My grandfather's WWI diaries

[Mancunian_Nick]

Hello everyone

I am new here so hello first of all.

I found this great site during my surfing this morning looking for information about my family tree which I have recently started researching. My mother informed me that it was my grandfather's desire to do this himself but he never really got very far and she would like to complete the job on his behalf. Well during his life my mother always knew that he had kept the diaries during the war but he would never let her read them. He would usually put her off by saying something like they were just scribbled in pencil and that she would never be able to read his writing etc. However he passed away in October 1985 aged 92 and so she could at last read them. They were contained in several small jotters which, even now, are still stained with the mud of the battlefields. Page after page of neat handwritten notes make up an almost hourly record of the day-to-day life in camp and what he saw and did. My mother has since typed them up into over 100 pages of foolscap paper and will soon be donating them to the Imperial War Museum in London, although if I have MY way I may well try to persuade her to give them to the new Manchester 'branch' instead as I feel it's more pertinant in a way.

Anyway I digress. The first 'cover' my mother has sent me is labelled "Journal of my life in the army" by driver H Waddicor RHA. 9499 Bombadier Waddicor. 30th division R.F.A.

The first few entries read ...

ITINERARY

-------------

1915

February 22nd Join up at Manchester

Feb 23 - Aug 9 Billeted at St Annes (29 the Square)

April 6th Batteries sorted out - in "B" battery, 149 Brigade "C" sub

April 16th Gaitskill in command - Col. F. E. Kent in charge of Brigade

April 30th Horses begin to arrive

And so on. After the intinery he goes into daily and much more detail and to be honest although I've not yet fully read them, I have started scanning them onto the computer so that a permenant record can be kept and maybe posted up somewhere in due course without the need to handle the real items. It's a BIG job (have only scanned in the first 1915 one so far) but I'm sure will be well worth it in the end and I have to say it makes FASCINATING reading. He mentions names of people he served with and socialises with as well as where he goes and what he does and so on.

Anyway I'm sorry if I've taken up too much space/time but if anyone's interested to know more then do please feel free to post/ask. I'll keep an eye here now and will look forward to hearing from anyone if you have anything to say.

Thank you

Nick (Harold's grandson, now living in Manchester)

PS It says that I can attach a file to this message so I'll do just that and post the article that was written in the Eastbourne Herald on Saturday November 8th, 1986 just after my mother had started work on this 'project'. You may find it of interest. I've had to resize it to half size as the original was about 440Kb but this is less than 200Kb. If anyone would like to see the original size, just send me an email and I'll send it direct. Cheers.

[Kate Wills]

Nick - a warm welcome to the Forum. It is contributions such as yours that make this site the leader in its field.

As we cannot all get along to the Imperial War Museum Reading Rooms, North or south, could we persuade you to share a little more of your grandfather's diary with us? As you transcribe, you may well come across things that need some clarification. As we have every subject expert under the sun here, most questions get an answer. From my own perspective, researching entertainment at war, may I ask if there are any references in Bmr Waddicor's diary to concerts, music-making, visits from entertainers and the like. Thankyou.

[Annette Burgoyne]

Hi Nick

Was you grandfather still with 30th Division R.F.A. in March of 1918. If so I would be intested to see what he writes about the Great Greman offensive of that month. The 30th Division were very close to the 20th Division (I have in interest in this Division) during a lot of the fighting that took place during that battle, I like to know whats other Divisions close by were up to, it help paint a more clearer picture.

By the way give you Mum a big thanks.

Annette

[Jonathan Saunders]

Nick,

This is fantastic family history. Your very lucky and your grandfather had some foresight!

[Mancunian_Nick]

Hello there once again and thank you one and all for your kind words of interest and encouragement for my first posting. It's much appreciated and nice to know that people found it interesting. Thank you Kate for your warm welcome and to Signals too. Yes Signals, we are very lucky and fortunate that my grandfather had the foresight to keep his diaries and that my mum found them and decided to transcribe them. My problem is finding enough hours in the day to research my genealogy plus scan these in (not done any STILL yet since 1915 and I want to re-do those too but this time using greyscale rather than B&W and with OCR software I'm now using) and some indexing work I'm doing for one of the online sites. Anyway of COURSE I'd be happy to share more info from the diaries. It would be my pleasure. I'm just sorry this reply has taken longer than I would have hoped. Unfortunately I thought I had my options set up to advise me if there were any replies but I didn't receive any so I've double-checked my settings and hopefully I've got that sorted out now. I will check again manually in a short time just incase. Infact I would be more than happy to actually post my entire 1915 diary but it's in Adobe .PDF format and the file is about 2.96Mb so obviously too big to post here. If you or anyone else has any suggestions, I'd be happy to do what I can. I can't even send Emails that large so that's not an option. If anyone wants to email me privately and let me have their address, I could put it onto a CD and send it directly if that's of any interest/use to anyone? Anyway yes, he does have references to visits to cinemas and social events and concerts etc but can't be specific as yet about visits from entertainers etc but he keeps pretty accurate and daily diaries so I'm sure if he was there, it will be mentioned.

Annette, thank you for your interest in 20th Div and the German offensive around March 1918. I'm happy to say that my grandfather wasn't discharged until 23rd September 1918 when he was wounded so that's a good thing. For those interested it mentions after he was wounded he was evacuated to No. 30 General Hospital, Calais then to the Military Hospital at Litchfield. However upon opening the 1918 diary to check out March entries for you, it seems that his original diaries for the period Friday August 17th 1917 to Wednesday 20th March 1918 are missing. That's a shame and I hadn't realised that until now. I'll have to have words with my mother to try to find out if she has ever found them and, if so, then these transcripts will need to be updated, although I'm sure she would have told me had she come across them since but I will check.

Anyway I digress ... going through then from 20th August 1918. [sorry - I did, of course, mean from 20th MARCH 1918, not August. You probably realised that but sorry for 'slip-up'.]

Thursday March 21st - Bombardment 4.30am. f.M order gunteams up to Boom wood. Infantry attack at 12. Guns lost and ammunition tank, gun crew and a few other men. Rifle firing at lines. Bosche in Savy. 20th Division up at night in rear position.

Friday March 22nd - Stand-to at 5am - up to copse behind Germaine and Foreste at 9am. Aeroplane attack on postions in afternoon. One brought down by our rifle fire (our one gun firing near horse lines) "A" battery = 0 guns, "B" battery = 5 guns, "C" battery = 3 guns and "D" battery = 3 guns. Left at 3pm. Bosche nearly at V aux. "C" battery in action near Foreste as we left. Down to Douilly for 6pm. Watered and fed. Had to leave at 7pm - all brigade hurriedly - Bosche cavalry in Douilly at 8pm! Throught Ham to Golancourt - evacuated by civilians - eggs boiling and meals laid; Watered and fed and camped for night. Bosche has been shelling Ham all day.

Saturday March 23rd - Alarm given at 5am - had to leave hurriedly - guns firing like hell. Bosche nearly in Ham - guns firing on roadways and behind us as we left (near chance of being cut off by cavalry). Our Brigade in action rear coming through Ham and right along road through Esmery-Hallon, Erchau. Ognolles to Solente. All bridges near Erchau on canal dynamited by R.E. men wanting to blow them up. Fine and sunny all the time so far - misty in the mornings. Roads packed with traffic and evacuating civilians. Spent the night at Solente - our brigade in action near Esmery-Hallon.

Sunday March 24th - Fine and sunny. Harness up at 10.30am and stood-to all day -left at 4pm for next village. Champien is under observation - Bosche at Esmery-Hallon and shelling Erchau - civilians still evacuating and left Solente now. French cavalry came up at noon and more French troops later on with transport and motors etc. In the evening 9 batts of 75's up from Champien on motor lorries - going into action tonight - French heavies coming up also French infantry.

Monday March 25th - watered and fed first thing. Harness up at 9. teams out to "C" batt with ammunition (in action at Erchau) and others, including self, to 14 Bde. A.F.A. with ammunition (Solente). Fine sunny day but cold and windy in evening. American ambulances and more French cavalry up during the day. Bosche shelling Solente in evening. All division moved off at about 5pm for Roye - stayed there 8 - 10pm then had to leave at once. We had blown bridges up at Erchau but Bosche had crossed he canal. Had to wait an hour for traffic to get on road - terrible traffic - our heavy guns being withdrawn - 20 motor machine guns (Hotchkiss and M.G's mtd) (French wanting to protect Roye on other side). Spent night at Beauvraignes which we reached at 3am.

Tuesday March 26th - Very cold at night. Had to sleep outside in field. Reveille at 7.30am Had to move off at once. It was 11am before we could get on road to move off - terrible traffic. Fine cold windy day. Some French M.G. men told us that the Bosche were in Roye at 9am. Through Popincourt to Brivillers - tons of 75's coming in action - also R.C.A. in action from Grivillers. After watering and feeding and a meal - to Faverolles. Bosche just started shelling Grivillers as we left. Halted at Faverolles and took over 5 guns through Montdidier - civilians evacuating all these villages. Left ammunition and guns in a field to left of Montdidier/Fontaine road and went on to wagon lines at Fontaine which we reached at 3am.

Wednesday 27th March - Got down in loft till reveille at 7am. Harness up first thing - watered and fed and left by 10am. Picked up guns etc which had not been fired and by Montdidier, Pierreport, Hargicourt to Aubvillers. Gunes went into action along with F.B. wagon at dusk. We left at 11pm for Le Plessier via Braches - camped out in square of village for the night. Stood-to with full kit on all night - Got to Le Plessier at 1am (House at Le Plessier full of fine furniture - looted).

Thursday 28th March - Bosche started shelling round village - left at 10am via Moreuil. French machine guns taking up positions at Moreuil and tons of French cavalry and guns (ours) here and 61st div. batteries coming in action and firing whilst we were passing. (Left ammunition here and guns came in action. We unloaded gun team and F.B. wagons and stood-to near guns and we went on to wagon lines at Merville-au-Bois (8pm here). Place full of French cavalry (28 Dragoon Lancers) and our troops. Camped out and slept in loft for night. Raining all afternoon and during the night and very cold. Civilians evacuating villages day and night. Never had clothes off yet. Iron rations for three days.

Friday 29th March - Iron rations again. Reveille at 7am. Cold, rainy day. Cavalry have left (came from Marne trenches). Feed, brushed down and harnessed up at once and had breakfast. 50th division coming through village (our guns still in action on other side of Mailly/Raineval (4 guns in action and "B" battery 4 also - "B" = 5, "C" = 5 or 4, "D" = 3). Cleared up and sunny again later on. In afternoon harnessed up and went to advance wagon lines 300 yds. to left of guns other side of Mailly R. relieved the "C" batt team. At 10pm pulled out and went back to Merville-au-Bois - camped out and stayed here until 4am - 1 man on picket from each team. Horses hooked in. At 4am went in action in valley this side of Mailly R.

Saturday 30th March - Raining and fine alternately - grooming for an hour in morning. Stood-to all day. Our guns firing hard also "B" and "C" batts. and 14 Bde. mobile. Hooked in and stood-to all night. Slept under wagon just covered by overcoats - very cold and rainy.

Sunday 31st March - Reveille at 7 and breakfast. Grooming for an hour then harness up again and hook in. Fine sunny morning and Bosche aeroplanes flying over about 10am machine gunning us and batts. (batt. 200 yds. in front - "B" and "C" batts. in rear - French 75's on left rear). After 1/4 hr. flying very low went away. 1/2 hr. later we were shelled out and had to leave quickly - 3 men wounded and 1 killed (Harkness) at wagon line and 2 wounded at guns. Valley under observation from 3 balloons of the Bosche. Stand at wagon lines or guns and see shells of our batt. and others bursting on slopes over Moreuil. Moreuil on fire yesterday and being shelled heavily by us. Still smoking today - a terrible sight from wagon lines. New wagon lines to rear of a copse. Stood-to all night - just got down for an hour on the field when shelled out again and had to unhook and leave wagons. Came back after an hour when quieter. At 3.30am moved guns back to a rear-ward position.

... Let me say I'm sorry if this is getting rather long but I'm trusting that you are all going to find this of interest and I hope answers the questions you asked of me. I'm typing this freehand (lucky I'm a fast copy typist - self taught incidently) and it's gone 3am but being a bit of a night owl, I can just about get away with it. Too much to type out the whole of August too but just quickly I'll mention more battery info for you Annette. What a shame the particular date you asked for (18th March) is 'lost'. As I say, I'll try to find out from my mother when I next speak to her and remember to find out if they ever turned up. It would be a shame if they never did, don't you think?

Tues 2nd April all guns came out of action at 5.30am being relieved by 148 bde. for a day or two.

He then mentions that in twelve days of the heavy fighting, he only had his boots off twice!

Sun 7th April he says hear we are coming out of action today - possibly train journey. ... Quiet as regards gun fire. ... 9pm moved out all brigade through Ailly (nearly deserted of troops now and blood in streets) As going along searchlights and anti-aircraft fire over Amiens district - Bosche bombing raid. Jumel, Assertaux and along main road to Amiens coming to a halt in a field at Saleux at 3am. ... Strafe broke out and Bosche started shelling Ailly as we left Jumel.

Also I'll quickly mention Mon 8th April - .... Tons of troops at Saleux-Salouel (14th div, 30th div, 18th div, 61st div, 8th div, 58th div all represented). Bosche prisoners coming through.

Next day - ... Terrible amount of traffic through Saleux-Salouel - roads cut up awfully. Amiens bombed a lot and shelled heavily now by huns. All civilians evacuated.

Finally (better end here before I'm told off for writing too much! lol) Friday 12th April - All 148 and 149 bdes. been here in two very large fields. Fine sunny, hot day - ideal marching and beautiful scenery up the valley of the Somme. Through Flixacourt, Bettencourt, St. Ouen, Berteaucourt, Halloy, Canaples, Fieffes to Candas which reached at 3pm.... Plenty of troops here 148 and 149 bdes. tons of R.F.C men - very heavy traffic through Fienvillers-Candas station. For 8 or more days railways very busy taking men and guns up north - tons of aeroplanes about - French and English.

Kate, if you remind me please, I'll take a look through some of the earlier diaries and make a few notes for you about any entertainment etc he mentions as you were interested in that. Is there any time period or any particular entertainer that you had in mind or just generally? If you have something specific, I'll make particular reference to that/those otherwise just whatever I think/hope you will find interesting ok?

Now it's gone 3.30am and I really must leave it here and get to bed. Problem is it's such fascinating and interesting stuff (much of which I've yet to read properly myself) so I could go on writing all night but not sure my fingers could cope.

Thanks again for your welcomes my friends and as I say, I hope you find what I've just taken the trouble to type out for you of interest. Any further questions or queries, please feel free to ask and as I say, hopefully I'll be notified now by Email should anyone reply or make further comment here.

All the best for now

Nick

[Annette Burgoyne]

Thanks Nick

Very intersting reading, will compare it with my notes.

Again many thanks

[Borden Battery]

Hello Nick

Welcome to the Forum.

I am transcribing the war diaries of the 1st Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade which was in action in the general area at this time. Portions of this material from March 1918 can be forwarded to you upon request. Over time it would be interesting to see a coordinated effort to bring all available war diaries onto the internet for future researchers.

In addition to the 1CMMGB W/D, I have posted the personal letters of Private Richard William Mercer (911016) of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, Borden Motor Machine Gun Battery of the 1st Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~b...m_contents.html

It is an interesting project to re-trace the actions and events of a late Grandfather to gain some insight into what they would have seen and experienced. Welcome to the quest.

Regards

- Dwight Mercer, Regina, Canada

[shelley]

Hi Nick,

Welcome to the forum!. How wonderful your Grandfather wrote and kept these diaries.

Thank You for sharing with us.

cheers Shelley

[Mancunian_Nick]

Thank you everyone for your kind welcomes once again. So much appreciated. Always happy to share if there's anything in particular people would like to read. Just let me know either here or via Email.

Dwight I agree with what you say about the coordination efforts. Guess it just needs someone to give the space for postings and some means of coordinating them. Would certainly be interested in the March 1918 portions you mentioned sometime.

Finally glad you enjoyed them too Shelley. Makes all the effort and the early morning so much more worthwhile.

All the best for now and hope to correspond again soon.

Cheers

Nick

[pilot]

Hello Nick

I am writting a book about Moreuil's area between march and july 1918. I will be very happy if you would be so kind to allow me to quote some passages from this diary.

regards

[docchippy]

Fascinating stuff. My great uncle died in 2000. He served at end of the war in No2 section 30th Divisional Ammunition Column RHA. I never got to talk to him about events in specific detail - altho he did mention the 1918 offensive as being very busy! I was aware of the general retreat of the 30 divison but have not located any detail of teh RFA role in events - putting this flesh on the bones is great to read!

[Mancunian_Nick]

I am writting a book about Moreuil's area between march and july 1918. I will be very happy if you would be so kind to allow me to quote some passages from this diary.

Hello again Pilot,

Sounds fascinating and of course I'd be delighted for you to use any quotes and passages you think would be appropriate. All I'd ask is for you to acknowledge their source (ie my grandfather) and my mother, Christine Jay, who without her hard work and efforts would mean that I would not have the wherewithall to be able to share his diary entries with you. Even it it was in the appendix somewhere that would be great. And maybe once your book is complete, you could let me have the details and if available in Word or .PDF I could maybe see a copy too? Purely for my own personal interest/reading of course.

Good luck with it anyway and I hope it does well.

All the best for now

Nick

[Mancunian_Nick]

Fascinating stuff. My great uncle died in 2000. He served at end of the war in No2 section 30th Divisional Ammunition Column RHA. I never got to talk to him about events in specific detail - altho he did mention the 1918 offensive as being very busy! I was aware of the general retreat of the 30 divison but have not located any detail of teh RFA role in events - putting this flesh on the bones is great to read!

Hi docchippy

Thank you for writing and glad you found the entries so interesting. I also appreciate you sharing the information about your own great uncle. Sadly my own grandfather never *really* spoke much about his experiences in the Great War - I suppose serving for so long under often very harrowing and stressful situations and seeing your friends and fellow soldiers being killed or injured wouldn't be something you would want to talk about much. One thing I REALLY regret in my life is that I remember when I was about 12 or 13, I was about to go on my first holiday to France - a school trip to Avignon and of course he had our itinerary of where we were going to be going and I remember him preparing me a little booklet typed out telling me about the places he had been and served in the war in both Belgium and France. Sadly I have absolutely *no* idea what happened to it but I would *love* to be able to find it and read it because I'm sure it would both make fascinating reading *and* add somewhat to what we now know from his war diaries. I have never knowingly thrown it away and I'm sure my mother would not have done either but I have moved around on many occasions so maybe it's in the bottom of a suitcase somewhere (hopefully) rather than having been lost. Maybe one day I'll have a good look around for it but sorry, I digress.

I'd just like to say that I'm glad that you found these entries interesting particularly as it relates to your own area of interest as it were. As I said before, if you are interested in any other periods, please let me know and I'd be happy to share them with you - and the other readers here of course.

All the best for now

Nick (who can be contacted at nick_jay@1net.gr). It seems the auto-notifications by email here are still not working but as always I'll keep popping my head round the door, so to speak, to see if anyone has added anything.

[Kate Wills]

Hi Nick,

I've only just caught up with this thread. I've tried to e-mail you via the Forum, but it was bounced back.

I would love to see anything that your grandfather mentions about concerts, gramophones, films, bands, singing, whistling...anything relating to music or entertainment, military and civilian, at home or on service. My area is how music and musicians fared in the conflict, from the great composers to ordinary folk who carried tunes in their heads.

If possible, and so as not to impose on your time with numerous lookups, could I take you up on your offer of a copy on CD please. I would happily pay whatever you wish and/or make a donation to the Forum.

Regards

Kate

[Aaron Nelson]

Hi Nick,

Firstly welcome to the forum. Your family really is extremely lucky to have these diaries, what a gold mine!!!!! Im currently researching my Great Grandfathers war service who also served in RFA. All I had to go on was a copy of his paybook. But Im slowly putting it all together. I am putting this together so my family has a record of what old Granpop got up to. If its OK with you I would like to use the diary entries you have posted re the March 1918 german offensive. I would like to include this in my little project. I think its great to get a day by day account from the individuals gunners prospective. I have discovered that my Great Grandfathers battery position was overun on the first day of the offensive and they had to destroy and abandon thier guns in a real hurry !! I have the war diary of his unit, if you would like any entries from that in return just ask.

Best regards Aaron

[ackimzey]

I am working on the transciption of my great uncle's diary covering March-October, 1918. His name was Grover Carter, a US Army doctor from Memphis, Tennessee. He was assigned to BEF 34th Div., 104th Field Ambulance Corps. On Mar. 26 he writes that the 104th was located about 6 miles from Aux-le-Chateau, France, at "Bochimrut" Chateau. I cannot locate any trace of "Bochimrut" (or any variant spelling I can contrive) in my searching. I would appreciate any suggestions on how to proceed. I'm not even certain I am posting this message to the correct place. I am "newly come" to the internet, websites and forums. Any and all help is welcome.

Ann Kimzey

Houston, Texas

[Steve Bramley]

Hi Ann,

Welcome to the forum . I was just reading Nick's very interesting diary extracts, I must have missed them first time around.

And because I missed his posting I wondered if it might be worth posting your message in one of the more 'popular' sections to avoid the same thing happening. Perhaps, 'Soldiers' or 'Western Front'.

It would probably be more advantageous for you to start your own 'thread'.

Go into the section that you think is most appropriate, lets say Soldiers.

Click the box 'New Topic'

In Topic Title try:

Diary of an American soldier,

And in Topic Description:

Where is Bochimrut?

Then resubmit your message above.

And see what happens.

If all else fails I would suggest PM (personal message) Dave 'Croonaert', he seems to have a map for just about everywhere and is extremely helpful.

That is if you don't get the required response here of course.

Best Wishes,

Steve.

[Guest edwinwrg4751]

Nick - a warm welcome to the Forum. It is contributions such as yours that make this site the leader in its field.

As we cannot all get along to the Imperial War Museum Reading Rooms, North or south, could we persuade you to share a little more of your grandfather's diary with us? As you transcribe, you may well come across things that need some clarification. As we have every subject expert under the sun here, most questions get an answer. From my own perspective, researching entertainment at war, may I ask if there are any references in Bmr Waddicor's diary to concerts, music-making, visits from entertainers and the like. Thankyou.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

what a treasure you have its a pity that there are not many personal diaries about.

[Jacky Platteeuw]

Hello Nick,

Fascinating stuff. Smething in relation to Ypres Salient in it ?

Jacky

[Mancunian_Nick]

Hi Nick,

Firstly welcome to the forum. Your family really is extremely lucky to have these diaries, what a gold mine!!!!! Im currently researching my Great Grandfathers war service who also served in RFA. All I had to go on was a copy of his paybook. But Im slowly putting it all together. I am putting this together so my family has a record of what old Granpop got up to. If its OK with you I would like to use the diary entries you have posted re the March 1918 german offensive. I would like to include this in my little project. I think its great to get a day by day account from the individuals gunners prospective. I have discovered that my Great Grandfathers battery position was overun on the first day of the offensive and they had to destroy and abandon thier guns in a real hurry !! I have the war diary of his unit, if you would like any entries from that in return just ask.

Best regards Aaron

Hello Aaron. Thank you for your kind welcome, which I really appreciate and again sorry for my late response. I'm sure you've seen elsewhere why. Anyway I would be happy for you to quote anything I've already posted here and wish you well with your "little project" and indeed would be very interested to hear more from his unit's war diary, if it's not too long/big? My email is now working (forgive me anyone who has been trying to email me but I'd since changed it - the previous one registered here was a defunct one).

anyway must dash for now but am keeping an eye on the forums now again and will try not to loose the link again.

Cheers for now

Nick

[Mancunian_Nick]

Hello Nick,

Fascinating stuff. Smething in relation to Ypres Salient in it ?

Jacky

Hi Jacky

Yes I'm sure there will be something on Ypres Salient in it for sure. I don't have time to look now as it's turned midnight (my time) and just about to hit the sack - but I'm now being notified of new posts in here so I'll try to remember to do a search on the 3 diaries I've already scanned and see what I can find for you as soon as poss ok? I do know my grandfather was at Ypres during the Great War, although not sure what the "Salient" is - was there more than one battle at Ypres and this was one part of it or is that just the full name perchance? Either way as I say, as soon as I can remember and get some time, I'll see what I can do. I'm intending to make a start scanning 1916 soon, the one year I've not so far scanned in as it's the largest by far of the 4 volumes. Just a shame late 1917 to early 1918 is missing - thankfully only a few months but possibly some of the most interesting parts I should imagine.

Did I ever mention btw that some of the original diaries my mother first found still had some of the mud from the battlefields on the covers? Pretty amazing really.

Anyway bye for now and hope to post again soon.

Cheers

Nick

[Mancunian_Nick]

BTW I know this might sound a stupid question and I'm not exactly an Internet greenhorn but does anyone know if there are any websites specifically related to the 30th division anywhere please? I would be most interested to know. I'm surprised the RGA/RFA don't have one for starters or, if they do, I've been totally unable to find it anywhere. I've tried Googling it a few times so as Esther Rantzen used to say on that's life, I'll assume there aren't any ... unless YOU know different?!

Thanks, Nick.

[Mancunian_Nick]

Since I last wrote the above, I've changed my email address so it's possible people were trying to advise me privately but I didn't get the message(s). If that's true of you, I have now updated here so please re-send if you'd be so kind. Thanks, Nick.

PS I'm in the process of scanning in 1916 now - only have about 20 pages left so should be finished and ready in the next couple of days. However I have a query and not sure if anyone is going to be able to advise me on this or not but it says the following passage within Monday August 7th 1916 ...

"At St. Venant <read Saint-Venant> are quartered A.S.P. (M A.S.C) of 31st 39th and 61st (T) divisions and many garrison troops. At Haverkerque H.Q. also of 39th divs. School of Mortars also at St. Venant."

I'm assuming the big gap after the 'M' is a short list of divisions or battalions or something that were quartered there but my mother is unable to decypher my grandfather's writing on that word other than it starts with an 'M' and ends with either 'tonns' or maybe 'toans'?

Can anyone help me decypher it please or alternatively let me have some links to the divisions mentioned so I can see if that may help - I've tried Google but to no avail so far.

Thanks a lot.

Nick

[Mancunian_Nick]

Hello again everyone.

 

Unfortunately a long time has passed once again since my last visit for one reason or another which I won't bore you all with but finally, after a lot of thought, I decided to post my grandfather's diary whilst I'm still here and able to do so. Here is the link to the page ... https://www.facebook.com/groups/186430525249588/

 

I sincerely hope those who asked above in particular, enjoy reading them and find the information they may be seeking. I will double check my profile before I sign out just to make sure my email is current and up to date so I welcome any contact people may like to make or you can contact me here ... I will check to see if there's a way of email notifications being sent if any new postings are made etc. That would be very useful if not.

 

All the best for now, Nick