Other Ranks: Watches at the Front?

[rolt968]

I have just finished writing the report on a private soldier on one of the war memorials I have been working on. He has no known grave. In his will he left his watch to his son. (I have come across something like this a number of times before - sometimes left to younger brothers.) I wondered if the son actually got the watch or if it was with his father at the time he was killed. Would other ranks have been allowed to take their own watches to the front?

RM

[JulianR]

Do not see why a man would not have worn a watch, it is not like a camera where photos could potentially be of military interest if captured.

[Muerrisch]

Although widely disobeyed, primarily by officers, cameras were forbidden. Watches were almost essential for officers and not unusual for the men. Commercially produced watch guards were available to protect the glass. A cheap watch in those days probably had a short trench life.

[Skipman]

Found this in the British Newspaper Archive

 

Edinburgh Evening News - Thursday 15 May 1924 

 

"A wrist-watch was found on the body of an unknown soldier recently exhumed in France near Oppy Wood. Upon the inside case were scratched the words Second Lieutenant A. W. Apperley, 18th Battalion Durham Light Infantry, 1916.’* The Imperial War Graves Commission immediately got into with Lieutenant Apperley, who lives at Harton, near South Shields, and he states that while serving near Oppy Wood in 1917 he had servant named Lacey, who, he understood, was afterwards killed action. Lacey wore Lieutenant Apperleys' wrist-watch because it kept good time his wrist, but not on that of its owner. . . , The soldier has now been reinterred as Private A. Lacey. His home was either at Gateshead or South Shields."

 

Mike

[rolt968]

19 minutes ago, JulianR said:

Do not see why a man would not have worn a watch, it is not like a camera where photos could potentially be of military interest if captured.

I assume they were usually pocket watches or were they?

[rolt968]

2 minutes ago, Skipman said:

Found this in the British Newspaper Archive

 

Edinburgh Evening News - Thursday 15 May 1924 

 

"A wrist-watch was found on the body of an unknown soldier recently exhumed in France near Oppy Wood. Upon the inside case were scratched the words Second Lieutenant A. W. Apperley, 18th Battalion Durham Light Infantry, 1916.’* The Imperial War Graves Commission immediately got into with Lieutenant Apperley, who lives at Harton, near South Shields, and he states that while serving near Oppy Wood in 1917 he had servant named Lacey, who, he understood, was afterwards killed action. Lacey wore Lieutenant Apperleys' wrist-watch because it kept good time his wrist, but not on that of its owner. . . , The soldier has now been reinterred as Private A. Lacey. His home was either at Gateshead or South Shields."

 

Mike

Thanks Mike.

 

(As an aside in pre-digital watch days I had a watch which kept good time on my right wrist but not my left.)

Would other ranks normally have writs watches? For some reason I had been picturing the watch left to son/nephew/ young brother as a pocket watch.

 

The replies so far tend to suggest that some of the recipients didn't get the watches. I have found a very small number of lists of soldier's returned property and don't immediately remember a watch (Must check when I have a minute.). I suppose a man might leave his watch somewhere before an attack (as Osborne does in Journey's End) but I am not sure that there would be anywhere secure enough. Does anyone know of watches brought back to families by friends who were in the same unit?

 

RM

[JulianR]

I think part of the question was how much did a watch cost in those days especially in relation to your pay. As has been said watches probably had a short life in the trenches.  So was it possible for an OR to buy a watch which might not be useful for a long time.  As for leaving your watch behind, you might not return to the trench if the attack was successful, so there would be no chance to reclaim it.  The only possibility would be if your were told to leave heavy kit with the Bn Transport.   

[Skipman]

Silver wristwatch for officers £2.12s.  The Sphere - Saturday 5 December 1914, so other ranks could probably get cheaper ones.

 

Mike

[Muerrisch]

That is a year's basic pay for a private soldier ..... exactly.

[IPT]

35 minutes ago, rolt968 said:

I assume they were usually pocket watches or were they?

 

Seems much more likely.

[Skipman]

Click

 

Mike

[IPT]

Officers and Yanks.

[BillyH]

 

BillyH.

[BullerTurner]

53 minutes ago, Muerrisch said:

That is a year's basic pay for a private soldier ..... exactly.

Not so, that's 52 bob, yes.  However a private soldier of the line earned a shilling and tuppence, per died.  So it would be about a seventh of his pay for the year.

[Skipman]

I don't suppose they were any different to us and wanted all the latest gadgets. This is a page from the service record of Private S/15971 John Munro, 6th Cameron Highlanders, from Aberfeldy, killed in action 27/6/1916. I don't know if these items made it home to his family.

 

Mike

Edited 17 November , 2018 by Skipman

[Beechhill]

It seems watches weren't exactly unseen among the ranks, but is that so strange? Although the class divide in both army and civilian life was tangible, surely not all privates hailed from the great unwashed? 

[daggers]

I suspect that in that time “watch” meant “pocket-watch”.  Wrist-watch was usually described as such.

D

[BillyH]

8 minutes ago, Beechhill said:

surely not all privates hailed from the great unwashed? 

 

I think you could have phrased that one a lot better !

 

BillyH.

[Skipman]

I suppose the sun glinting on the glass of a watch could be a problem.

 

Mike

[Beechhill]

22 minutes ago, BillyH said:

 

I think you could have phrased that one a lot better !

 

BillyH.

Probably. Please do specify. Navigating a second language can be challenging. 

[Alan24]

45 minutes ago, daggers said:

I suspect that in that time “watch” meant “pocket-watch”.  Wrist-watch was usually described as such.

D

I think the above list does say 'wristlet watch'.

[Beechhill]

44 minutes ago, Skipman said:

I suppose the sun glinting on the glass of a watch could be a problem.

 

Mike

I read a story from the trenches, where a night time work party were betrayed by the radium(?) lume on the NCO's wristwatch. 

[Muerrisch]

15 hours ago, BullerTurner said:

Not so, that's 52 bob, yes.  However a private soldier of the line earned a shilling and tuppence, per died.  So it would be about a seventh of his pay for the year.

 

Really? Please give us your reference for this startling exception to the Pay Warrant of 1914.

[Moonraker]

British Army rates of pay 1914  As defined by War Office Instruction 166 (1914)

 

Infantry of the Line private, 1s a day," additional proficiency pay is payable if the soldier fulfils certain conditions as to service and qualification: rates 3d or 6d per day, according to proficiency".

 

Moonraker

 

[Muerrisch]

Buller Turner knows better than that, he says.