R. N. D. Copyright © Leonard Sellers, 2001. ISSN. 1368-499X It might not always be possible to trace the copyright holders of all the material I will quote, andI would be pleased to hear fromany such persons to whom this applies. The picture on the front cover is the Nelson Battalion's cap badge. I am grateful to John Morcombe & Kyle Tallett in combining their effortsin order to supply the photograph. The R.N.D. is produced anddesigned at Honeysuckle House, 17A Bellhouse Road, Eastwood, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. SS9 5NL. (Telephone 01 702 521550) E Mail:- [email protected] WESTERN FRONT BALLADE OF INCIPIENT LUNACY By Sub Lieutenant A.P. Herbert, Hawke Bn. Scene:- A Battalion "Orderly" Room in France during a period of"Rest". Runners arrive breathlessly fromall directions bearing illegible chits, and tear offin the same direction with illegible answers or no answers at all. Motor-bicycles snort up to the door, and arrogant despatch-riders enter with enormous envelopes containing leagues ofcorrespondence, orders, minutes, circulars, maps, signals, lists, schedules, summaries, and all sorts. The tables are stacked with papers; the flooris littered with papers; papers fly through the air. Two typewriters click with maddening insistence in a comer. A signaller "buzzes" tenaciously at the telephone, taking in a strange language, apparently to himself, as he never seems to be connected to anyone else. A streamof miscellaneous persons - quartermasters, chaplains, generals, batmen, D.A.D.O.S's, sergeant-majors, staffofficers, buglers, Marine Officers just arriving, officers just going away, gas experts, bombing experts, interpreters, doctors - drifts in, wastes time, and driftsout again. Clerks scribble ceaselessly, rolls and nominal rolls, nominal lists and lists. By the time they have finished one list it is long out of date. Then they startthe next one. Everything happens at the same time; nobody has time to finish a sentence. Only a military mind, with a very limited descriptive vocabulary and a chronic habit of self­ deception, would call the place orderly. The Adjutant speaks, hoarsely; while he speaks he writes, about something quite different. In the middle of each sentence his pipe goes out; at the end of each sentence he lightsa match. He may or may not light his pipe; anyhow he speaks :- "Where is that list ofWesleyans I made? And what are all those people on the stair? Is thismy pencil ? Well they can't be paid. Tell the Marines we have no forms to spare. I cannotget these Ration States to square. The Brigadier is coming round, they say. The Colonel wants a man to cut his hair. I think I must be going mad to-day. 1570. "These silly questions! I shall tell Brigade This office is closing forrepair. They want to know what Mr. Johnstone weighed, And if the armourer is dark or fair ? I do not know; I cannotsay I care. Tell that Interpreterto go away. Where is my signal-pad ? I left it there. I think I must be going mad to-day. "Perhaps I should appear upon parade. Where is my pencil ? Ring up Captain Aire; Say I regret our tools have been mislaid. These companies would make Sir Douglas Swear. 'A' is the worst. Oh, damn, is that the Maire? I'm sorry, Monsieur -je suis Desole - But no one's pinched your miserable chair. I think I must be going mad to-day." ENVOI "Prince, I perceive what Cain's temptations were, And how attractive it must be to slay. O Lord, the General! This is hard to bear. I think I must be going mad to-day." Sub LieutenantA.P. Herbert. Ballade of IncipientLunacy was published in 'TheBomber Gypsy' by Methuen& Co Ltd. In1919. I would like to thankA.P. Watt Ltd on behalf of Teresa ElizabethPerkins forpermission to reproduce thispoem. Note:- This poem could have been inspiredby a routine order that I foundat thePublic RecordOffice, Kew. Reference ADM/37 /3088C - ROUTINE ORDER - I 89th InfantryBrigade by BrigadierGeneral L.F. Philips, D.S.O. Headquarters. Dated 29th March 1917. A & Q BRANCH. A.P. Herbert was Adjutant of the Hawke Battalion, 189th Brigade until wounded 23/4/1917. 370:- WESLEYANS. Nominal rolls in duplicateofWesleyans serving in this Brigade are to be rendered to Brigade Headquartersby Noon, 3151 inst. 1571. R.N.D. PERSONALITY. BRIGADIER BASIL BEDSMORE (Baby) RACKHAM, M.C.& Bar. LIEUTANANT & ADJUTANT HAWKE BATTALION. Basil Bedsmore Rackham was born in Suffolk on 20th November 1896. His father was Reuben Rackman of The Bridges, Wickham Market, Suffolk, who came from old Suffolkyeoman stock. He was very keen on farming and owned a farm at Campsea Ash. However, his main business was a familywater mill later converted to steam. His mother came from a Staffordshire family, and her father was for 17years the organist at Litchfield Cathedral. Rack.ham's second name Bedsmore was his mother's maiden name. When they married his father was 23 years older than his mother as his Father, was over 50 years of age while his mother was in her later twenties. He had two brothers and two sisters, Basil being in the middle and the third boy. His eldest brother was not medically fit, he was also in a reserve occupation, the milling business. It was necessary to keep this open as his father was old by the time war was declared. His second brother was commissioned in the Royal Marine Artilleryand served in France and went out to the island of Mudros. Basil attended Cranham College, where he was a member of the Officer Training Corps. However, just before he was able to take up regular employment the war intervened and he joined the Royal Naval Division as Able Seaman - London Z/1037. On 13/7/1915 at the age of 19 years and 7 months he was commissioned as a Temporary Sub Lieutenant at Crystal Palace into the Hawke Battalion. "In1914 we expecteda war, all the portends where there. It was inevitable the two fleetswould eventually clash. When war broke out our reactions were that we must join, in the whole country there were anenormous number of volunteers. I was only seventeen andthe age forjoining was eighteen, that's really why we went into the navy, as they would take us in a year earlier. Also, the Royal Naval Division had lost about2000 people after the fall of Antwerp, who had crossed the frontier, into Holland and they were interned. The Division, were then starting to make up the numbers and theyhad an idea to formwhat they called a Public Schools Battalion. We wanted to join that and in factI did join it but eventually it only reached company level, as they soon realised what a waste of material this was. 1572. CrystalPalace. "Well, I enlisted with my brother into the RNVR, London Division at the Union Jack Club. I was then immediately vaccinated and sent home for 10 days leave and told to rejoin at the Crystal Palace, called H.M.S. Victory VI. I think, our parents were apprehensive as to what might happen but they were proud of us. We thought it would be over by Christmas, but we didn't think much about it. The Crystal Palace was then the trainingdepot forthe division. So I joined 'D' Company of the Hawke Battalion which was the Public Schools Company. It was an extraordinary set up, we worked entirely to naval routine, marching out in liberty boats. That is to say that you couldn't just walk out of the door, you had to put your name down fora certain liberty boat. You were then formedup and you were marchedout ofthe Palace, which I suppose was rowing ashore." "We had all the naval routine, the trainingwas physical fitness,marksmanship, drill and general discipline and really not much else. All the staffwere naval, except one an exceptional military instructor, ex Guards drill Sergeant, then a Captain Levy ofthe Gordon Highlanders and eventually Lieutenant Colonel Levy. At this time, we were wearing naval rigged bell bottom trousers and blues." "We were inoculated which was quite the thing, we had a naval surgeon asour regimental doctor, called Bradbury. So we all lined up and in those days they did it in your chest, they just pinched a bit of flesh and stuck the needle in. We all thought old Bradbury liked to use a blunt needle as the blunter the needle the more it hurt and the more he liked it. Anyway, we were all lined up and stripped down and I found that a number ofpeople were very concerned. These were usually the chaps who you would think would be the last to worry, several of them fainted. You had a dab ofiodene applied before the needle. Some were very ill afterit but I was alright. "I think, I cansay it was a happy time but of course, it was all an extraordinary experience for me having been brought up in a comparatively sheltered home and now thrown into the rough and shod ofthe war, as it were. At the Palace, there were thousands ofus in the main building and the other outer pavilions. The sanitary conditions at that time were not all they might have been. Lots ofspitting on the floor and as a result we had an illness outbreak ofspo tted fever. That is what the doctors put it down to. I suppose they were right and there were numerous cases. It was to me a great shock to see this sort ofthing going on, and indeed, now whenever I see anybody spitting in the street or anywhere else, it horrifies me." "I came out in a rash and they carted me offto this pavilion, which was named Canada and there it was diagnosed aftera couple ofdays that it was measles and that I didn't have spotted fever.