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Description: | Collection of 70 ms letters (265pp) written home to his sister during service with the 14th Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (120th Brigade, 40th Division until April 1918, 90th Brigade, 30th Division until June 1918, then 42nd Brigade, 14th Division), ca.June 1915 - June 1918, covering his initial training and Army life at Ernesettle camp near Plymouth (June - September 1915), Witley camp in Surrey (September 1915 - February 1916) and Blackdown camp in Hampshire (February - June 1916) before embarking in June 1916 for France, and including references to conditions in the trenches and his billets, receiving mail from home, war rumours, aerial warfare over the Western Front and bombing raids at home, Christmas celebrations, the death and burial of a friend, entertainments including a "swimming gala", and the presence of American troops, with criticisms of an involuntary church service, derogatory remarks on the French and his hatred for the Germans, and brief periods in hospital with trench fever and ear trouble; at the 40th Division Signalling School; and back in the United Kingdom in June 1918 to reconstitute the battalion. Lawson was killed in action in July 1918, and the collection includes the Imperial War Graves Commission photograph of his grave, an in memoriam card, and photographs of his sister and Lawson himself in uniform.
Cataloguer APR
Catalogue date 1999-06-18 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Lawson, R K | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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