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Description: | British private served with 10th Bn Durham Light Infantry in GB and on Western Front, 1914-1916
REEL 1: Background in Winleton, Northumberland, 1894-1914: family; daily life and conditions; education; sporting activities; religious beliefs; description of employment in colliery; pay; memory of outbreak of war, 8/1914; reason for enlistment and question of patriotism; story of enlisting at Gateshead, 1914; medical examination. Aspects of training with 10th Bn Durham Light Infantry in GB, 1914-1915: nature of training; relations with local civilians.
REEL 2 Continues: posted to Aldershot Barracks and issued with uniform and kit; accommodation; role as officers' batman; opinion of officers and NCOs; drill; rifle training; bayonet practice; route marches; question of venereal disease ; story of incident in pub; recreational activities; posted to France and arrival in camp at Boulogne, 1915 Recollections of operations with 10th Bn Durham Light Infantry on Western Front, 1915-1918: story of death of Lieutenant Fairburn; description of trenches in Messines area, France; transferred to Ypres sector, Belgium; description of trench system and dugouts; opinion of rations and story of bread.
REEL 3 Continues: sanitary facilities; story of finding German bombs; problem of lice; weather conditions; story of building Brigade HQ; daily routine and duties; stand-to; memory of fraternizing with Germans; casualties; description of German bombardment; story of liquid fire; description of duties while attached to Royal Engineers Mining Section; story of accidental machine gun fire on Duke of Cornwall's Regt; story of firing Lewis gun on Germans playing football; description of work on ramparts; daily routine out of line including sporting activities; amusing story of whisky; description of role as officer's servant; story of being wounded by shell burst, 2/1916.
REEL 4 Continues: description of injury to left knee and medical treatment; problem of gangrene and description of amputation of leg; returned to GB for further medical treatment. Aspects of period in GB, 1916-1918: reaction to loss of leg; convalescence; description of wooden artificial leg being fitted; problem of weight and reason for breaking wooden leg; problem of learning to walk with artificial leg; question of re-training for employment as shoemaker; story of starting own business as shoemaker in Winleton; question of army pension; reflections on period of military service and loss of leg | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Bland, Thomas | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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