Description
Object description
British private served with 2nd Bn Leicestershire Regt, 7th (Meerut) Div on Western Front and in Mesopotamia, 1915-1916; served with Leicestershire Regt in GB, France and India, 1918-1950.
Content description
REEL 1: Aspects of period in GB, 1914: regimental numbers; enlisted in London on outbreak of war, Aug/1914; posted to Leicestershire Regt at Glen Parva barracks; accommodation and living conditions; posted to Portsmouth; volunteered for overseas service; opinion of military training and comradeship. Aspects of operations with Leicestershire Regt on Western Front, 1915: role in operations during Battle of Neuve Chapelle, 1915; given nickname 'chico' by Indian troops; duties as runner; attitude to death; problem of gas blowing back into own lines; preliminary barrage; issue of rum ration; description of leaving trench and crossing no man's land; reason for not firing rifle during advance; method of advancing in waves; problem of captured German trenches facing the wrong way; opinion of German trenches; German counter attack; patrols and listening posts; aerial observation; tactics; description of gas mask; pride in wearing black collar patch; attitude to seeing officers crying; family background; relations with Indian troops; further comments on duties as runner between units.
REEL 2 Continues: names of trenches and landmarks on Western Front; nature of trench warfare; story of soldier receiving Field Punishment No.1; story of being awarded DCM for service in Mesopotamia; service medals; story of incident with grenade during Home Guard training in Peterborough in Second World War; joined Special Reserve for 6 years on outbreak of war, 8/1914; remained in army as regular and commissioned; various memories of inter-war service in India; story of death of corporal on Western Front; story of being wounded in leg during evacuation from Dunkirk, 6/1940; duties as instructor at Depot in Leicester; opinion of stretcher bearers; description of march to Kut-al-Amara, Mesopotamia, 1916; problem of extreme heat; death of nurses from sunstroke; description of helmet and spine pad; use of ice to bring temperature down. Retired from army, 1950; attached to REME; medals for service in First and Second World Wars.