The Listening Post Issue 73-Fall 2018
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The Listening Post Issue 73-Fall 2018 The Listening Post HM Hospital Ship 'Llandovery Castle', sunk by enemy submarines, 27 June 1918 by artist Maurice Randall Where? What? Who? How? Where was this trove thof What happened in this Who loved this much- How does this Afghani- treasure found20 ? AnnualRegimental Seminar: HQ? 8,despised 9 and piece 10 ofMarch equip- 2019stan scene tie to the See page 14 BaySee Street page 11 Armoury, Victoria,ment? BC Great War ? See page 10 See Page 4 The Listening Post 2 Issue 73-Fall 2018 Message from the Chairman should no one step forward. This will be distribut- ed by mid-December. In the meantime, anyone interested in taking on Issue 73 of the Listening Post comes to us at an auspi- the role of Chair, should contact me as soon possi- cious time: we are commemorating the 100th anniver- ble. sary of the end of the Great War, our American mem- bers have just celebrated their Thanksgiving (Canadian Best wishes to all over the holiday season and all Thanksgiving is in October), and we are approaching the best for 2019. the celebration of Hanukkah and Christmas. Thanks John again to Rob Forbes and all the contributors to this is- sue. We have much to be grateful for as we remember those who served in the Great War. Yvonne and I were in Mons, Belgium for the 100th An- Western Front Association niversary commemoration events. The City of Mons Pacific Coast Branch did a wonderful job over several days with the main The Pacific Coast Branch of The Western Front Associa- commemoration event taking place on the afternoon tion was founded in 1999 and has members from the of 11 November. In the morning, the Black Watch of Provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatche- Canada Association paraded through the city with a wan; and the States of Washington, Oregon, California, pipe band wearing Great War-era uniforms. It was Virginia and Georgia. The worldwide membership in very moving that each participant represented a piper the Western Front Association is over 6,500 in 60 sepa- or drummer who paraded in 1918. To see the list rate Branches in Europe, North America, Australia and please visit this page: New Zealand. mons2018.blackwatchcanada.com/participants. The WFA is non-political and does not seek to glorify This link (https://bit.ly/wfaMons) provides an excerpt war. Its principal objective is to perpetuate the of the 30-minute sound and light show that took place memory, courage and comradeship of the people on on several evenings (twice each evening) leading up to all sides who served their countries during the Great and including 11 November. (The depiction of the sol- War in and over France and Belgium, on other fronts, at sea and in their own countries. dier being killed is that of Private George Price, 28th Battalion, CEF who was killed by a sniper at 10:58 Another important objective is to inform and educate am—two minutes before the Armistice.) the public on the continuing relevance the Great War has on the modern world. 20th Annual Seminar: 8, 9 and 10 March 2019 Chairman: John Azar, Victoria, BC Mark your calendars for the 20th annual seminar. The Vice Chairman: Gavin Cooper, Lantzville, BC venue for all sessions will be the Bay Street Armoury Secretary: Alan MacLeod, Victoria, BC (the logistics for another venue for the Saturday ses- Treasurer: Blair Matheson, Victoria, BC sion have proved to be overly complex.) A preliminary Editor Robert Forbes, Victoria, BC program and call for registration will be sent to all Registrar: Chandar Sundaram, Victoria, BC member very soon. The Listening Post Discussion Paper: The Future of the Pacific Coast Branch This newsletter is produced by the Western Front As- You have been aware for three years that the 2019 sociation, Pacific Coast Branch. Membership in the WFA-PBC is $30.00 annually and in- seminar will be my last as Chair of the Pacific Coast cludes subscription to the Listening Branch. Over that period, and with several informal Post. Submission of pictures and arti- discussions, no one has come forward with the stated cles can be sent via email to desire to take on this role. I am preparing a discussion [email protected] . paper on possibilities for the future of the branch 2 The Listening Post 3 Issue 73-Fall 2018 British Statistics of The Great War The War Office The Internet is an amazing thing, and the amount of information (both good and bad, real and fake) is aston- ishing. To wit, here are some statistics summarized from the 880 page War Office book “Statistics of the Mil- itary Effort of the British Empire” published in 1922, and available here (free to download): bit.ly/wfa0001 The British Army of 1914 was very small in comparison with the mighty armies of continental neighbours France and Germany. It was considered as ‘contemptibly small’ by Kaiser Wilhelm II. By 1918, the scale, fire- power and tactical sophistication of the army were all very much greater than in the early days. How big was the British Army? How many soldiers were wounded? Aug 1914: 733,514 Total British Army wounded in action, plus other cas- Plus from England 4,006,158 ualties (e.g. accidental): 2,272,998. Plus from Scotland 557,618 Royal Navy and RFC/RAF casualties were 16,862. Plus from Wales 272,924 In context just over a quarter of those who served Plus from Ireland 134,202 were wounded. Plus the Empire sent overseas: Canada 628,964 Proportion returned to duty: 64% Australia 416,809 Proportion returned to duty but only for lines of com- New Zealand 220,099 munication, garrison or sedentary work: 18%. South Africa 136,070 Proportion discharged as invalids: 8%, i.e. approxi- Newfoundland 11,922 mately 182,000 West Indies 10,367 (to end 1917) Other dominions 31,000 Proportion died of wounds received: 7%. From the Indian Army (and other “coloured” troops) How many soldiers of the British Army died? 1,629,820 Total killed in action, plus died of wounds, disease or Total force available for deployment injury, plus missing presumed dead: 956,703, 8,789,467 of which Royal Navy and RFC/RAF casualties were 39,527. Where did they serve? of which, from the British Isles were: 704,803 and Theatre Peak Strength Total Employed from Canada, Australia, India and other places: 252,900. France/Flanders 2,046,901 5,399,563 Total British Army deaths in France and Flanders: 564,715 of which 32,098 died of disease or injury Mesopotamia 447,531 889,702 from accidents. Salonika 285,021 404,207 Total British Army deaths on the Gallipoli front: 29,919 Italy 132,667 145,764 Total British Army deaths on all other fronts (i.e. Mac- Gallipoli 127,737 468,987 edonian, Mesopotamian, Sinai and Palestinian, East African, Russian and Caucuses) : 365,375. Other 293,095 475,210 3 The Listening Post 4 Issue 73-Fall 2018 Captain H. Ackroyd, VC, MC, MD, RAMC Edward F. Malet de Carteret (great-grandson) On 11 August 1917, a German sniper's bullet prematurely end- ed the life of Harold Ackroyd. He was going about his normal daily business of attending to the wounded men of his battalion dodging from shell-hole to shell-hole in the front line. According to his batman, Pte A. Scriven, who was in charge Of the Advanced Dressing Station that day, Harold was about 150 yards in front of him, visiting each company and attending to the wounded, when he was shot through the head by a sniper. Scriven did not actually witness the event, but said that upon hearing the news, I immediately took a party Of stretcherbearers, but on arrival found that he was dead. There were six other poor fellows in the same shell-hole who had met the same fate; it was a perfect death trap. Harold Ackroyd was born on 18 July 1877 in Southport, Lancashire and was the younger son of Edward Ackroyd who had made his living from textiles and was Chairman of the Southport & Cheshire Railway Com- pany. He was an intelligent boy and was sent to Shrewsbury School and from there he gained entrance to Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. He completed his BA in 1899 and continued his studies at Guys Hospi- tal, achieving his MB in 1904, and finally his MD in 1910. He held house appointments at Guys, the General Hospital in Birmingham and the David Lewis Northern Hospital in Liverpool. After this he secured a British Medical Association Schol- arship, and became a research scholar at Downing College Labora- tory in Cambridge, where he pioneered research into the discovery Of vitamins. During this time Harold met Mabel Robina Smythe at the Strange- ways Hospital in Cambridge where she was matron and they were married on 1 August 1908. They had three children: Ursula (1909- 1993 -my grandmother), Stephen (1912-1963), and finally Anthony (Tony) (1914-1991). Harold was commissioned temporary lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps on 15 February 1915 and was attached as Medical Officer to the 6th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment which formed part of the 53rd Infantry Brigade in the 18th Division. After training at camps in Colchester and Codford St. Mary on the edge of Salis- bury Plain the Division sailed for France on 25 July 1915. It was post- ed opposite Carnoy & Fricourt on the Somme front and took over a portion of the front line held by the 5th Division on 22 August.