identify German positions and consequent casualties in attack; role of signallers; fatigue; personal morale; procedure on execution by firing squad of Private Jack Earl who had deserted twice including question of subsequent notification of family and reaction of other ranks; story of accidental self inflicted wound in face whilst improving dugout; cases of self inflicted wounds; state of unit discipline; relationship with officers.
REEL 9 Continues: relationship with NCOs; rest periods including tactical training, question of working parties and role of Chinese Labour Corps, visits to estaminet and story of dispute over purchase of eggs with Australian troops; attack on Achiet-le-Petit and Achiet-le-Grand including importance of artillery support and story of refusing NCO's order to shoot severely wounded German soldier; story of detonation of German 'flying pig' filled with shrapnel at Riencourt. Recollections of attack towards Beaucamp and Villers Plouich, 27/9/1918: prior move up behind Havrincourt Wood, 26/9/1918; making will out; reaction to firing of 15" railway guns; battle kit; night move through Havrincourt Wood.
REEL 10 Continues: situation; personal morale in trench prior to attack; artillery barrage; problem with German barbed wire; shrapnel wound in left arm; leaving equipment on return to front line. Evacuation via Abbeville Hospital to GB, 9/1918: medical treatment; question of 'Blighty wound'; woman ambulance driver; operation to remove shrapnel and fitting of Thomas splint; story of Channel crossing aboard hospital ship Ville de Liege. Period at Dover Heights Hospital, Dover, 9/1918-10/1918: emergency treatment; visit from father; train journey to Manchester. Period in hospital at Stockport and Rochdale, 10/1918-8/1918: bed bath; reactions to Armistice, 11/11/1918; visit home on leave and treatment in local temporary hospital; personal morale; nature of arm wound, medical treatment and question of amputation.
REEL 11 Continues: medical treatment; visit home on leave; permanent effects of wound; appearance in front of medical board and award of 50% disability pension prior to discharge, 8/1919. Post-war career: adjustments to disability pension to reflect permanent nature of injury; return to work and subsequent career with Belfast Steam Company; question of effects of war service. Aspects of period with B Coy, 1/7th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers in Somme area, 1918: duties as acting company clerk; story of being caught in German barbed wire during attack, 27/9/1918.
