Tump Line Squad

[AndyJohnson]

The War Diary for the 7th South Staffs for January 1918 contains the following paragraph in an Operations Order for relieving the 9th Sherwoods.

Tump Line Squad.

The Battalion Tump Line Squad (6 men per Coy.) under No. 41019 Pte. MILLER A. “B” Coy. will parade tomorrow at Battn. H.Q. They will remain with Battn. H.Q. whilst the Battn. is in the line and will be in possession of all available Tump Lines. Companies will render a nominal roll of these men to this Office by 9.00 am tomorrow.

Wikipedia suggests "A tumpline is a strap attached at both ends to a backpack or other luggage and used to carry the object by placing the strap over the top of the head." Rather like a sherpa.

Does anyone know if this is correct in connection with WW1, and has anyone heard of their use by carrying parties?

regards

Andy

[jay dubaya]

Here's a Canadian Tump Line Coy loading up Andy,

cheers, Jon

[Jack Sheldon]

Andy

You are entirely on the right lines. Its origin is described by Pierre Berton on p 143 of his informative and entertaining but, at times, irritatingly chauvinistic Vimy (Pen & Sword Classics 2003), who credits Captain FR Phelan Headquarters 11 Canadian Brigade with its introduction. According to Berton, Phelan had seen Indians in Quebec using this method to improve the weight distribution and stability of manpack loads in awkward terrain. Berton claims that, 'special tumpline companies were formed and thousands of man-hours were saved'.

Jack

[AndyJohnson]

Jon, Jack

Many thanks for the info, something new every day - at least to me.

Very disappointing that the first answer (with a picture) took 23 minutes to arrive at 1 am in the morning. Standards are slipping. What a forum!

Many thanks gents

Andy

[jhill]

For a video clip of a tump line party at work we can look at this newsreel on the National Film Board site. It is entitled Battle of Arras 6 , although that description is at best approximate. It is a collection of perhaps unrelated clips.

The tump line sequence is about half way through and lasts several minutes. It looks to me that this party is carrying RE (engineers') stores, but sharper eyes than mine can probably correct me. In a war where everything had to be carryed up the line by hand it is clear why every technique for increasing the weight a man could carry was tried.

[centurion]

Very disappointing that the first answer (with a picture) took 23 minutes to arrive at 1 am in the morning. Standards are slipping. What a forum!

I understand that a working party is looking at adapting a device invented by B S Johnson (well known in Ankh Morpork) in order to deliver answers before the question is asked!

[phil@basildon]

My parents and grandparents used the expression 'tumping' to mean carrying something. Whether this expression comes from the Great War or earlier I have no idea.

[Broznitsky]

My parents and grandparents used the expression 'tumping' to mean carrying something. Whether this expression comes from the Great War or earlier I have no idea.

Sometimes in Canada we say "humping" in the sense of carrying a weighty load; have never heard of tumping.

"To tump, or not to tump . . ."

[geraint]

Humpty Tumpty sat on a...

Seriously though!

The expression "Ar ei thymp" (fem) was used in 19th century Welsh coalmining areas when women and children worked underground as coal waggon pullers. To be "Ar y tymp" (masc) meant working on all fours dragging a load by a strap or rope, and later evolved as a general discription of hard physical work.

[centurion]

Up in the North West a Tumper was a man with a heavy tool for flattening earth (in the south sometimes known as a pummer)

[Jack Sheldon]

Amongst the umpty ump thousands of books which insulate my walls, I have a copy of the complete OED, so I thought I might look it up. As a noun it has three disintinct meanings which do not concern us though, out of interest, they are: 1. A hillock, mound, molehill, anthill, barrow or tumulus with the first attested usage being recorded in 1589. This also appears in Wales, though it may be an English borrowing. Welsh also has Twmpath, apparently, used in this sense; 2. A clump of trees or shrubs or a clump of grass forming a dry spot in a bog or fen; 3. A heap of anything - haycock, rick or pile of stones.

It also has two meanings as a verb.1. To make a 'tump' or mound around a tree. This dates to 1721 & 2. (if you are still with me):

Tump U.S. Origin. Obscure. Transitive verb, To drag or carry by means of a tump line.

so:

Tump Line First recorded use in definition in 1850 in Bartlett's American Dictionary. 'A strap placed across the forehead to assist a man in carrying a pack on his back. Used in Maine where the custom was borrowed from the Indians'. Recorded also by WJ Gordon in 1890. Bundles...secured by the leather strap or 'tump' line are slung across the chest or forehead. In 1904 SE White in 'Forest' p xiii wrote, 'The carrying we did was with the universal tump-line. It passes across the head. The weight should rest on the small of the back just above the hips.'

So we can see that the OED had localised this word from at least the mid 19th C to the northeast of North America and, if the Indians in Maine were using them, there is every reason to believe as Berton stated, that the practice was also common in Quebec. Whether Phelan actually picked it up from the Indians or was aware of the practice from some other source is impossible to say and makes no difference anyway. The fact is he knew how the system worked.

Why 'tump' line? At a guess there are two possibilities. Possibly 'Tump' crossed the Atlantic as a variant of some word associated in some way with hard work - though none of the official definitions point that way, or perhaps 'Tump' is derived from a mispronounciation of an Indian verb meaning'to carry' or something similar.

Any experts in North American etymology on the Forum today?

Jack

[centurion]

A tump line was originally a device for canoe portage. It secured the paddles in the canoe and incorporated a head strap for the carrier. It was sometimes used in conjunction with a special yoke that replaced one of the cross pieces in the canoe. There are various articles on how to tie a tump line http://www.woodencanoe.com/pricing/rigging...r%20portage.pdf http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_4rXsS2OHCvI/Stpi...e+Tump+Test.jpg

In Southern states to tump was to tip or fall over

tump 1 (tmp)

v. tumped, tump·ing, tumps Chiefly Southern U.S.

v.tr.

To overturn. Often used with over: You're about to tump that thing over.

v.intr.

To fall over. Often used with over: Is that wheelbarrow going to tump over?

[Probably akin to tumble.]