THE JOURNAL OF THE WESTERN FRONT ASSOCIATION FOUNDED 1980 OCTOBER 2016 NUMBER 107 www.westernfrontassociation.com WFA Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph and in the Guards Chapel on Friday 11th November 2016 Attendance at the Cenotaph and in the Guards Chapel is open to all Western Front Association members. Those attending the ceremony must assemble in King Charles Street behind the archway and NOT at the junction with Whitehall. This will assist the marshals and will allow an orderly column of members to proceed to the Cenotaph. Attendees must assemble no later than 10.20am as the Columns will form up at 10.30am for briefing and March Out at 10.40am. Please note that the column will be moving out to the Cenotaph 10 minutes earlier than previously. Wreath layers please note! Please order your own wreath from the Royal British Legion early. (Tel: 01622 717172). On the day please report to Barbara Taylor. Instructions regarding the order and method of wreath laying will be conducted by Barbara between 10.10am and 10.20am. It is most important wreath layers attend this. Medals should be worn. A very limited amount of disabled parking will be available in King Charles Street, provided that the driver remains with the vehicle at all times. Vehicle details must be communicated to the Parade Marshal John Chester <jhonchst@btinternet. com> by the 2nd November to obtain access to King Charles Street. New lunch Annual Western Front Association venue for Lunch - 11 November 2016 Lunch on the day at 13.30 hrs 11/11/2016 with other members at the Mandeville Hotel , Mandeville Place, The Mandeville Hotel Wigmore Street, London W1U 2BE Mandeville Place, Wigmore Street, Starter London, W1U 2BE Tian of Crab, with dressed salad and toasted brioche Chicken liver parfait with Melba toast Vegetable terrine (V) Lunch bookings going fast! Main Courses Roast Beef with horseradish cream Pan fried Rump of Lamb with mint and thyme dressing (both served with dauphinoise potatoes and seasonal vegetables) DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Baked Aubergine with goats cheese crumble (V) WFA 2017 CONFERENCES Desserts On 6th MAY Chocolate Mousse with ginger crumb WFA SPRING CONFERENCE and AGM Baked Apple and Cinnamon crumble with crème anglaise will take place at the University of Northumberland Coffee included. Pay Bar. Please indicate choices when booking. Vegetarian options available indicated in red. 3rd June - WFA President’s Conference, Please indicate any special dietary requirements Birmingham when booking. 8th July - WFA Conference, York Cost - £30 fully inclusive - Full details of timings will follow but please get the date in your diary and we hope to see many of you there. pay via WFA Office - 0207 118 1914 The Western Front Association Stand To! No. 107 STAND TO! EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION The Journal of the Western Front Association When David and Judith Cohen first told an artist with another personality whom I No. 107 October 2016 me that this edition of War Art was to be had heard of or studied. When we moved their last I sensed it was the end of an era. to ‘colour’ it was War Art which benefited © Copyright 2016 ISSN 0261–6548 To have researched, organised and written a perhaps most of all: the images often lifting Editor: Jon Cooksey feature item every three months for twenty– from the page. Holly Lodge, Church Road, Snitterfield, two years is a marvellous feat of longevity in I shall certainly miss the feature then and Stratford–upon–Avon, Warwickshire. CV37 0LE email: [email protected] itself. Not many would have – indeed could will remember it fondly as I am sure many The Editor is always prepared to consider original have – found the time or had the perseverance members and readers will. I shall also miss articles for publication; they should be sent to him to have done so, even if they had wanted the regular contact with David and Judith. at the above address. to. That they did find the time and had the In this electronic age, when contact with Stand To! is published in January, May and September and is distributed to current members determination, in order that readers might contributors is more often than not via email of the WFA. get a different perspective on the war in each and large files can be sent and received in Advertisement enquiries to Ralph Lomas. issue, is to their eternal credit and our great seconds, David and/or Judith always – but Tel: 01625 511645, Email: ralph@app–publishing.co.uk enjoyment. always – rang to ask when I needed the Design, Typesetting, Production and Print Management by APP Publishing Consultants From a very early stage in my current sojourn material and when they would send it and of Macclesfield, Cheshire. Tel: 01625 511645 as editor of Stand To!, War Art became one of then rang again to ask if I had received it. On the items I ‘did’ first. This was partly due to those occasions we would chat a little and CONTENTS the fact the David and Judith were always so pass the time of day – sometimes with one Communication Lines 2–3 prompt in the delivery of their material and – or other of them listening and joining in the yes, I admit it, also partly due to the fact that conversation on ‘speakerphone’ – and sort The First Tank Action in History by David Fletcher 4–7 the amount of ‘raw text’ was never daunting out a few of the world’s issues. There is no and it was always so well presented in any doubt that I shall miss that human contact Facing the Tanks case that I could knock it off pretty quickly every couple of months. The German Army at Flers – 15 September 1916 by Jack Sheldon 8–12 – but most of all I always wanted to see what So thank you David – and thank you Judith treasures they had set out for we readers in – not just for War Art, which was always The Camera Returns (89) the forthcoming issue. I loved looking at eagerly anticipated and of course has been by Bob Grundy and Steve Wall 13–15 the images one by one as I worked my way a wonderful part of our journal for so long Cricketers to the Front through the piece and reading of the artists but for everything else you have done for and The Men of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club by Martin and Teresa Davies 16–18 who had created them. Often an image would given to the WFA over so many years. Your strike a personal chord; either I had visited or contributions will not be forgotten. I am sure Learning on the Ancre been near a featured location, I was touched everyone else will join me in wishing you 2nd Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry 13 November 1916 by the artist’s technique which evoked a both a very long, a very fruitful and a very by Stephen Barker 19–26 particular mood or emotion, or I could link happy retirement. ‘Smokes for the Blokes’ Insights into the Tobacco Trade’s Perspective on the Early Years of the Great War by Henry Daniels 27–33 BOOK REVIEW EDITOR WANTED War Art by David and Judith Cohen – Key responsibilities of the role Second Lieutenant Thomas Ivester Lloyd (1873–1942) Royal Field Artillery 34–40 • Have an overview of all WFA reviews in publications and on the website. Being responsible to Jon Cooksey (Stand To! editor) for editorial policy. Extraordinary Friendship • Dealing with publishers, reviewers and the WFA’s publications and web editors by email, December 1915 on the Western Front: letter or telephone. A Leicestershire Perspective by Karen Ette 41–45 • Compiling and maintaining an up to date list of named marketing contacts at publishers, contacting them for review copies if necessary and receiving books for review. Tunnelling Companies on the Somme • Compiling and maintaining an up to date list of a team of reviewers and their contact Part Two by David Whittaker 46–51 details. Somme and Rhine • Selecting which titles to review, matching titles to specific reviewers and mailing titles to The Memoirs of Major Edward Ison Andrews them in timely fashion. Part Two – From Recovery to the Rhine • Collating and grouping all reviews received, selecting, editing and standardising the Edited by Michael Lucas 52–55 overall raw text for consistency and house style and sending electronic files to editors Garrison Library 56–64 when required. • Sending copies of reviews to publishers/authors. The views expressed in articles in this publication are those of the Expressions of interest in the role to Steve Oram authors and do not necessarily reflect [email protected] or represent those of the Editor, his associates or the Trustees of the Western Front Association. Neither do these persons endorse, recommend or Front Cover: A mother photographed with her convalescent wounded son by Lieutenant Ernest Brooks in guarantee any item or service offered by an advertiser in the Duchess of Westminster’s No. 1 British Red Cross Society (BRCS) Hospital, Le Touquet on 18 June 1917. this publication. The Editor reserves the right to decline This150-bed Base Hospital opened during the first winter of the war in what had been the Casino in Le Touquet or accept an advertisement without giving a reason. and after a short period it became a hospital for officers only. In October 1915 the BRCS purchased the nearby Photographs in this publication with an IWM credit Hotel des Anglais set amid the forests, one wing of which - with the exception of two rooms reserved for a doctor are reproduced by kind permission of the Trustees of and his wife who worked in the Etaples hospitals - was specifically reserved for the relatives of dangerously the Imperial War Museum, London.