Up before 7 o’clock. Detailed off in the morning to assist Sergeant Macdonell In the dressing station for walking cases. Heard that the Cheshires1 tried to get over the top and failed in the wet. Rain all the morning. Wet day, and cold.
The 9th Cheshires were in the 58th Brigade, 19th (Western) Division. ↩
Up at 6.30. Fatigue cleaning walls and scrubbing floors. Stormy wet day. Wrote to Ranald MacDonald. Heard that Roumania12 has joined Allies.
Roumania joined the Allies (not least because Bulgaria was with the Central Powers) with singularly bad timing. Falkenhayn was removed from the Western Front due to his perceived failures (and replaced by Hindenburg, who was President of Germany in 1933 when Hitler became Chancellor), but when transferred to Transylvania (still part of Austria-Hungary at this time) proved much too good for the Roumanians, who were routed in Wallachia (the southern portion of the country, where Bucharest is situated, between the Carpathians and the Danube) and were driven back to their original capital Iași (pronounced Yash; formerly spelt Jassy) at the Northern end of Moldova. ↩
In 1916, Romania was still usually spelled “Roumania” or “Rumania” in English, from the French “Roumanie”. The modern English spelling, “Romania”, was adopted some time after WWII. ↩
Up at 9 o’clock. Had breakfast and received orders to have dinner at 11.30 and fall in <in> full marching order at 12 o’clock. Marched off shortly after 12 o’clock. Crossed Belgian Frontier and arrived at the village of [space – probably intended to be filled in later when name known] 1 about 2 o’clock. Duggins, Corporal Stanton and I made a bivouac together. Very nice place. Don’t know what the future holds. Walked into village at night. Found out we could buy all sorts of things including newspapers and that most of the people talk marvellous† English. Bought some milk at a farm. Weather hot all the time.
News of Battle at Suez2.
Heard Last Post blown and it sounded fine. Gas alarm at night.
According to ALL’s own 1976 transcription, the village was Westoutre, now Westouter. ↩
“Battle at Suez”: Probably the Battle of Romani (3-5 August 1916), the last ground attack of the Central Powers on the Suez Canal at the beginning of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign during the First World War. ↩
[At top of page above date – ] Big North Sea Battle1 Queen Mary, Indefatigable, Invincible, and many other ships lost.
Reveille at 4 o’clock. Paraded 5.15 for breakfast. Marched to station. Left 6.40. Beautiful country. Past Nottingham, Leicester, Sansbury†2, Oxford, Winchester and to Southampton. Arrived Southampton 1.153. Weren’t in ship until 5.15. Shaved and washed in strange conditions. Went aboard “Karnak”4 at 5.15. Received lifebelts. Saw two aeroplanes.
Sailed for France
Left Southampton about 8 o’clock. Very fine night. Sunset over before past the Isle of Wight. Coast looked splendid. Two destroyers escorted us out. Watched searchlights playing over the 3 boats and over the harbour. Enjoyed the sailing until about 10 o’clock and then lay down on deck to sleep. Pretty cold. Up two or three times. Slept pretty well considering.
Had stripes taken off 5.
I can’t find any Sansbury between Leicester and Oxford (or indeed anywhere), nor any location to match any possible interpretation of the shorthand, though it is comparatively clearly written. The troop train may have taken a circuitous route to avoid the timetabled traffic, but it must have passed through some station which ALL noted or remembered as something like Sansbury. Even Aylesbury, which is just about plausible on pre-Beeching railway lines, is simply not deducible from the shorthand outline. Wednesbury might be just about possible route-wise, though in that case Birmingham might well have been mentioned. Many troop trains from the North to Southampton converged on Banbury, where the big Grimsbury muntions factory adjoined the railway station, and while neither of these names fits the shorthand, this was very probably ALL’s route. (DL)
A longer note on the mystery of Sansbury may be found here. ↩
The map shows the entire journey from Sheffield (A), via Nottingham (B), Leicester (C), Grimsbury (D – see previous footnote and the longer explanation here), Oxford (E) and Winchester (F) to Southampton (G). ↩
The Karnak, a French passenger ship, was operated by Messageries Maritimes, Marseille. She was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-32 in the Mediterranean on November 27th, 1916 about 70 miles SE of Valetta, Malta when en route from Marseilles and Malta to Saloniki. ↩
ALL had been promoted to Lance Corporal in September 1915. It was common for soldiers with acting rank to revert to their former rank on deployment to the field. According to an interview he gave in 1976, while he was aboard Karnak ALL was ordered to remove his stripes by “a strange officer who didn’t know me at all”. In the same interview, he went on to say “I am the only man in France who went through the war Lance Corporal acting Private with Lance Corporal’s pay.” It would appear that ALL’s demotion from “acting” Lance Corporal may have been a mistake. ↩
Bath parade in the morning. Off duty in the afternoon and wrote a letter to Betty and cleaned billy-can. Walked to the town at night with Green and turned in early.
Russians capture Trebizond1.
At work as usual. Busy all day. Played the piano at night and had short walk.
Lemberg1 recaptured by German-Austrian Army about this time.
Lemberg: the Ukrainian city of Lviv (Ukrainian: Львів, Polish: Lwów, Russian: Lvov, Latin: Leopolis, or German: Lemberg). The battle of Lemberg, 20-22 June 1915, was a short-lived Russian attempt to defend the great fortress of Lemberg against advancing German and Austrian troops during the aftermath of the great German victory at Gorlice-Tarnow. ↩
At work as usual. Called in the town at dinner time at Hills’ to see about a new typewriter ribbon. Called at Stewarts’ at night to get jacket altered. Played, and Charlie sang. Wrote up diary and shop books. Had walk with Joe.
Father bought some chickens. Mr McKenna1 introduced his new finance bill. Lemberg2 in danger.
“Mr McKenna”: Reginald McKenna, 1863 – 1953, MP 1895 – 1918, Home Sec. 1911 – 15, Ch. Of Exch. 1915 – 16; issued second War Loan June 1915, at higher rate of interest than first (which was made convertible to second); this is said to have committed the UK to higher rates of interest than elsewhere, not only throughout WW1 but during the inter-war Depression. The “McKenna Duties” of 33⅓% on luxury imports, “to finance WW1”, lasted until 1953. McKenna married a niece of Gertrude Jekyll. He was Chairman of the Midland Bank (now owned by HSBC) after 1918. ↩
Lemberg: the Ukrainian city of Lviv (Ukrainian: Львів, Polish: Lwów, Russian: Lvov, Latin: Leopolis, or German: Lemberg). The battle of Lemberg, 20-22 June 1915, was a short-lived Russian attempt to defend the great fortress of Lemberg against advancing German and Austrian troops during the aftermath of the great German victory at Gorlice-Tarnow. ↩