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Description: | Microfilm collection of 556 ms letters to his wife in Scotland covering his command, as a retired regular Indian Army officer, of the 7th Battalion Black Watch (153rd Infantry Brigade, 51st Division) on coast defence duties in Fife (August 1914), at Bedford immediately prior to embarkation for France (April 1915) and on the Western Front, on the Neuve Chapelle and then the Somme and Arras fronts, from May 1915 until he was wounded in July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme; his time in hospital in France and at the Fishmongers' Hall Hospital in London (August 1916); his command of the 6th Battalion Durham Light Infantry (151st Brigade, 50th Division) in France, again on the Somme, from November 1916 -February 1917; his command of No 12 Prisoners of War Company behind the Somme front (June - July 1917) and his appointment as Town Major of Bapaume (July 1917). The letters contain useful details about trench conditions and the morale of the two Battalions which he commanded and also reveal his constant concern for the welfare of the officers and men under his command, while there are interesting references to a number of senior officers, notably Lieutenant-General Sir William Pulteney (5 December 1916) and General Sir John Shea (10 December 1916), and to Sir Alfred Mond, later Lord Melchett, (14 July 1917), as well as letters to Colonel Allen from Brigadier-General Douglas Campbell (20 November 1916) and Brigadier-General G R H Cheape (26 February 1917).
Cataloguer RWAS
Catalogue date 1989-06 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Subjects: | Durham Light Infantry 6th Battalion 50th Division British Army 7th Battalion 153rd Infantry Brigade Black Watch 51st Division 151st Brigade | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Allen, H M | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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