26 March 1917; Monday

Up at 7 o’clock and on duty as usual. Had to look after a sick officer most of the morning. Went to Renninghelst1 at night to the Crumps concert2. It was very good – the best I have seen in France. Went in the motor ambulance and walked back up.


  1. Renninghelst (sic): Actually Reninghelst, now Flemish Reningelst (B), 6km NW. of La Clytte/Klijte (A), towards Poperinghe; Michelin square I3. 

  2. “Crumps concert”; presumably another soldiers’ revue. Information about soldiers’ revues is uncertain, but a ‘Crumps’ party is mentioned in connection with the 59th Division. Crump is an old English dialect word for a hard hit or blow which, after 1914, came to be used for the explosion of a heavy artillery shell; the craters left by such shells were often referred to as crump-holes. This may be how The Crumps concert party got its name.