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Description: | Ms transcripts, in two volumes (290pp in total) of his letters home, covering his service as a motor cycle despatch rider, with the rank of corporal RE, attached to the 2nd Division Signal Officer on the Western Front (September 1914 - August 1915) with some interesting comments about his duties and living conditions, the morale and character of his fellow soldiers and the progress of his attempt to obtain a commission; his training as a subaltern at an RE signal depot near Bideford and elsewhere in the Midlands (September 1915 - March 1915) and his subsequent service in Egypt and Palestine at a base signal depot near Alexandria (April - May 1916), at 29th Indian Infantry Brigade HQ (54th Division) from May - November 1916, at EEF GHQ (December 1916-January 1917), at Desert Column HQ, EEF (January-July 1917), with 75th Division Signal Company (December 1917 - January 1918), at 234th Brigade HQ (75th Division) from March - May 1918, at XXI Corps Signal School (June - July 1918) and at 233rd Infantry Brigade HQ (75th Division) from September-December 1918. The letters from the Middle East make few references to operations, but give some description of the local countryside and people, his fellow officers and men and life behind the front and include useful observations on Allenby's appointment as GOC EEF (18 August 1917) and his own post-war plans (22 November 1918). Held with the collection are his commission and 5 photographs.
Cataloguer RWAS
Catalogue date 1986-08 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Subjects: | 2nd Division Royal Engineers British Army 29th Indian Infantry Brigade 233rd Infantry Brigade 234th Brigade | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Best, O H | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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