Description
Object description
British private served with 1/6th Bn, Northumberland Fusiliers in GB and Western Front, 1914-1917; served as officer with 2nd Bn Cameronians Scottish Rifles on Western Front, 1918-1919; served with Railway Operating Department, Royal Engineers in GB and North West Europe, 1939-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Simonside, South Shields, 1897-1914: church school education and part-time work at vicarage; secondary education; family's railway connections; holidays abroad; work as trainee accountant at North Eastern Railway Offices at Newcastle upon Tyne, 12/1913-8/1914. Background to recruitment with A Coy, 1/6th Bn, Northumberland Fusiliers at St George's Drill Hall at Newcastle, 5/8/1914: reasons; relationship with George Harbottle and Quayside business community; family reactions. Recollections of periods training at St George's Drill Hall and Seaton Delaville, 8/1914-4/1915: initial detachment to assist in stables of Northumberland Hussars, 8/1914; reactions to army lifestyle.
REEL 2 Continues: business community origins of ORs in A Coy; composition of 50th Div; rifle and bayonet training; route marches; relationship with civilians; coastal defence duties at Seaton Delaville; food rations; business community origins of ORs and officers in A Coy; question of catching up with levels of pre-war territorial training. Journey out and initial period in Ypres area, Belgium, 20/4/1915-25/4/1915: send off; period in fields near Ypres; success in shooting down German aircraft. Account of attack on St Julian, 26/4/1915: situation; advance under heavy German fire to British front line,
REEL 3 Continues: ignorance of position of British front line; personal morale; stopping on reaching British front line barricade trench; resentment of general's comments at parade subsequent to attack; withdrawal towards Ypres. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine mainly in Hooge Wood sector, 5/1915-7/1915: corpses; nature of trenches and question of dugouts; ration parties; role as battalion postman and letter contact with GB; selection to paint names on crosses; food rations; water supply; cooking fires; rum and cigarette rations.
REEL 4 Question of German shellfire during advance on St Julian, 26/4/1915. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine in Hooge Wood sector, 5/1915-7/1915: question of washing; latrines; rubbish disposal; lice problem; problem with corpses in front line; burials behind line including story illustrating post-war difficulty in locating graves, painting names on crosses and identity disc system; writing to family of fatal casualties as battalion postman; effects of wet conditions; stand to; rum ration; sentry duty; conversations.
REEL 5 Continues: duties as lance corporal; cleaning weapons; role of NCOs and officers; question of superior conditions of service for officers; relationship with officers; sleeping; German shellfire; sniping; hand grenade exchanges; makeshift gas mask; increased risk of German gas attack with easterly winds; improved gas masks; story of warning Salvation Army canteen of German gas attack; absence of mining operations.
REEL 6 Continues: personal morale including question of cases of loss of nerve and shell shock; periods in reserve lines; rest period cut short by German gas attack; letter contact with GB. Periods on Western Front, 1915-1917: move in stages to Armentieres area; tinned food rations; quiet sectors; patrols to occupy listening posts; question of wiring and covering parties; revetting trenches; dugouts; question of hot meals.
REEL 7 Continues: GB leave including question of cancellation as candidate for commission, lice problem and question of civilian knowledge of conditions on Western Front; question of commission; movements; quality of reinforcement drafts; question of accepting promotion to sergeant; opinion of Quartermaster Sergeant George Harbottle; problems as company postman with battalion postman stealing letters and role as temporary replacement; relationship with NCOs and ORs; aspects of attack from Bazentin le Petit towards Martinpuich, 15/9/1916, including opinion of performance of tanks and ground conditions.
REEL 8 Continues: aspects of attack from Bazentin le Petit towards Martinpuich, 15/9/1916; question of changes to unit personnel; story of wines buried in Contalmaison; men affected by inability to urinate due to cold conditions; interview with brigadier concerning possibility of commission; working parties; situation on move to Ypres area, ca 1917. Various aspects of period in GB, ca 1917-1918: attachment to German POW camp; training as officer; period with East Yorkshire Regt, ca 1918, including question of service in Russia and controversy over changing uniform. Period with D Coy, 2nd Bn, Cameronians Scottish Rifles on Western Front, 1918-1919: inexperienced officer; German POWs taken during advance; Armistice celebrations, 11/11/1918; role trying to improve quality of life for French civilian population; role of officer's servant.
REEL 9 Continues: stories illustrating officers' drinking habits; role as president of officers' mess; relationship with regular officers; question of losing commission on remaining in regular army; Demobilisation and subsequent contact with Cameronians, 7/1919. Aspects of service as Railway Officer with Royal Engineers Railway Operating Department in GB and North West Europe, 1939-1945.
