Description
Object description
British NCO served with D Coy, 1/7th (Robin Hood) Bn Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regt) on Western Front, 1915-1918
Content description
REEL 1: Aspect of period in Nottinghamshire, GB, 1896-1914: family background and education in Beeston; left school aged 14; employment with tool company; story of joining Territorial Army at Drill Hall, Nottingham, 1913; description of training and camps; mobilised on outbreak of war, 4/Aug/1914. Aspects of period with1/7th (Robin Hood) Bn Sherwood Foresters in GB, 1914-1915: duties guarding railway line; posted to Braintree, Essex; billeted in house; trench digging and guard duties; promoted lance-corporal; entrained to Southampton, 2/1915; attitude to volunteering for overseas service.
REEL 2 Continues: Aspects of operations with D Coy, 1/7th (Robin Hood) Bn Sherwood Foresters on Western Front, 2/1915-3/1918: disembarked Le Havre, France; moved into line at Armentieres; moved to Locre; description of building trench system at Kemmel Hill; first casualties in D Coy; moved to St Julien sector, Ypres, Belgium, 1915; relieved Canadians in line; Bn band members redeployed as stretcher-bearers; description of liquid fire attack on trenches at Loos; use of wire across top of trenches to prevent rifle grenades landing; issued with Short Lee Enfield rifle; role of D Coy carrying bombs during Battle of Loos; various memories of Capt. Geoffrey Vickers VC; description of duties as officer's batman and as cook in field kitchen.
REEL 3 Continues: further comments on duties as cook; story of night patrol into German lines, 2/1918; description of being encircled by Germans at Bullecourt, 21/Mar/1918; wounded in leg and foot by shrapnel; captured by Germans and treated by German doctor; transferred to hospital in Mons; story of being repatriated back to GB from camp in Germany; description of wounds and medical treatment at various hospitals; duties with carrying party at Gommecourt, Somme, 7/1916; Somme; living conditions; rations; relieved French at Vimy Ridge, 1917; duties assisting Royal Engineers with tunnelling operations.
REEL 4 Continues: selected to play in football matches; background of recruits in Robin Hood Bn; problem of shortage of miners in GB; memories of Armistice while in hospital in Kingston-upon-Thames, 11/1918.