Monthly Archives: February 2015

Feb 13.

Dear Mother

Very many thanks for your letter today. So glad you are getting a bit of a change and a rest, I’m sure it will do you all the good in the world. My cold is much better now, and a few days in the trenches seemed to have a most beneficial effect, though I am still a bit snivelly, but I’m feeling perfectly well, which I certainly was’nt for a day or two. And thanks awfully for the gloves, they arrived yesterday & are also most welcome, as my other pair were getting a bit shaky & the warm woolly part inside was getting rather thin & worn. The cake has’nt arrived, but I got the refill safe & sound, but I have’nt used the original one up yet, so I have 2 refills in hand now.

We are out of the trenches now and in reserve for a few days, & then go back into the trenches about the 20^th I think. There was’nt much doing last time, fairly quiet, with one or two lively intervals just to keep things going. I wrote to Ruth the other day, I wonder if she ever got my letter.

It’s been a miserable day today, fearful wind & rain, but I managed to get out for a bit of a walk this afternoon as I got fed up fugging round the fire.

Leave has been opened again but there’s not the slightest chance of my getting any, as only 2 officers are allowed away at a time, & we can’t go as we are in reserve, and no one can go if he’s already had one whack of leave, unless there is an urgent reason; so you can see there are several obstacles, each of which by itself would effectively prevent one taking leave!

I hope Topher is all right again now, bad luck his getting flu, but there’s a lot about and any amount of fellows have had it out here and have gone sick with it, I fancy I must have had a touch of it, being somewhat prone to it as you well know.

Have Topher & Jim had any luck with their commissions I wonder; under the circumstances it would certainly appear the best thing to do.

Must end up now; I got the Sketches & Bystander all safe, thanks v. much, most acceptable.

Love to all, yr loving son

Ted

Feb 10^th

Dear Mother

Very many thanks for the cigarettes which arrived last night, most welcome. We are still on in the trenches, & it’s very raw and muddy. Last night there was a frost, but it has all thawed again today. It started today by being a nice blue sky day, but it’s all cloudy again now.

One of our airmen was out this morning, he was plucky, as the Germans kept plugging at him & went all round him, fearfully close, but he kept on circling round, going sort of ½ way home and coming back again only to be greeted with another halo of shrapnel. He wound up by calmly flying through a huge puff of black smoke made by a high-explosive German shell which burst just in front of him! I was glad when he finally cleared off unharmed, & it was very exciting to watch.

My cold is better I think, tho’ I am still a bit hoarse & snuffly, & cough is a bit troublesome. But I’m feeling much better, I knew a day or two in the trenches would do me no end of good. We go out tomorrow into reserve, for a few days, & then come up again I believe. Fairly quiet here; they have shelled us a little today & there are rather more bullets than usual flying about tonight, I dunno why-

Must end up now. The little sock things are ripping and warm. So long best love to all yr loving son

Ted

Feb 9^th

Dear Jinny.

Still got an awful cold, & I have eaten or sucked most of the lozenges & jubejubes in the rgt; but I am better, & will soon be as right as rain. So will you please send me 1 bottle formaloids, 1 tin eucalyptus jubejubes or anything good for a cough or cold. You can get them from Boots I think.

Not much going on here. It’s very cold, especially the wind. It rained a bit today too. Hair growing like anything under the new treatment.

Tons of love from Ted

Scottish vernacular detail on “jube jubes” as opposed to Jujubes
http://www.firstfoot.com/dictionary/j.html

“Regesan Formeloids” have very little info online beyond watermarked adverts from the Singapore Straits Times – this from 18/09/16 (cures consumption)
http://newspapers.nl.sg/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19160918.2.61.2.aspx

Article in NZ paper The Press 20/02/15 on removal of German medical supplies mentioning their substitution
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=CHP19150220.2.88

Bottle dug up in UK 2008 – nice deco design
http://www.bottledigging.org.uk/Forum/Topic75129-3-1.aspx

Feb 8^th

Dear Mother

Very many thanks for your letter this morning, & the handkerchief, which was most acceptable as I have a beastly cold and cough, & use a hanky pretty frequently- We go out into the trenches tonight for 3 days. We are having a terrier Colonel to stay with us, to learn all about trenches, it will be rather fun showing him round everywhere.

Righto about the cigarettes sorry to worry, but I thought it was best to find out about it & see if anything had gone wrong. As a matter of fact Abdulla sent us each a little tin of 25 as a present today, very sporting was’nt it. The ones you sent have’nt rolled up yet, but will tomorrow I expect. Sketch & Bystander also not come, but will doubtless come tomorrow & will be most welcome in the trenches.

Not much going on here, fairly quiet in our immediate front, though we can hear all the La Bassée fighting going on close by, continual firing day & night almost. I had a letter from Paul 2 or 3 days ago saying he was hovering round that last fight. Your letter is dated 6^th, Saturday & has arrived today 8^th, so it’s quite quick.

I hear Jim & Topher are going for commissions; quite the best thing to do I should think as they seem to be using their corps as an officers training corps & nothing else. Why does’nt Jim shove in for a job as motor cycle despatch rider, they have heaps of them, flying about all the roads every day & all day: suggest it to him, I don’t suppose it’s hard to get.

Quite a fine day today & not quite so cold, though windy. Must end up now. Excuse a short note, will write longer in a day or two. Love to all, yr loving son

Ted.

Drake-Brockman says “On the 8th February we again relieved the 1st Battalion in the front line… the same stretch of trenches along the Rue du Bois was taken over”. This would seem to be the first trenches they were in at Calonne-sur-la-Lys though the regimental diaries would give more detail.

Feb 7^th

Dear Jinny

I’ve got 2 long letters from you to answer, and no news for you I’m afraid. Thanks awfully for your letters, they were most interesting and enjoyable. My, they do know how to work you hard at the hospital, you certainly are doing your little bit.

I have got an absolute first class cold and cough, a touch of flu I think, everyone seems to have got it. I feel rather a worm, & have been gargling Condy’s & sucking potass lozenges, but not much result. However by tomorrow I expect I’ll be as right as rain, though I should like to go to bed more than anything else.

We go into the trenches tomorrow & I expect that’ll cure me all right. Could you send me a bottle of Somebody’s “lightning” Cough cure, Veno I think it’s called, someone said it was very good; or any cold mixture.

My dear the hair stuff has rolled up & I have been using it regularly & I trust with good results, but of course it’s too early to gauge yet. I expect I’ll be writing for another bottle soon.

I have been to church today “in the school opposite the 44^th Heavy Battery” as the notice was published in orders. And by Jove it was opposite the 44^th Heavy Battery with a vengeance!! They were only 50 yards off, and had found a suitable target just as church began- The noise was awful; and the whole thing was a curious mixture, church going on & quite close by the big guns killing & maiming the wretched enemy; so contrary somehow to the Church’s instructions regarding one’s enemy’s.

The hymns we had were Lead Kindly light, Son of my Soul, & abide with me. No organ or piano, just about ½ doz officers and 30 Tommies, so the singing was a trifle awkward at times, & broke down completely in Lead Kindly light, despite a valiant effort by Major Mac – sitting next to me – to switch em on to the right note again. I could only utter a hoarse croak! The guns were particularly noisy during this hymn and the result was something as follows, a quaint mixture of humour and pathos that made one want to cry and laugh at the same time:

Lead Kindly-Bang!- amid the’encircling gloom
Bang! – thou me on;
The night is dark and I am Bang! – from home
Lead thou me on.
Bang! Bang! The garish day, in spite of fears
Pride ruled my Bang! – Remember not Bangbangbangbang!

The last four being from a French battery of .75’s close by here, which, like all French batteries, always fires salvoes of 4 guns in rapid succession. I assure you my dear Jane the above is no exaggeration of the scene, and it was really very impressive in a way, and likely to stick in one’s memory for longer than many an exciting moment in the trenches.

They haven’t shelled us today thank goodness, except for one whispering Willie which fell the far end of the village & exploded harmlessly. The heavy firing round La Bassée still goes on, & we had a goodish success there last night I believe; today again there has been very heavy artillery fire there.

Right about the scarf, better give it to Jim as I have one all right. Chubbie sent me a pair of mittens & a letter; I also heard from Mary, & have answered her letter. Cake most welcomed, & stodged by my brother officers in no time. So long & give us a line sometime.

Lots of love from Ted.

Send out a packet of envelopes like this one will you please, thin foreign ones

The original of this letter is in the Archive of the the Imperial War Museum: Private Papers of Lieutenant Colonel E R P Berryman DSO –  http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1030021700 

Ted was Adjutant to Col Drake-Brockman whose book “With the Royal Garhwal Rifles in the Great War” tells us the names of the villages they were billeted in and something of Ted’s duties as adjutant. Here is Drake-Brockman on the subject of maintaining morale when the troops are not in the trenches.

Soldier of the Garhwal Rifles (photographed in Lansdowne, India)

We left the trenches again on the evening of the 29th [January 1915]… and went back again to Vielle Chapelle. Here we did close order drill and smartening up work generally. This is most necessary, as otherwise the best men are apt to think such things as smartness and saluting are not necessary on service, which is a great mistake. Also it is most necessary in billets and in the trenches to have a strict and good arrangement just the same as in peace time in barracks, for cleaning and inspection of rifles and accoutrements every morning, else men are apt, the best of them, to get slack and neglect these most important things. In this trench warfare it occurred more than once with some units, owing to the neglect of these most obvious precautions, that the rifles got dirty and the bolt worked with difficulty, a fatal thing, as upon the rifle depended the safety of the owner. It was with this object that a bolt cover was eventually issued. Until such was issued we found that the upper part of an old, warn-out sock answered the purpose very well….

The Corps Commander visited us in our billets on 7th February. He was specially struck with the cleanliness and smart turn-out of the men, notwithstanding the poorness of the billets and the hard fatigue work they had to do every night. He said as he was leaving, “Aren’t they clean!”.

Feb 4^th

Dear Mother

Just got your parcel, at least the bull’s eyes and socks. Thanks awfully for them, the latter seem to be just the thing. We have just moved up into some new billets today just behind the trenches in a deserted and much shelled little village. We are living in a big house which must belong to quite a nut, as it is awfully nicely furnished, or was rather, but now is pretty well knocked about & has shell holes in it etc.

They started shelling this place just as we got in, but only sent about ½ a dozen which did no harm to us, but killed one man & wounded another man, French peasants, who were living in the local post office & were just getting things together preparatory to clearing out; awful bad luck. They must know troops are here, they are always somewhere in reserve, so they shell it pretty well every day. The church is full of holes, but not as bad as the last place we were at, which hardly had a stone left standing on another.

Lovely day today, & it’s fairly mild now; but I expect we shall get some more cold weather before long. There is’nt much going on here now I fancy, a good deal of promiscuous firing by both sides. We are only a few hundred yards behind the trenches, & we shall be here 3 days, & then go into the trenches for a bit.

By the way I met one of the Townsends a day or two ago, in the sappers, & I recognised him! Rather good for me; he asked how we all were, & said he remembered Dick very well. I’m not sure which one he was, & I forgot to ask his name. I saw him again today, passed him on the road marching; he is running a signal company, like Willis P.

I met a gunner today who said he thought the 28^th Divⁿ were at Dunkirk, rather a biff for yesterday’s rumour I told you about being near here! Also one Stephenson, the Divisional field cashier, from whom we draw our pay, is a cousin of Morton & Esmé’s. I met him the other day, & when I signed my name for my pay, I noticed he was Mr Stare-Stare; & afterwards I hear he asked another chap if I was one of a large family & his cousins knew me if I was! I haven’t seen him since, but when I do I’ll tackle him.

Must finish up now. How’s Paul, I haven’t heard from him for a long time. Love to all yr loving son

Ted

According to Drake-Brockman, the “deserted and much shelled little village” was Richebourg St Vaast

3.2.15

Dear Mother, can you please see about some cigarettes for me. Jim said he had fixed up a regular weekly or monthly supply, but since I came back from leave I have’nt had any at all!! except what other fellows did’nt want. Please don’t think I’m complaining, only I can’t help thinking there must be some mistake, as surely some ought to have rolled up by now. If Jim has’nt arranged anything, could you please arrange with De Reszke to send 200 a month as if you buy them by the 200 at a time you get them a bob a 100 cheaper or something. But you might find out first what’s happened to Jim’s show, as I certainly understood he had fixed up something.

We go back to the trenches tomorrow after 6 days in reserve here. At least we go up tomorrow to immediate reserve just behind the firing line, & then into the trenches – as it’s called! – after a day or so. As the trenches are all full of water, of course we can’t actually occupy them, but have a system of breastworks & piquets out in front. I fancy most of the stories about standing in water are yarns, though of course there has been a tremendous lot of fighting in knee- & waist-deep trenches, & no doubt a lot of troops have had to stand for hours, & sometimes days, in water. But as a rule men manage to keep fairly dry, though mud is always ankle deep.

The air is – here I was interrupted, and I’m sure I don’t know what the air is! or what I was going to say! I heard a rumour today from a chap who had heard it from someone else etc etc that the 20^th Divⁿis close behind us here, but whether there is any truth in it or not I don’t know.

I’ve just had my hair cut & feel very prickly. Two enormous guns are firing just close here & the whole place shakes whenever they go off.

Could you send along a Bystander or Graphic or Illustrated London News occasionally? A picture paper is always welcome, Tatlers & Sketches, as they go the round & we hand ‘em on to Tommies when we’ve done, so a lot of people get enjoyment out of them.

Tons of love from Ted