Tag: Lieutenant E. Rogers

Mary Christmas from Frank

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29th December 1914

Envelope addressed to Miss Crawshaw, 29 etc franked APO 13 De 14, censor 1611 (E Rogers) – written in ink and on back “gone to Camberwell”
Letter dated 29-12-14

Dear Till

Just a few lines to let you know how I got on at Xmas and what sort of time I had, well I must say I didn’t enjoy myself at all, for what with the weather and being in the trenches it just about put paid to the bill but I am getting on alright and still in the pink. The weather out here is miserable what with the rain and mud. Did you receive my letter with the Xmas card in I except you have by now? Till I received a Xmas card from Dolly which was very good of her and I sent her a PC so you can let me know what she says, when next you hear from her. How did you spend your time Xmas don’t forget to let me know?

Now Till I expect you have read about the gift we received from Princess Mary but I am unable to send it home to you as I have not got any rent now I have told you about me leaving you 6d per day for yourself, now dear I want to know if you could send me out some money so that I could register it home, so don’t forget to let me know what you can do, and if you send it in coin not in paper, now I think this is all for now so will conclude hoping this finds you in the best of health.

Love Bid xxx

After a quiet morning the Dorsets left their trenches and at 2.30pm marched to billets in Bailleul, arriving at about 6.50pm. They left behind some men on details and C Company who were relieved a little later on at around 8pm by the West Riding Regiment. C Company arrived later that evening.

Frank probably wrote home from his new billets. I imagine the trenches were far too wet in which to do any writing other than crossing out some words on a Field Post Card. Again, the letter is censored by E. Rogers. I’ve still had no luck finding out anything more about the life of this Dorsetshire officer.

Frank’s opinion of Christmas in the trenches says it all. To top it off, he now needs money to send his Christmas gift from Princess Mary back home. According to the Imperial War Museum, a great many troops did this. His promise of giving Mabel money from his pay continues, but it appears he needs a seed fund to start the ball rolling.

The Princess Mary Gift Fund was a venture started back in October 1914. Its ambitious and commendable aim was to provide every overseas person wearing the King’s uniform with a brass box containing a variety of objects depending on the recipient: From cigarettes, pipe and tinder to smokers, to bullet pen and sweets for the non-smokers, chocolate for nurses and sweets and spices for Indian troops. A card was included wishing everyone a “Victorious New Year”.

Sadly, there’s no indication that this box survived the intervening years, but below is a photograph of  a sample box with cigarettes in it.

 

Photo of a Princess Mary Christmas Fund Gift Box
Princess Mary Christmas Gift Fund Box

And if you’ve ever want to make a tiny replica of this iconic gift then knock your tiny socks off.

 

Bailleul is a town in France archly described by Gleichen as “with its rather quaint old brick fourteenth-century church, porched à la Louis Quinze, was tolerable rather than admirable”. The town was an important staging post for British troops throughout the war. There’s a far better written account of its role here than I could manage.

Image showing the Hôtel de Ville in Bailleul
A postcard written from Bailleul at around the same time as Frank was here in billets

The 15th Brigade had moved en masse into Divisional reserve. Gleichen was off to London on leave and was temporily replaced as CO by Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Richard Jebb Griffith, the Commanding Officer of the 1st Bn Bedfords, whom Gleichen rates as the “trustiest of C.O.’s, who had been under heavier fire than almost any one in the Brigade, yet never touched”. You can read more about this old war horse on the Bedfords’ website.

Brew ha ha

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14th December 1914

You may have noticed yesterday, but we finally have a name to put to one of the censors. E. Rogers is revealed to be Censor No. 1611. He’s the Second Lieutenant who drew the map of the trenches on the 2nd December. We are pretty sure he’s an officer in A Company and here he’s probably revealed as being Frank’s platoon officer. That’s an incredibly granular piece of information and if I can find some history about E.Rogers it will help fill out more of Frank’s journey. But I cannot find anything about him, other than a name on a medal roll.

How the censor numbers were organised, I can only guess at. The officers weren’t always reading the letters though. Sometimes the officer in charge of censoring letters would leave them unread. This is explored in this Spartacus Educational article. Other times the censor stamp was passed onto an NCO to take care of the duty. I don’t have the originals of Frank’s letters but I am sure Geoff would have written a note if any of them been edited by a censor.

The main thing Frank has to complain about, in his second letter from yesterday, is the price of beer. Beer had increased to 3d a pint in 1914, mainly due to the huge jump in duty imposed on a barrel of beer by the government in November of that year: up from 7s. 9d to 23s per barrel. All these facts are taken from the European Beer Guide website.

By 1920 beer was was 6d a pint. Interestingly, the average strength of beer reduced in that time by a quarter, from a strong 1051 OG in 1914 to 1038 OG in 1920 (about the average for today’s dreary lagers.)

All of this change conspired to reduce drunkenness. In fact convictions for drunkenness fell from 183,828 in 1914 to just 29,075 in 1918.

At 6am the Dorsets marched with the rest, or what the war diary rather tellingly describes as “the remainder”, of the 15th Brigade. Their destination was a field just to the west of Dranoutre.

Here they waited until it got dark before moving to Neuve Église. But they didn’t leave the field without some difficulty. Such was the state of the wet ground that over time they must have sunk into the Flanders mud and they struggled to get anywhere. It must have been a miserable day for Frank.

Why were they even moving? I think it had to do with II Corps launching an offensive alongside the French against Wytschaete, Messines and Petit Douve farm. It came to nothing but 264 deaths over the next couple of days, according to the CWGC.

Had Frank been in the trenches, the day would have been even more miserable.

Post cartography

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Field Service Post Card franked 2 De 14 to Miss Crawshaw, 29 Strathleven

“I am quite well. I have received your letter, parcel. Letter follows at first opportunity” signed Frank and dated 2-12-14

2nd December 1914

Another service postcard means only one thing: Another letter is winging its way to Brixton.

A map of the Dorsets' trenches
Dorsets trench map – just north of Wulverghem – 2nd December 1914

The Dorsets were now in trenches just north of Wulverghem. It’s only a little way south east from where the Dorsets were last week. I found a map drawn by E.Rogers 2nd Lieutenant on the 2nd December 1914 and have done my thing to it. He’s written A Section at the top. I wonder if this means he is an officer in Frank’s A Company? If Frank is still in A Company that is.

E. Rogers remains a mystery. I have found his medal roll on Ancestry but I cannot find anything else about him at this time. Not even his first name. It’s the same with Captain R.E. Partridge. It’s a shame because it’s not the last we’ll hear from either of them.

The Dorsets’ diary reports a quiet day except heavy shelling in front of C Company’s trenches.