Description
Object description
British NCO served with 1st Bn Loyal North Lancashire Regt on Western Front, 1914; POW in Germany, 1914-1918
Content description
REEL 1: Background in GB: story of enlistment with Special Reserve, 1913; activities and pay; called up at Fulwood Barracks, Preston, on outbreak of war, 8/1914; reason for refusing post as musketry instructor at Fulwood Barracks; description of voyage to France, 8/1914. Aspects of operations as NCO with 1st Bn Loyal North Lancashire Regt on Western Front, 8-10/1914: daily life and living conditions; digging trenches; memory of sleeping on unexploded shell; description of terrain; story of peaches; moved into front line in Aisne sector; duties as ration corporal; story of rum ration being poured away as punishment for eating emergency rations; description of route march across plateau under heavy shelling; sheltered in shell hole; story of soldier decapitated by shell while stealing potatoes; description of bayonet charge at Langemarck; story of helping wounded soldier; memory of walking toward German trenches by mistake; description of burying dead and preventive looting of bodies; description of operations during First Battle of Ypres, Belgium, 9-10/1914; memory of bullet passing through fingers while eating; proximity of German trenches; question of being ordered not to retreat; story of officer running away; description of being taken prisoner, 31/10/1914; greatcoats taken away and problem of cold; taken into field and counted; fear of being shot; marched to Lille.
REEL 2 Continues: description of three-day journey in cattle trucks to Germany. Recollections of period as POW in Germany, 1914-1918: taken to camp near Mecklenberg; problem of lice; messing arrangements in camp; memory of Christmas Day, 1914;opinion of food; story of Germans trying to recruit Irish troops for German army; transferred to camp at Flensburg, Schleswig Holstein, 1/1915; story of wearing blanket instead of trousers because of problem with licet; description of employment on farms and at iron foundry in Hamburg; problem of contracting dysentery, 10/1918; reaction to news of Armistice while in hospital, 11/11/1918; returned to GB, 12/1918; further medical treatment; discharged from army, 5/1919; question of pension; joined Liverpool Police, 1921; opinion of German equipment; treatment by German guards; story of bread ration; attitude to survival; reflections on period of military service.
REEL 3 Continues: further description of being captured at Ypres, 30/Oct/1914; accommodation in marquees; story of Christmas Day dinner, 12/1914; memory of fainting after smoking cigarette; opinion of food in camps and accommodation; story of Germans trying to recruit Irish troops for German army; description of camp at Flensberg; bread ration; segregation of Jewish prisoners; memory of soldier eating lice off body; punishments in camp; question of Germans searching food parcels; story of tin of pineapple; story of swimming in Kiel Canal. 3/1915; amusing story of search for missing prisoners; memories of farmer's family; story of medical treatment in Hamburg for rheumatism; story of boxing gloves.
REEL 4 Continues: amusing story of wine cellar on farm; sleeping arrangements in converted pig sties; problem of getting rid of empty wine bottles; opinion of food; work on farm and pay; accommodation; story of escape from farm; story of Prussian policeman; arrested and taken to police cells; opinion of food and treatment; story of transfer to different farm and improvement in food and accommodation; memory of farmer's daughter bringing food to police cell; problem of loss of weight; further comments on medical treatment in GB.
