Another day in Bailleul for the Dorsets. I am without laptop tonight so just a quick post today I’m afraid.
The inspection parade was cancelled so all units went on route marches instead. I bet that went down well.
At least the rain had stopped overnight and it was a bright and clear day.
The Dorsets remained in Bailleul for another day, preparing themselves for an inspection by “A Corps Commander”, according to the 15th Brigade’s records. I’m pretty sure this means the OC for II Corps, Sir Charles Fergusson (perhaps A means Army).
If you remember, Fergusson had been booted out from leading 5th Division by General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, after the furore at La Bassée. But he came back in January as CO of II Corps underneath his old boss, Smith-Dorrien, who was in command of the newly-formed Second Army.
A thin rain fell throughout the day. Up at the frontline the two sides continued to take sporadic pot shots at one another with their artillery, as the waters, once again, began to rise .
The weather was damp and mild, according to the 5th Division’s war diary.
The 15th Brigade tells us that the OC of the Brigade, Gleichen still at this time, visited 6th Cheshires about “difficulty in procuring boots etc”. They probably lost them “playing football” at Christmas.
The Dorsets’ diary records nothing at all apart from the repeated “Bn. remained in billets at BAILLEUL”.
The Dorsets remained in billets in Bailleul with the rest of the 15th Brigade as Divisional Reserve. Units performed route marches and practised their musketry throughout the day. Snow, which had fallen the previous day, gradually turned to slush.
Monday morning and back to work for the Dorsets. Route marches and musketry training was the order of the day with bomb throwing chucked in for good measure. That must have gone down like a lead barrage balloon.
I find myself reading only one newspaper these days. I take the Daily Telegraph. The Daily Telegraph 1915 that is. In today’s paper, 100 years ago, there’s an interesting story about the internment of Germans in the UK. It will please the great niece and nephew of Frank Crawshaw very much – my mother and uncle respectively.
In 1914 tennis fans were treated to a five set thriller in the Wimbledon Championships Men’s final. The winner was Norman Brookes of Australia. He beat Otto Froitzheim, German tennis champion and World Number Four, 6-2, 6-1, 5-7, 4-6, 8-6. Leaving England, Froitzheim travelled to America to play in Pittsburgh. When war broke out he returned to the Motherland but his steamer was intercepted off Gibraltar by the Royal Navy and he was taken prisoner on the Rock.
Froitzheim was then taken back to the UK and interned in a German prisoner of war camp. The Telegraph states that it was in Bray, Maidenhead. I would suggest this is actually Holyport, perhaps less than a mile to the north of Bray. My mother and Stepfather lived at the end of Holyport Street until recently, and, in the field next door, was the ruins of an old POW camp, half-hidden in an old unkempt orchard overrun by brambles and nettles. The camp spilled out into the grounds of Philberd’s house, now, I believe, converted to rather swish flats.
The pub on their street is called The Belgian Arms. A local story, possibly apochryphal, claims that the pub, named The Eagle prior to World War One, changed its name because the German POWs saluted the pub sign every time they marched past.
Now that story should please my mother and Uncle John!