The Dorsets remained in Dranoutre for another day but at 4.15pm A Company, along with Frank and a single platoon of B Company marched via Lindenhoek to relieve the Bedfords in trenches south of Point 75. Here they came under orders of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers of the 13th Division. No mention is made of this in the 13th Brigade nor the 5th Division’s war diaries. The fact that just over a single company of the Dorsets could replace the strength of an entire regiment of the Bedfords (who report in their diary that their strength of 200 men and three officers) tells the story of the shortages faced by many British regiments up and down the line.
I only have limited internet access for now, but I think that their new position is just to the right of the Dorsets’ last location. So that’s where I’ve put them for now. Apologies if I am woefully wrong.
PC to Miss Crawshaw, 29 Strathleven etc franked APO 15 De 14 – chage to Censor No 1611 dated 6-12-14– written in pencil
Dear Till
Just a few lines hoping you are in the best of health and still merry and bright I expect by this time Uncle Matt has received my letter by now. I had a letter from Muff and she is getting on alright and they all wish me the best of luck. The weather out here is very wet at present. How did you enjoy yourself along of Tom, have you heard from Jess lately? Remember me to all at home and also Tango. Now I think this is all the news at present hoping to hear from you soon.
Your loving Brother
Frank xx
6th December 1914
The Dorsets spent another day in billets.
Frank has written another letter home but this one is short and doesn’t really go into much detail beyond asking after family members. The usual suspects are all there: Uncle Matt, Muff, Tom, Jess and Tango. The main detail to take away from this letter is Frank’s comment about the “very wet” weather. The Dorset war diary has become very short on information lately but the 5th Divisional dairy reports snow, sleet and rain on the 5th December turning to frost on the morning of the 6th.
Isn’t “merry and bright” a lovely phrase? From all the lovely things I’ve heard about my Great Grandmother, it certainly sums up her personality.
The Dorsets remained in billets at Dranoutre for the day.
Going back to Frank’s letter from the 3rd, the mysterious and continuously ill Jess continues to torment us.
Jess has been ill but is getting on alright now have you heard from her lately I had two letters. Tell Aunt Mrs Coats old man is still with us, yes I would sooner be filling her scuttle and out here only a dream.
Frank mentions another Brixton man: A Mr Coats by the sound of it. I’ll have a look through the records when I get a chance.
We are still on the go and doing our bit to polish the Germans off, what does Albert think of it.
Searching through the family tree I can only come up with one possible Albert. He’s Frank’s cousin by Herbert Webster and his wife Mary. Albert is only 11 so I imagine the war would seem very exciting to him – anyone like Frank in my family would have had immediate hero status in my eyes at that age (and this age of course).
Have not heard or seen them chocolates yet, had a letter from Bert and have answered it said that he stopped the blue bag. I told him that was only half his luck, better than stopping a Jack Johnson.
Here’s another mention of my Great Grandfather, Carl Robert Debnam. He’s currently back in England with the Royal Garrison Artillery. He was stationed at Fort Picklecombe in Cornwall in August 1914. I shall return to him later on. He still hasn’t sent Frank any chocolate.
His letter has a mysterious phrase in it: “stopped the blue bag”. The only explanation I can give to this (and I am probably missing some obvious military reference) is that Bert has mentioned that he got stung by a wasp or a bee. It fits Frank’s following reposte of “better than stopping a Jack Johnson”, which, as we all know now don’t we class, is a German high explosive shell. Why a wasp? Blue Bag was a make of laundry whitener which people used to treat bee and wasp stings. It’s an alkaline so would theoretically counter the acid in the sting. Bluing was a way of adding a blue tint to white laundry – a blue tint takes away any grey or yellow hue. It was probably a throw away comment in Bert’s letter and Frank’s using it as a hook for his joke. Boom boom.
The more I read about Tom, the more I think he is connected to Aunt Carrie and Uncle Matt in some way. Whether he’s a relative or not remains to be seen. Tom has apparently been helping to make the Christmas Plum Duff “he said he was making some Duff am I right” so is he staying in the same house as Mabel? It would be easy to assume so. Tom is home on leave, so we can also assume that he’s in the Army or Navy already. We’ll come back to this at a later date.
The end of the letter mentions that the Dorsets have been spoken to by General Sir Smith-Dorrien. Is this a reference to his visit on the 22nd? Just what was said and why would it be in the newspapers?
I feel as if I could do with a rest for me nerves are all shattered, we get relieved from the trenches tomorrow night and then we go back for five days rest which we have all earned.
The Dorsets spent the day in billets. Whether they were to enjoy the five days Frank hopes for remains to be seen. But I do hope he got some rest and possibly enjoyed a bath to get rid of the hitchey coos. Another man, Lance Corporal Lithgow, died and was interred at Dranoutre Military Cemetery. Presumably he died of wounds from the previous day.
I don’t want to dwell on Frank’s mental state. What he’s has been through is impossible to imagine. He’s lost most of his friends, having fought continuously without a break in horrific conditions ranging from the blistering August heat through to the freezing snow of late November and the wet mud of early December. I think we can forgive him feeling below par.
What I admire about Frank more than anything, is that despite what’s happened to him and even at this low ebb, he’s still cracking jokes and still finding nice things to say about people. Onto the letter…
and he hopes to be round at the Hope and Anchor before long trying the cold tea.
He’s still dreaming of a nice cold pint of beer. Frank’s local in Acre Lane, Brixton is sadly no longer called the Hope and Anchor. It’s now a chain pub called Grand Union. Next time I’m up there I’ll pop in and buy Frank a pint of cold tea.
Yes we heard about L Roberts the day after he died. I expect it was a fine sight to see, so you blacked your nose and saw the funeral.
Lord Roberts on his 82nd birthday. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
L Roberts was Lord Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts. He had died on the 14th November 1914 while visiting the Indian troops in St Omer, aged 87. He was possibly the most famous British military commander of the Nineteenth Century. He was the embodiment of a soldier-hero of the British Empire. The Telegraph dedicated much of its pages to him for nearly a week after his death.
To put his fame into context his funeral was one of only two state funerals dedicated to non royals in the Twentieth Century. Kipling’s poem, Lord Roberts, laments his passing.
He passed to the very sound of the guns;
But, before his eye grew dim,
He had seen the faces of the sons
Whose sires had served with him.
I’ll leave the rest of the letter for now. I’m off on holiday, rather aptly, to Dorset for a few days. I’ll be posting as and when I can get on the internet.
Captain R.E. Partridge’s Coy. Orderlies (D Company), in trenches opposite Wychaete in November, writing letters home.
This remarkable photograph, taken by Captain R.E. Partridge (our goose hunter from a month ago), shows two sergeants in D Company of the Dorsets. If the date on the photograph is right then it must have been taken between the 26th and the 30th November 1914. You can see from the clutter behind them how temporary the trenches were at this time, with tarpaulin slung over sandbags as breastworks.
It’s remarkable because personal photography was very much frowned upon by the BEF who banned cameras from Christmas 1914. Thankfully for us, this rule was flouted and there’s an interesting collection of personal photos available to look at on the Guardian website.
Conversely, the Germans encouraged photography. There was a great documentary on BBC4 a while back called Hidden Histories: WW1’s Forgotten Photographs which focussed on the photographs of Walter Kleinfeldt. They remind me of the incredible American Civil War photographs by Mathew Brady.
The Dorsets came to the conclusion that the German trenches were strongly held. Perhaps they had sent out a patrol in the night which would explain the outburst of rifle fire recorded yesterday. But no mention of this is made in the Dorsets’ dairy so perhaps they made simply an informed assumption about the enemy’s strength.
Rather abruptly, the Dorsets began to be relieved from 5.30pm by the Royal Scots Fusiliers and a Company of the Bedfords who took over part of the right hand of their line. The relief was finished by 11.30pm whereupon the battalion returned to billets in Dranoutre.
