Description
Object description
British NCO served with 13th Bn Essex Regt on Western Front, 1915-1916 and Connaught Rangers in Salonika, Egypt and Palestine, 1916-1918
Content description
REEL 1: Aspects of operations with 13th Bn Essex Regt on Western Front, 1915-1916: description of walking over camouflaged duckboards; story of issuing rum ration; problem of rheumatism; story of receiving praise from 13th Bn CO Lt-Col. Papillon for conduct during platoon wash parade; attitude to promotion; transferred to Somme area, France, c.3/1916; fractured left leg after jumping into shell hole; casualties in13th Bn during Battle of the Somme, 7/1916; transferred to hospital in Boulogne. Aspects of period in GB, 1916: hospital in Surrey; story of meeting Queen Mary at Buckingham Palace with other wounded soldiers; convalescence in Cobham; home leave; memory of Zeppelin raid over Cuffley, 9/1916; reason for being drafted to Dardanelles. Aspects of operations with Connaught Rangers in Salonika, 1917: description of trenches and terrain along River Struma; story of patrol; shelling of village; location opposite Rupel Pass; casualties among British and Russian troops from malaria; memory of storks in trees; bathing in mountain stream; returned to base in Salonika; sailed to Alexandria, Egypt. Aspects of operations with Connaught Rangers in Egypt and Palestine, 1917-1918: posted to base camp at Kantara; description of mock attack with live shells; attitude to casualties during exercise; memory of officer wounded in back by shrapnel; description of line at Beersheba; role in support company; description of capturing Turkish position in reed bed; problem of fighting in Palestine Hills; location of machine gun posts and artillery; description of attack down hill; problem of Turkish snipers; memory of German monastery on Mount of Olives; description of terrain in Nablus area; location of light artillery; promotion to quarter-master sergeant; story of riding mule to collect rations from Bn HQ.
REEL 2 Continues: distribution of rations; shelling at night; story of German raid on HQ post; prisoners and casualties; opinion of defences; fate of captured men; posted to Cairo on instructors' course; story of promotion to sergeant-major; duties as instructor at training school in Cairo; story of being presented with medals by General Allenby; reaction to being refused leave; returned to Haringey, London, GB, 1919. Post-war life in GB: family; role in formation of British Legion branch in Haringey.