Description
Object description
British private trained with 3rd/4th Bn Gordon Highlanders at Ripon Camp in GB, 1/1916-7/1916; served with 1st/4th Bn Gordon Highlanders, 154th Bde, 51st (Highland) Div on Western Front, 7/1916-8/1916
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Glasgow, GB, 1896-1916: family; apprenticeship as lithographic artist; question of volunteering for military service. Aspects of enlistment and training with 3rd/4th Bn Gordon Highlanders at Ripon Camp in GB, 1/1916-7/1916: call-up to Gordon Highlanders in Aberdeen, 1/1916; posting to Ripon Camp for basic training; drill; musketry; tactical exercises; skills as graphic artist and illustrator; story of wounding in foot on Somme, 8/1916; field exercises; sniping; camouflage; training in advancing in open formation and in fours; physical exercise; digging and reinforcing trenches; wiring; opinion of NCOs; comradeship; personal morale; further details of wounding in foot, 8/1916; journey on draft to Boulogne, France, 7/1916; march to camp at Étaples, France; route marches during training at Ripon Camp; opinion of rations at Ripon Camp; practicality of wearing kilt; question of contact with officers.
REEL 2 Continues: further training at Étaples, France. Recollections of operations as private with 1st/4th Bn Gordon Highlanders, 154th Bde, 51st (Highland) Div on Western Front, 7/1916-8/1916: march to Albert; sleeping arrangements and use of waterproof sheets; sight statute of Golden Virgin at Albert; problems with German fire and casualties; description of landscape and conditions; post-war visit to Somme battlefield; story of meeting school friend at dressing station; description of wounding and amputation of foot, 8/1916; medical evacuation to GB and amputation of leg; convalescence in Glasgow; discharge and return to civilian employment. Reflections on military service: opinion of treatment by British Army; recreational activities in France; problem of lice and rats; attitude towards German prisoners of war; wounding, 8/1916; listening for artillery shells; question of age of recruits; reason for choice of Gordon Highlanders; attitude to military discipline; opinion of rations; scarcity of water; question of sharing parcels from home; eating arrangements; relations with civilian population; communication with home; reason for sketching while at front and contribution to 'Blighty' Magazine; question of pay and story of pay parade; opinion of treatment in hospital.