Up at 6 o’clock. Cleaned up place, shaved and went off duty at 8 o’clock. Slept most of the day. Duggins not well. On duty at 8 o’clock at night. Germans counter-attacked in the morning. Our guns smashed them up. News that the Germans have been driven back 12 miles by the Roumanians, that the Russians and Italians have advanced and that the French have captured some forts at Verdun. Rumours of air raid at London.
Category Archives: November 1916
9 November 1916; Thursday
Up shortly after 6 o’clock. One case in before 8 o’clock. Went off duty at 8 o’clock. Slept all morning. Went with ambulance waggon after dinner and collected 10 sick men from the Loyal North Lancs1 and took them to Buzincourt 2 (59). Returned home in time for tea. On duty at 4 o’clock. 4 men in at different times during the night. Pretty rough night with aeroplanes bomb dropping and shelling and anti-aircraft guns. We slept in the tube3 but were called up every few minutes and had bad night. One man was dead when received here. Didn’t see him.
The 7th Loyal North Lancs were in 56th Brigade, 19th (Western) Division. ↩
Buzincourt: Bouzincourt (A), 3km WNW of the Brickfields camp (B); Michelin square H7. “(59)” presumably means a 59th Field Ambulance station. ↩
“tube”: the shorthand looks like “tube”, but I don’t know what the tube would have been. ↩
8 November 1916; Wednesday
Up about 7.30. Played football a good bit. Helped Billington in the morning. Received orders at dinner to pack up and go to Aveluy 1 on the ration cart after dinner. Wet day with occasional rays of sunshine. Put on night duty in the dressing tent. Slept in the tent. Nothing to do all night.
Aveluy: The same Aveluy (A) as mentioned for the first time on 2 November (spelled “Aveloy” on that occasion), not far from Brickfields (B). ↩
7 November 1916; Tuesday
Up about 7.30. Helped Billington as usual. A row over dinner through cream and I not having any†. Rained heavily at night. Received letter from home and one from Jack.
6 November 1916; Monday
Up about 7.30. Helped Billington as usual. A very big gun came up on the rails at night and we could hear the explosion of the shells as well as the gun. They must have been very big ones. Aeroplanes also dropped bombs over Albert and set something on fire. A pretty noisy night.
5 November 1916; Sunday
Up about 7.30. Not much to do. Re-tightened tent. Rain during night but fine in the morning. Rather windy. Read and wrote letters. Very windy at night and nearly blew away the tent.
4 November 1916; Saturday
Helped Billington as usual. Not much doing. Wrote 4 letters. Wrote to Frances Cuthbert1.
Frances Cuthbert: See 3 November. ↩
3 November 1916; Friday
Up about 7.30. Dressed and shaved and helped Billington with the breakfast things as usual. Helped with supper.
Received 5 days’ letters. One from mother telling me that Frances1 had dislocated her shoulder through falling in the street.
The shorthand seems to have “Francis”, but it is definitely “her shoulder”, not “his”. This is probably the Frances Cuthbert mentioned in a later diary entry and is certainly not Franchie Inwood. Nothing else is known about Frances Cuthbert. ↩
2 November 1916; Thursday
Up about 7.30. Rained heavily in the morning. Played football good part of the day. Had bath in the afternoon in the village of Aveloy1. Got out fine in the evening. Helped Billington as usual. Helped with the supper at the officers’ mess. Rumours of peace, which we would like to believe but dare not. No post.
Shelled heavily during the night and not so far away.
Aveloy: there is an Aveluy (A), 2km N. of Albert town centre, not far from the Brickfields camp (B), Michelin square H7. ↩
1 November 1916; Wednesday
Up about 7.30. Helped Billington as usual. Showery weather. Received letter from Metgrave enclosing other two letters referring to the rumour of my death1. Aeroplane scare at night, and we had to put out lights and the cookhouse fire in the middle of the officers’ dinner.
This is the only time that the rumour of ALL’s death is mentioned in any of the diaries. Nothing more is known about it. ↩