Irish Voices from the First World War A blog based on PRONI sources

General Herbert Plumer (1857-1932), Commander of the British Second Army, 1915-1918, was a regular and welcome visitor to Major-General Oliver Nugent at 36th Divisional Headquarters, D2216/4.

October to

The third battle of (commonly known as ‘Passchendaele’) petered out in late amid the mutual exhaustion of opposing forces. Field Marshal Douglas Haig (1861-1928) made the best of an anti-climactic failure to an offensive, which had been touted once again as likely the decisive wartime blow by the Allies, in declaring that the battle had ‘served its purpose’. Half a million British and German troops had been killed between August and October 1917. The front was relatively subdued for the next few months. As it turned out this was the last of the massive trench battles of the character that had become familiar to foot-soldiers over the previous three years. The British tank offensive at on 20th November stunned German forces and initially won considerable ground with few casualties. Worries mounted over the effect of the German submarine war on supplies of food in Britain. was weakening and the front was reinforced by British and French troops.

Everything was overshadowed internationally by events in . (1870-1924), leader of the new Soviet government moved to end the war with . The Western Allies urged Russia to maintain its war footing but an armistice was negotiated between Germany and Soviet Russia on 15th December 1917.

County Committees in Ulster assisted in the management of agricultural production, trying to boost UK food

supplies in 1917 & 1918 (AG/2/5/X/1)

Document 1: Reminiscences of Gunner James Fulton, Royal Horse Artillery, describing his first day at the front line in in , [T2288/1]

The recruit experienced rigid discipline and drill while training then swiftly realised that the realities of life as a soldier involved patience with confusion, disorder, indignity and, by necessity, improvisation and impish self-reliance.

Having attained the ripe age of 19, in November 1917 and the lowly rank of unpaid Acting Lance Bombardier Signaller-Gunner Horse Artillery and after suffering repeated frustrations in my efforts to get to the Front, I was at last included in a Draft of reinforcements destined for France. On the final parade of the Draft on the square at Woolwich, I was unceremoniously stripped of my stripe, as the Battery-Orderly Sergeant explained there were sufficient paid N.C.O’s on parade to complete the draft. Thus I found myself once more a plain gunner but not stripped of my flags for which I received proficiency pay. The great day had arrived and after embarking at Southampton we crossed to Havre and proceeded to Harfleur transit camp. Here we spent our first night in bell tents without paliasses, lying shoulder to shoulder and feet to the centre pole, like so many sardines. Indeed this was to be our lot for some fourteen days. How important I felt writing home to my parents from ‘Somewhere in France’. At the expiry of this somewhat short ‘breather’ I was detailed for inclusion in an immediate draft for the Front. Our transport was rail – closed goods waggons with the famous lettering in French – ’40 men or 8 horses’. The railway platform was very long and it was quite dark, as we entrained. The train started and stopped several times but still we saw the platform and sheds. Then somebody shouted ‘Tea Up’ and out we scrambled and into an excellent Canteen, where a friendly girl from my home-town in Northern , handed me a steaming cup of strong tea and a man-size ham-sandwich, to which I did full justice, as I was ravenously hungry. The battery to which our draft was assigned was supposed to be at Passchendaele. We heard some grim rumours about this particular part of the Front and the Base Sergeant did nothing to abate them, by informing us that it was considered a suicide sector. After some seven days hunt for our Battery we at length caught up with it near Ribecourt, on the Cambrai Front. It was still dark when we reported at the Wagon- Line, in a wood, where men were asleep on ground sheets, covered over by large tarpaulins, for it was snowing. The horses were tied to lines between the trees. Instead of a friendly welcome, a gruff N.C.O. handed us (eight in number) a tarpaulin and told us to get some ‘shut-eye’ till day-break. We were so exhausted that in less time than it takes to recount it, we were oblivious to the whole war. However, it was a short respite for we were soon rudely awakened and given some hard-tack a dog would have queried and tea that looked as if the cook had washed his hands and face in it. Nothing daunted we made the best of it and shortly afterwards were detailed to wash wagon wheels with melted snow. The next day along with some others my name was called to proceed to the Firing Line. The transport was a GS Wagon and on the way I experienced my first baptism of fire. The enemy were aiming shells at an ammunition dump, alongside the road we were taking to the Gun Line. Fortunately the shells fell short of their objective, but uncomfortably close to our Wagon. All movement of troops in the forward zone took place under the cover of darkness, and on arrival at the six-gun battery, we found the men sleeping in improvised shelters (called tamboos) – against a low bank, door two foot high, and revetted with sandbags which supported a corrugated-iron roof, accommodating seven or eight men apiece. Peering inside one of these shelters I saw a Sergeant with his shirt off going along the seams with a candle flame. I was learning fast that Active Service was far removed from the spit and polish of Woolwich. ‘Time you blokes arrived’, he growled, ‘Get two petrol cans apiece and fetch drinking water from the well’. It was pitch dark as we groped our way to the village where among ruined houses we found the well, forty feet deep, from which we hauled up water in a damaged container suspended from a long rope. An occasional Verey light fluttered over ‘no man’s land’, which gave our surroundings a ghost-like appearance. Jerry was lobbing over an occasional shell in our vicinity and some six-inch guns of ours, hidden uncomfortably close to our path, belched out defiance. The Officer’s Mess at the Gun Line consisted of a hut, roofed with elephant cupolas, reinforced with sand-bags and heated with an old-fashioned stove. The guns sat in the open covered with camouflaged netting. Presently I was detailed as ‘Waiter’ at the Officer’s-Mess. Almost at once the Major commanding the Battery – called ‘Waiter, mix me a little mud’. He wanted a poultice for his leaking stove pipe. As the ground was frozen stiff it required the use of a pick-axe and a little drinking water. Thus began my first day at the front.

Knowledge of the circumstances of many deaths was often painfully vague for close relatives but the

family of this officer learned much of the pathos and brutality of his death (D1973/13)

Document 2: Diary of Captain Godfrey John Mulholland, Army Service Corps, 4th to 2nd Nov 1918, (D4179/9/2/8)

Mulholland’s diary notes get across the anxiety and helplessness of troops under random shelling, day and night watching and waiting for the next concussion, every escape feeling like a small miracle.

12th Oct – Very comfortable billets at ---- but a long way from companies. The cavalry came through here but after two days went back again. I suppose they could find no use for them. Weather is very wet but our advance seems to progress well but slow. I gave up smoking for 6 days from 27th September to 2nd October. 13th Oct – Caught rather a bad cold, did not smoke today. 25th Oct – Cold better. We moved up to camp (tents & huts) a few hundred yards from Vlamertinghe. The Bosche during the night bombed our area very heavily between Vlamertinghe & ourselves. Our orderly nearly got one, luckily only mud hit him. Rather terrifying as we have no protection except one dugout capable of holding 2 people. Half full of water. 26th Oct – Got our tents sandbagged. Rode up with the Colonel to 300 yards this side of St Julien. We were sending over about 100 shells to their one but there were some very gruesome sights. At one place they put 6 shells running about 80 yards from us. The noise of our own guns & their shells was appalling. We rode back through Ypres which is an absolute ruin. The Cloth Hall and Cathedral simply have some of the walls standing. On nearing our camp, the Bosche sent over 3 shells just off the road & the whole afternoon & evening have been dropping shells about 2 to 3 hundred yards from our camp. I think they are trying to get the ammunition dump at Vlamertinghe, which is about 400 yards from us. 27th Oct – Sat up till 1 a.m. with telephone messages. Last night they bombed & shelled our camp but luckily no casualty. One dud landed 30 yards from my hut & a bomb burst 10 yards from our stables. 28th Oct – Motored with Colonel to Ypres & saw Teddy’s grave. It is quite alright but of course untidy & overgrown with grass etc. Am arranging for a fence to go round it & a cross to be made. Also saw George Marshall’s grave which is next grave, but our grave yard is situated on junction where road from joins road from Menin quite near Menin Gate, east of Ypres. Grave is right at opposite end to entrance gate. They still shell Ypres but I do not think very much. 31st Oct – we have been having a pretty bad time of it, being shelled in the day & bombed every night. About five shells have landed in our camp & one bomb. I suppose for every night for the last week within a radius of four more bombs have been dropped than have ever been dropped on in a week. Yet we do not have questions asked in Parliament. We can make no attempt to protect our men against direct hits, just a few sandbags to try & protect them against splinters. So far we have been very lucky only having one man wounded. 1st Nov – Heavily bombed from 11 p.m. till 4 a.m. Very terrifying but no damage done to us except mud thrown up over our tents. Thirty horses of neighbouring units killed by bombs & many men casualties. Went to Ypres & put up cross on Teddy’s grave. By an extraordinary coincidence I met an officer in graveyard looking for a grave. I asked him who he was looking for & he said the grave of George Marshall, so I showed it to him. He was George Marshall’s uncle. I believe they have been shelling Ypres again with gas shells. Heard rather an amusing story of an adjutant of one of our Battalions who in a dugout under heavy shell fire received an order that ‘All ranks were to be informed that the Portuguese were to be invariably called by the terms ‘Our Noble Allies’ & not by other names’. So the adjutant inserted in Battalion orders ‘It is notified for information that the Portuguese will be referred to as ‘Our Noble Allies’ instead of as hitherto ‘The Bloody Portuguese’. 6th Nov – Moved back to near Poperinghe 8th Nov – The camp we just vacated was badly bombed last night, ten horses wounded in same night & spot our horses were. Headquarters, cook house & men’s mess riddled with shrapnel.

Document 3: Correspondence between Major-General Oliver Nugent and wife, Kitty, October to November 1917 [D3835/E/2/11/1-65; D3835/E/2/12/1-77]

It seems clear that the correspondence of senior officers did not undergo the severities of censorship. Nugent in his private letters gets away with sardonic political criticism of the governing coalition and of the Irish administration and with candid discussion of military matters in a way that would not have been permitted among the lower ranks.

6th Oct 1917 I got back here by 10 p.m. after the most heavenly 10 days of perfect peace and rest with you. It was too beautiful. I find I left my pink pyjama suit behind I think in the bathroom. Please send it after me by post or if it is lost or I packed it away in my suitcase, please buy me another suit at the stores, Viyella [a wool-cotton blend of the time] or other soft flannel, man’s size and send it out. I have only one pair out here. Also please send me a writing tablet of papyrus regia, this kind, but a larger size with 200 envelopes to correspond, procurable at the stores. I find the country here pretty much as I left it, very mild and no signs of autumn as yet. Alick Godley came to tea and stayed a long time chatting…

8th Oct 1917 Sir Herbert Plumer turned up yesterday afternoon just as I got in from the trenches and he stayed quite a long time and so prevented my writing to you. I hoped to have had a letter from you this morning telling me how St G got on. By now I hope he is convalescent and happy again. It is very blustery weather and working up for rain. I should not be surprised if it were the break-up of what has passed for summer. The enclosed from my mother is full of quaint news. The idea of the government arresting O’Dwyer, the Bishop of Limerick and keeping him in prison and being able to prevent anyone from resisting it in Ireland is too funny. No doubt he ought to be arrested but I can’t see the government or the Irish authorities having the pluck to do it. I wish they would. Notwithstanding the clamour of the different factions in Ireland, I am certain compulsory service can be introduced into Ireland with much less trouble than is anticipated. If the government only have the pluck. There are lots of Irishmen who must realise the shame and disgrace which will attach to the name of Irishman after the war if they refuse to bear their share of the burden of empire now. Compulsory service might kill politics for all time in Ireland and what a blessing it would be. I have written to the Adjutant-General to urge that if compulsory service is brought in for Ireland that I hope the ‘Ulster’ division will be made ‘Ulster’ in the broadest sense and that Ulstermen of all creeds and politics should be sent to it so that it will no longer be a sectarian division. Do not breathe a word of this to your committee else they will throw fits in every corner of the room and probably get up a deputation to the government to work for my removal….

12th Oct I hope all goes well. We had three raids last night, one failed to get in as the Boches were too much on the alert, and the others got in. In one the Germans bolted and they got some of them but the other raiding party killed 30 Germans and brought back some prisoners. The German trenches in front of my division are pretty well knocked about. We are always hammering them with artillery and mortars and I think the Boche is having a pretty rotten time here. I don’t know what is the matter with him. He hardly retaliates at all. I don’t think it is like him and I fully expect he will do something horrible as soon as he has a little space & time. He is pretty busy in various places just now. I am very depressed all the same. I see no chance of getting any men and in consequence of being short-handed the men are overworked and overtired and there is a lot of sickness. Every other division almost has been back to the Somme some three times but we are side-tracked and forgotten. It is very disheartening. I heard from Congreve the other day. I wrote to give him my sympathy and I told him of the story you told me of Mrs Congreve and the tree clearing. He was interested and told me he had sent my letters on to her. I hope they are a little nearer to each other than they have been for years I am afraid. We had a good many casualties last night I am sorry to say but they are more or less inevitable. Unfortunately they were mostly caused by our own artillery which for some unaccountable reason were short. It is a howling autumn gale today and I am very glad I am not crossing the channel. There will be increased submarine activity after the high wind of the last three or four days. There always is after a gale.

13th Oct Such a long weary day. The Boche worm has turned as I expected he would and he has been giving us a devil of a day, shelling our trenches violently, blowing them to pieces and I am sorry to say some of the men too. I was going round there all day and did not get back till tea time and there was a lot of damage going on. We shall have to punish him severely for this. The pyjamas came today, very nice ones and the blue will match my complexion exactly. It will be very nice for St George to loaf about at Lightend. And he will no doubt get some shooting and fishing himself, but you must see more of him. I do hope though you won’t keep him to long away. I shouldn’t like him to lose the chance of his house colours and the cadetship. I think we should wait till after the war for the organ. To begin with even if you could buy one now it would be double the usual price and there will have to be some alterations made in the gallery and so I think we had better wait. At the same time I would politely write to the Primate before the end of the month to remind him as he forgets things. He has promised me for three years to give me a grant to finish paying off the cost of restoring the church but I have never got the money yet. He might let us in very badly. Besides we want to be sure of having enough money. A decent organ cannot be installed in the church under about £150 at the least. If you put your clothes on the electric lamp bulbs you must expect to the burnt.

15th Oct 1917 …it is getting very cold. The Boches gave us another heavy bombardment yesterday and knocked us about considerably. It is very inconvenient as it entails as much work on us. It was all right while we were knocking him about but the dirty worm has turned and we shall have to hammer him again severely. Somerset and I went to lunch with Colin Mackenzie who commands A Division near here. He has got Singleton now who was promoted to a higher staff appointment out of this Division. The question of the future of this and other Irish divisions is coming to a crisis. I don’t know what the future will be but as all the Irish Divisions are dying out something will have to be done soon. I may be coming home one day, this Division having been absorbed by some other Division. How dreadful it would be to have me as a half-pay General filling up the bungalow. They might perhaps give me another Division but on the other hand they might not. Our miserable little country. If only they would govern it how happy we might all be. Duke [Henry Edward Duke, 1st Baron Merrivale, 1855-1939, Chief Secretary for Ireland 1916-1918] is just Birrell [Augustine Birrell, K.C., 1850-1933, Chief Secretary for Ireland 1907-1916] without the humour. I am sick of Irish problems or of hearing of them. I would like to drown or shoot all politicians or anyhow get them out here into the trenches…

17th Oct Our conservative old army has broken with the tradition of the last sixty years. The War Office has actually withdrawn the order compelling officers & men to wear moustaches. We can shave now if we like. I think I shall shave at once. I am sure it would improve my personal appearance and I might look younger and even more beautiful than with one. Moreover in plain clothes I might be taken for an Admiral. I haven’t much of a moustache anyhow. It is a poor thing and would not be missed. I have studied my upper lip and I think it is quite passable, so don’t be surprised if it is gone the next time you see me. Carter’s letters are very interesting. I wonder how much Lord Northcliffe had to pay him for that tip. They would have shot him if they had caught him. His letter in yesterday’s Times about the indignities and insults inflicted on our prisoners, makes one’s blood boil and then one reads in The Daily Mail of some ass in charge of a camp where there are German officers as prisoners, who made the men who are guarding them salute these savages. It is inconceivable. My mother’s nightmares are becoming alarming. She has told me of her dreams of something good for me for months now. I think she must be mixing me up as a sergeant when she talks of the different stripes of my high rank. I am interested to hear of Harry Robinson’s [Henry Robinson, Local Government Board, 1857-1927: this note is mistaken] promotion to Under-Secretary. It is a poor game to have anything to do with the misgovernment of Ireland. I doubt if he is the man for the post. I do not think he is strong-willed enough.

Advertisement for exhibition game of baseball, between America and Canada, in Windsor Park, , on behalf of U.V.F. soldiers’ charities [D3330/B/1/17]

Document 4: Diary of Robert Baird, editor of the Belfast Evening Telegraph [D3330/B/1/17]

Propaganda of all kinds, both crude and subtle, was developed during the War. As American soldiers joined the Allies in France sport took on an ambassadorial role in the task of familiarising the British public with their new comrades. Newspapers were foremost in the work of propaganda. The Belfast Evening Telegraph was central to the organisation of the America-Canada baseball match in October 1917. Wild rumours spread in early November that ‘Sinn Fein’ had risen again in .

29th October 1917 (Monday) RHHB entertained the team of the baseball players who arrived in Belfast the same morning from Dublin to play a match on Wednesday October 31st, the proceeds of such match to be devoted to the funds of the U.V.F. Hospital. This took place at Thompson’s and there were about forty present. Afterwards attended meeting of the Belfast Master Printers and RHHB have a description of what took place in London on Friday, October 27, when Mr George McCaw, President and Mr Harold Moore, crossed specially to London to consult the officers of the Master Printers Federation and who met at 24 Holborn, London, in order to endeavour to settle the strike of binders now prevailing in Belfast. Met a number of friends and did not reach home until a very late hour.

Cunningham Scott: Mr Rhodes reported that this man who had embezzled money quite recently when travelling in the interests of the I.D.T. had joined the army. Mr Henderson, cashier of the Dublin Independent wrote to know what were the wages of stereotypers in Belfast there being an application by the Stereotypers in Dublin for an increase of wages and reduction of hours. Mr Rhodes replied to this by ‘phone.

31st October 1917 The event of today was the Baseball Match played at Windsor Park by teams of Americans and Canadians and the origin of this match was conceived in the office of the Belfast Evening Telegraph. There was a very large attendance and the match was voted by all hands as a big financial success. Notwithstanding the inclement weather which had been prevailing for days before and after the match, the afternoon was especially fine. At the conclusion Mr Tom McConnell auctioned two of the bats and two balls and MR Robert Liddell bought the first bat for £25 and RHHB bought the second bat at £25. The teams were entertained to supper at the Service Club and a number of them left by the 6.40 train for London via Dublin. The dividend cheques for the half-year were prepared and signed by Major Baird who returned from the on Tuesday after going through a special course of instruction in Coast Defence, be being a member of the Royal Garrison Artillery. Mr H.D. Fisher, Galway, late of the Galway Express, who had been engaged for the vacancy to come into operation in Cavan, on Monday, November 5th, wrote to say he had received a position on the staff of the Food Controller, and that in the meantime he would not mind accepting the offer of W & G Baird, to become their representative in Cavan. RHHB was rather pleased with this decision, Mr Fisher not accepting the offer in which it was given and wanting to make special terms, which would not have suited the management of W & G Baird, Ltd, and he also wanted to be provided with a house in Cavan to suit the members of his family. Word was received from Ritchie Browne that he had passed his examination and that he would shortly receive his commission as an officer of the and that he would visit Belfast very soon.

1st Nov 1917, Thursday We had a visit from Mr Sydney Smith H.M. Inspector for Dangerous Trades on Saturday and on today, Monday, to inspect the ventilation of our Linotype rooms. He stated that he was recommended to see the Linotype Plant of the Belfast Evening Telegraph by Mr Eraut, who thought it was, as far as ventilation is concerned, one of the most up-to-date in the country. Mr Sydney Smith, after his inspection on today, stated he considered, in the matter of ventilation, that the Linotype Plant of the Belfast Evening Telegraph was the most perfect in the Kingdom and that he was taking same as his model. It appears there should be ten changes per hour of air in a room where machines of this class are in operation, whereas the Ventilation plant of the News department of the Belfast Evening Telegraph gives eleven changes per hour. Mr Smith said he considered the workshops of Belfast took first place in the in the matter of ventilation.

Friday 2nd Nov 1917 Ritchie Browne arrived from Keble College, Oxford and stated he had passed his examination and expected in a few days to receive his commission as an officer in the Royal Irish Rifles. Death announced of Mr William Swan, a very old friend of R.H.H.B. Called at the office of Mr J.A. McAuley and gave sanction, as chairman of the Belfast Building Society, to purchase the house 92 Portallo Street, which lies in between other houses, the property of the Belfast Building Society. However, the sale was not effected as the house went too dear - £210 and costs. Attended meeting of the executive of the Master Printers at 11.15, when Mr Moore and Mr McCaw, the latter only arrived same morning from London, gave an account of their interview in London on Monday with Mr Holmes, president of the PKTF and Mr Kelly, secretary of the Bookbinders. It was arranged to hold a conference of members of the PKTF and the Belfast Master Printers at Belfast on Wednesday, November 7, and that Mr Thomlinson should be asked to come to Belfast to assist the employing printers. Spent a considerable portion of the day with Mr Abraham Kennedy, Mr Blackburne, Solicitor and Matt Finlay….

Saturday 3rd Nov 1917 Mr Alfred M’Auley ‘phoned to say he did not buy the house 92 Portallo Street, as it went for £210 and costs…Stayed in the house all day. W. English severed his connection with the Cavan office today. Letter received from Mrs Brown to say that on Wednesday when there was again a serious raid in London, her daughter Mrs Plant, who is in an interesting condition, went into hysterics and her mother was very anxious about her state of health. A wire was sent from Mrs Baird asking how little Clara was at present and reply was received to the effect that she had recovered.

Sunday 4th Nov 1917 Stayed in the house all day and felt very seedy. Today no Sunday papers arrived and the mail boats which rarely have been interfered with and which sail between Kingstown and Holyhead, did not run either way on Saturday night. The result was that no Sunday paper of any kind arrived in Belfast. There was considerable excitement in the town owing to rumours having been spread about that the Sinn Feiners had risen again in rebellion. Wayland ‘phoned from Dublin to say that the Sinn Feiners had stolen from the Military Barracks in that city, rifles, the property of the 11th Battalion, Dublin Fusiliers. Captain Wilkin informed Mr Williamson that a German submarine appeared suddenly in Dublin Bay on Saturday evening. Ritchie Browne called at 2 Liscard Terrace with his father, and informed RHHB he intended to be married to Miss Hobson at St James’s Church at 1.30 on Tuesday, November 6, and that the happy couple proposed going to Dublin for their honeymoon. RHHB advised Ritchie under the circumstances to give Dublin a wide berth.

Wed 7th Nov 1917 Bookbinders Strike: Mr Thomlinson had crossed specially from London to attend a conference of the executive of the Belfast Master Printers and Mr French president of the T.A., Mr Sproat secretary of the Lithographic Society; Mr Holmes did not attend as promised. There was also present Mr Dyer…It was arranged that the men should be paid a bonus of 4/6 and also that the minimum wages should be increased by 1s per week to make them equal with those of the local branch of the T.A. Those houses in which the men fill in dockets or clock cards are to resume doing so and the Bookbinders’ Society stated that in January next they will take up the question of their rule refusing to fill in dockets and make it a national question. Firms like Carswell where the men do not fill in dockets are to give their times to a foreman or lady clerk and it was arranged that these houses on resumption of work on Saturday, , are to commence this practice.

Please note all the documents used in this blog have been edited for clarity and, in some cases abridged. For more information on the documents and PRONI’s sources relating to the First World War see our Guide to the Manuscript Sources for the Study of the First World War in PRONI.

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