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Description: | Very interesting ms diary (35pp) with ts annotated transcription (68pp) covering his service as a Private with the 1/1st Battalion Honourable Artillery Company (7th Brigade, 3rd Division) on the Western Front (January - July 1915), written in an atmospheric staccato style and including his journey to France, the base camp at Rouen, almost daily details of life in billets at Locre, his first turn in the trenches at Spanbrock Moelen and his ensuing experiences of trench conditions and warfare, a spell in the convalescent camp at Rouen due to rheumatic sickness (March - May), the move of the Brigade to Ypres and the offensive made to extend the line at Hooge (16 June) where he received a head wound, giving excellent notes on this offensive, on going 'over the top', his journey back to the dressing station and subsequent evacuation to hospital in Chelsea, London. Together with the diary are 30 jocular and observant ms letters (29pp) and postcards written to his sweetheart in Hampstead, London (January - June 1915) showing his first impressions of France and his enjoyment of army life; his Officers Service Book covering his later active service as an officer with the North Somerset Yeomanry (November 1915 - March 1919); a full portrait photograph of him in uniform; 2 ts accounts containing anecdotes about dugouts and trench conditions (32pp); and various miscellaneous papers, including printed copies of Bruce Bairnsfather cartoons, Second World War newspaper adverts, and a printed commemorative napkin for the royal review of discharged soldiers at Hyde Park (November 1918).
Cataloguer PJG
Catalogue date 1996-06-21 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Knight, S A | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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