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First World War Journal

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First World War Journal Irish Voices from the First World War a blog based on PRONI sources August/September 1916 After the first terrible day on the Somme, the British army’s offensive continued throughout the summer months of 1916. Successive assaults were made on the German positions along the Front with troops from Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India taking part. In September, the 16th (Irish) Division launched attacks on the villages of Guillemont and Ginchy. More than 4,000 men fell in these assaults. Elsewhere the major Russian offensive in the East ground to a halt and in the south the Italian army launched successful attacks on Austro-Hungarian positions on the Isonzo line at Gorizia. Letter 1: D3503/5/1 – Letter to Corporal George Hackney of Belfast, serving with the Royal Irish Rifles, from Reverend John Pollock, of St Enoch’s Presbyterian Church, concerning his son Paul’s death at the Somme on 1st July 1916. 3rd August 1916. My dear George, Since leaving home three weeks ago I have had no heart to write to anyone, so that you are not an exception. We feel that there is now nothing but the very faintest likelihood of our dear boy turning up, and the suspense has given place to a sense of bitter bereavement. At the same time we do not forget that we gave Paul for the noblest of causes, and he most enthusiastically gave himself. The present war is, on our part, ‘for the defence of the gospel’, the protection, advancement and consolidation of the kingdom of God. That being so, I would rather have my son’s body in an unmarked grave, having done his duty, than sitting beside me here, having shirked it. I never honoured you and your comrades at the front so much as I do now. And God will richly reward you. There is no heresy in that conviction! Accept of our united thanks for your great kindness. Your letter was just like you. Though it was not answered promptly, it was acted upon without delay. Mr Smith and - 2 - Elsie called each of them on part of your list. The addresses were all visited, but no definite information was gained. From information received through my notice in the press, we have reason to believe that Paul was so seriously wounded by shrapnel that he must have died before he could be attended to, and not more than fifty yards from our lines but away from the Y.C.V position. His body has not been found, the entire ground having been ploughed up by explosives. Of course we still cling to the hope that his may be one of the wonderful cases of reappearance after long suspense. Mother was bearing up wonderfully when I saw her last, which was very shortly before leaving home. May you be spared to see her, and she to see you! With united affectionate regards, Ever yours, John Pollock Letter 2: D/3503/5/4/2 – Letter to George Hackney from Nellie McCotter, from London, who was serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps. 30th August 1916 My Dear George, I was very pleased to get your letter this morning (at present I am at Hale Common, Farnham, nr Aldershot, so your letter went from Mortimer House to Charlwood St & on here. I often wondered where you were & how you were getting along since the great & glorious charge of the Ulster Division, you bet your boot I felt as proud as a peacock when I read all about it later. I would have been at hand to help the boys who were bowled out, but only the young & fresh are allowed the privilege of going on active service. Wish I was 20 years younger, I’d be near the firing line. Our Div. Got an awful slaughtering, but not a man showed the white feather, ‘Carson’s goose steppers’ made a name for themselves which any regt. might be proud of. A friend wrote me that the Nationalist papers were dumb on the subject. The enclosed cutting I cut from the Post & - 3 - had it sent in to Arthur on the 6th not knowing then that he had been put out of action on the way up, bit of shrapnel through the shoulder & me of the R.A.M.C me turned him, the letter was returned to me last week; so the cutting may interest you or some of the boys. Arthur was in a number of Hospitals before going to a Convalescent Camp at Eastbourne & on the 15th inst he & a number of the Ulster Division boys crossed to Belfast on leave. I saw Y.C.V. on the shoulder of one of the boys. All seemed in good form, I had a couple of hrs with Arthur, he expected to be sent back to the Ulster Div base at Ballykinlar until further orders. A big number suffer from shell shock. Lieut. A. Wallace was sent home, has got another mths leave & is at some Eng. Sea port. It wd do you good to get sent over to Eng. or Ireland for a while not much chance of a cure within sound of the guns.....Letters just in from Steele, the boy I thought had been done for. I nursed him at Fring 1914 & have been writing & sending an odd paper since he went to the Front last year, he has been attached to another Batt. & so did not get the papers but said the boys had maybe more need of them that he had. I do hope to hear a good account of your mother from your Aunt, I expect she is longing for a sight of you and surely they will send you home for a wee rest soon. Have just heard Arthur is at Ballykinlar, he will probably be sent out with a draft soon. I pity all you boys when I turn into my comfy bed every night, we do not half realise all our men are doing to keep us safe here in Eng. The Rumanians joining the Allies has given the enemy a bad turn & it looks jolly like as if Tino will have to follow suit, the Bulgars & Turks must feel jolly sick now that they ever trusted the gentle Hun & Austria. Well we have got the whip hand now & must keep it up until Germany is stripped bare, no peace until they have paid for all their deeds of destruction. Unfortunately we cannot take a Hun life for every foul murder done by them, but they must be made to pay in some way. I am scribbling this in my pts room & feel very ashamed when I look at your copperplate writing from the trenches at 11pm. With many good wishes & most sincerely hoping that you will get home for a spell. Yours sincerely, Nellie McCotter I have two nephews at the front somewhere, one is in the R.A.M.C Dr Norman Davidson & the other Chaplain R.C. Mackeown you may have come across them sometime. - 4 - Letter 3: D3835/E/2/10/23 – General Oliver Nugent to his wife. 2nd August 1916. Nugent continued to correspond with his wife on a daily basis throughout the war and we have more than 40 letters between the two for the period August and September 1916. The letters cover all aspects of his service commanding the 36th (Ulster) Division and in them we can see the frustrations and satisfactions that he experienced during this stage of the War. Dearest, Just as I was sitting down in my shirtsleeves to write to you yesterday evening the Corps Commander came along and kept me till the post had gone, hence no letter. The heat is overpowering. We have to shut up the house by closing all the shutters during the day to keep the heat and glare out. The dust is very bad and the trenches are simply overpowering. I spent a long day there yesterday and did not get back to nearly 5 p.m. I am staying in this...to get some letters done. I have just said goodbye to Arthur. I feel very lonely without him. I shall miss him terribly. We shall all miss him on the HQ staff. He was a perfect Camp Commandant and everybody liked him....Arthur was very sorry to leave but we agreed that he could not remain as an ADC when his regiment was finished as a complete unit out here. I think we are at a deadlock at the present on the Somme. It is just a question of who can afford the losses longest. It is....a question of killing now. The Germans are probably killing more of us than we are killing of them, though from all accounts we are killing lots of Germans. I hear Delville Wood is simply covered with dead Germans and the conditions in it are beyond imagination.... I feel that if we had failed in our duty 2 years ago we could never have held our head up again amongst the nations and we should have reaped the first record of our treachery before losing. Germany would have finished France and Russia by now and after a period of preparation would have turned on us. - 5 - StG sent me a copy of the Eton OTC Orders in which Corporal Nugent to Company Sergt...appears. He has done very well and I hope too he has got his Certificate. His exam paper would have defeated me entirely, even in English history.
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