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

Photograph from Mackie’s Magazine [3964/T/38].

-1-

December 1916

Photograph from the papers of Lieutenant James MacDowell, Bangor, Co. Down, in , [T3896]

The Battle of the Somme finished in November, and the Battle of will come to an end on 18 December. In December, British politics comes to the fore culminating in the replacement of Herbert Henry Asquith with as British Prime Minister. Edward Carson also returned to office on 10 December 1916 as First Lord of the Admiralty. On 12 December 1916, offers a negotiated peace which was rejected. The bloody year of 1916 would culminate with the murder of Petrograd, Russia.

Document 1- Letter from Major Thomas Aloysious Whyte, Royal Garrison Artillery, from , 7 December 1916 [D2918/7/E/16]

'... I have been some time since last writing, because the battery has had another move and everything has been at sixes and sevens for the last fortnight. Neither are we by any means settled down in our new position yet. As an instance of how the staff mismanage

-2-

affairs our move deserves recognition. We had been transferred to another Corps, as to whose location everyone was very vague and after wandering about for three days eventually found ourselves taking over from a French battery and received information that the new Corps would not be in for a fortnight which meant we were absolutely cut off from our own people. No means of obtaining rations, water or medical attendance etc. Fortunately the French have played the game by us well and we are managing to keep alive, but it is no thanks to our own bright people. They have admitted we were not intended to move until headquarters and communications had been established, but through a misunderstanding with the Corps we have just left our orders got mixed up. It has been a most unpleasant time, particularly as we have been sent to a very unhealthy spot and are getting far too many casualties. I have only one sergeant left in the battery now. Three were killed the first day here and also I am sorry to say about 12 others have been done for in this place alone. What makes me so angry is that a Staff Officer miles behind the line looks at a map and says, "This is the position you will take up", never having seen it himself and utterly regardless as to how you get there or what happens when you arrive. As I say in my case I should have been in an extremely awkward position with all these wounded men on my hands and no medical assistance had it not been for the French. I was very sorry to leave our last place which we had been in for two months, after much labour and digging had converted [it] into as comfortable quarters as can be expected in these parts. It also possessed the merit of being comparatively immune from shell, only one casualty the whole two months we were there. Have not seen a paper for weeks but hear the worst about Roumania. It is very bad news and puts the end of the war still further out of sight. ...'

Document 2 - Letter from John Dick Pinkerton, Russia, to his mother, Mrs [Eliza] Pinkerton, Ballaghmore, Co. Antrim, explaining that he can only send letters or telegrams through the British Consul, 21 December 1916 [D3754/2/13]

'I am hoping that this mob will take a run home in the summer. It is a lot to expect but we have had a lot to put up with in one way and another till a chap nearly goes "loopy", and there's a limit to man's endurance. A year with no home leave, half rations, few letters and a foreign country to boot is not a joy ride by any means although in the big

-3-

towns they make no end of a fuss of you especially the ladies. I reckon that if we'd a bob a day things might be different.'

Document 3 - Mackie’s Magazine [3964/T/38]. 1916 edition of Mackie’s Magazine which includes a one page play entitled ‘As You Might Not Like It’, inspired by the works of Shakespeare.

-4-

Document 4 - Letter from Captain Stephen Gwynn, Irish Parliamentary Party MP serving with 6th Connaught Rangers to his cousin Amelia McCaughan of Windmill Hill, Carrickgfergus, Co. Antrim, 26 December 1916 [D1912/1/19]

We are in trenches but not actually in front line and are better off than you would think possible, at ¼ of a mile from the Germans. A priest said mass here yesterday in the open to over 200 men. But that was taking a big risk - though nothing untoward happened and the men were greatly pleased. They are in fine heart and we are alongside the Ulster Division and making great friends with them - which is well...'

Document 5 - Copy diary of Chief Petty Officer (later Sub-Lieutenant) James MacDowell [T3896/1/], 26 December 1916

This has been a sad day for me & I shall forget Boxing Day 1916 as long as I live. I was roused out of bed about 4:00am & told to take a “Heavy” up to the firing line as a reserve in case the “Heavy” going into action got stuck in the mud. My orders were to get well up take cover & await orders by field telephone or cyclist. Needless to say I was so wicked as to hope that the first car would get stuck and sure enough in about ½ hour after I had taken cover, Lieut Smiles came back on a push bike & ordered me to go ahead, take up a position about ½ a mile past the Russian Front line trenches & shell the Village Roobla. When I got up to my position at about 7.15am it was too dark to fire, as the flash of the gun would have given my position away. At about 7.45am I could have opened fire but just then a heavy mist came on & therefore I delayed opening fire. This proved very fortunate for me as it gave me a scrap which if I had opened fire I might not have had. At 8am I sent 2 scouts up the road as I thought I heard voices, they returned at 8.15 & reported they had not seen anyone. About 5 minutes after one of the sentries gave the alarm, silent by as ordered, & after observing through my field glasses, I found to my astonishment a long line of Bulgar Infantry advancing & owing to the heavy mist actually within 150 yards of my guns. They were in extended .

The formal view was very bad for them, but very good for us, as parties of 5 & 6 were coming on together. Nothing could have been nicer for us. I gave the order to stand by the guns, gave the range at 150 yards & opened on them with Rifle, Machine Gun & High Explosives. This fairly astonished them, they wavered for a second or two & then came

-5-

on again. I then ordered the driver to retire another 50 yards & so the heavy gun was the only gun out of action during the retirement. I then ordered the gunmen to open fire again. It wasn’t fighting at all. It was simply murder, they couldn’t advance in face of fire at point blank range, so they turned. I kept up fire on them for another 250 yards from the position I was in, as I considered it very unsafe to follow them. Instead I carried out the staff order & opened up shell fire on Roobla village and the road leading out of it, at 2800 y[ar]ds. I put 4 boxes of 64 shells into it & then returned to the Russian front line trenches thro’ the barbed wire barricades and reported to the officer in charge what had happened. I then proceeded to the rear & had just got to the staff Headquarters when I was stopped by a Staff Officer who gave me orders to then go back to the firing line. I sent a cyclist back with orders to have 8 canons, 128 shells high explosives sent up to me at once, as a general attack was going on all along the line.

Document 6 - Letter to Hugh de Fellenberg Montgomery, Fivelmiletown, Co. Tyrone, from Sir James Henry Strong, Tynan, Co. Armagh on 26 December 1916 [D627/429/86]

Letter to Hugh de Fellenberg Montgomery, Fivemiletown, Co. Tyrone, from Sir Jame Henry Strong, Tynan, Co. Armagh.

'... I must say that I am very uneasy about the Irish political situation. If you saw the Grand Orange Lodge address, you saw something of what I think about it. Archdale showed the address to Carson & he toned down a few expressions but made no material change. Moreover, he said practically the same thing when addressing the Ulster Association and immediately after he had revised the address - so he must be all right but it is too clear that an intrigue is going on to put moral pressure on Ulster to accept Home Rule and to blame us (if we do not accept it) for any Irish troubles that may take place. The position is most odious. And the war makes it difficult for us to speak out. ...'

-6-

Document 7 - Address from the Grand Lodge to the Orangemen of , 29th December 1916 [D627/429/90]

"Address from the Grand Orange Lodge to the Orangemen of Ireland. Unanimously adopted at the Half-yearly Meeting held at , on Wednesday, 13th December, 1916. Sir James H. Stronge, Bart., D.L., M.W. , Presiding." With note on reverse side to Hugh de Fellenberg Montgomery, Fivemiletown, Co. Tyrone, from Sir James Henry Stronge, Tynan, Co. Armagh, suggesting "... if any sort of Irish Parliament is set up I think that (in the long run) our best policy is to sulk, refuse to have anything to do with it, and let them "govern Unionist Ulster as a conquered country". I do not believe that a situation of that kind could last 6 months ...'

Document 8 - Letter to Sir James Henry Stronge, Tynan, Co. Armagh from Hugh de Fellenberg Montgomery, Fivemiletown, Co. Tyrone, December 30th 1916 [D627/429/87]

'... I have no objection to your "sulking" policy if the occasion arises, which I do not think it wil, as, even if leave were granted to set up a Parliament, it would not begin to try to govern us till it got to work, and I believe it would certainly be abolished again before it got to work.

I am quite certain that no possible grant of Home Rule would obtain the required recruits, hence my, perhaps wild, proposal to set up a Parliament on condition that recruits were produced with a view to abolishing it as soon as it was clear the recruits could not be delivered.

I saw Coote to-day, who is fresh from the House of Commons, and shrewd enough, and who says that this Government has no intention whatever of granting any form of Home Rule. The rumours that disquiet us are pure concoctions of the Nationalist writers in a few English papers, and T.P. O'Connor, Coote does not regard the letting out of the rebel prisoners as ominous of any real concessions. He says: what was the use of keeping them shut up, and feeding them at public expense and making martyrs of them? What

-7-

can they do here except rebel? And the more they rebel the better for us in the long run. ...'

Document 9 - Letter from Oliver Nugent to his wife. [D3835/E/2/10-11]

Major General Oliver Nugent, of Farren Connell, Co Cavan, commanded the 36th (Ulster) Division from until . In these letters to his wife Kitty, he describes how the post- Somme 36th Division is becoming more English and reflects on politics back in Ireland.

Nugent to his wife

I had W. Redmond to dinner last night. Congreve couldn’t come. All I can say is that if all Nationalist were like him, I am not surprised that Chief Secretaries and Viceroys after a short time in Ireland become H[ome] R[ulers]… Somerset was dying to talk politics, but I saw Redmond only wanted to enjoy himself and I squashed him each time he began … Now if Home Rule comes and awful things happen, we have a friend in the Nationalist Party. [5 December 1916]

Nugent to his wife

I delayed writing to you until I had seen something of my Brigade. I have two Lancashire Battalions, a Bedford and a Warwick Battalion - all New Army of course. They are about the same strength as we were in 109th but are being filled up with Derby men - who are on the old side 35-38. [7 December 1916]

Nugent to his wife

We gave the Germans a terrible doing this morning. I concentrated something like 50 guns and mortars on a piece of his line and we literally blew it away… The whole of the part we were bombarding was a sheet of flame and smoke from bursting shells and timber and corrugated iron, earth and every sort of debris was flying hundreds of feet up into the air. I did think I saw one Boche soaring upwards. He was about 200 feet up in the air when I saw him and still going up. If it was a Boche he had lost his head and arms. [15 December 1916]

Nugent to his wife

-8-

The 16th Irish Division next door is very friendly. They have presented 4 cups for boxing competition to be completed for by the Ulster Division. Quite embarrassing as of course we shall have to do likewise. Still it’s all for good and as I have no doubt L G means to give Ireland Home Rule all round as the price of men … Personally I don’t care 2d as long as we don’t have to go home to the never- ending political sordid squabbles.

I think Irishmen ought to be made to do their duty in their own interests. It will make them better men morally and physically. As things are now Irishmen from the South who go home on leave from the Army are reviled and spat upon. [17 December 2016]

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 First World War Sources.

© Crown Copyright 2007 | Privacy Statement | Terms & Conditions

-9-