Holding, Frank (Oral history)

British private served with B Coy 16th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers on Western Front, 1915-1918

REEL 1: Background in Manchester, GB, 1897-1914: family; daily life and living conditions; education; recreational and sporting activities including Boys Brigade; Sunday school; apprenticeship with engineering firm, 1911-1914; story of injury to finger; reaction to outbreak of war, 8/1914; story of brother being called up for service with 1/8th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, 8/1914; question of patriotism; memory of visit by King George V; attitude to Germans; memory of German shopkeepers; story of formation of Pals Bn, Ellesmere Park, 11/1914; medical examination at Pendleton Town Hall; reason for volunteering; question of pay; posted to 16th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers. REEL 2 Continues: Aspects of training with B Coy16th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers in GB, 1914-1915: question of age on enlistment; issued with uniform at Broughton Town Hall, Salford; lived at home and trained in Patricroft; Swedish drill; route marches and cross-country runs; taught to salute; issued with Canadian Ross rifle; posted to camp in Conway, North Wales; description of camp and training; physical fitness; accommodation in huts; cleaning of huts; kit inspections; description of housewife kit; opinion of food; story of visit from Reverend Smith and confirmation; religious beliefs; lectures on Lewis and Maxim machine guns; story of escaped German officer; rifle and bayonet training; selected for training as Lewis gunner. REEL 3 Continues: posted to Catterick camp, 5/1915; accommodation in tents; trained as signaller; story of comfort parcels sent by Eccles women; posted to Salisbury Plain, 7/1915; opinion of NCOs and officers; posted to France, 11/1915; description of voyage from Southampton to Le Havre with transport section. Recollections of operations as private with B Coy 16th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers on Western Front, 1915-1918: marched from Amiens to Albert; memory of Golden Virgin on cathedral; billeted in butcher's shop; into line at La Boiselle; description of mines exploding under British lines and casualties; medal awards; living conditions in trenches; problem of snipers; description of German trench raid; death of friend in Bouzincourt hospital; opinion of rations; question of bread allowance; transferred from Lewis gun section to transport section; casualties in 16th Bn following attack on Somme, 1/Jul/1916; posted to Bethune. REEL 4 Continues: duties with transport section; vehicles; personnel; care of mules; description of operations at Nieuport, 1917; casualties in 16th Bn; memory of Sergeant Carruthers; daily routine and duties with transport section; cleaning of harnesses; loading of mules with rations; description of operations in Passchendaele sector, Belgium, 1917; movement of rations on mules by night; story of 'windy' officer; memories of CO Colonel Marshall VC; crossing of Sambre Canal, Ors, France, 5/11/1918; story of capture of guns; returned to GB on leave and demobilised.