CHAPTER 3
Quoted extracts from Charles Moss’ unpublished account is included by kind permission of DCRO.
CHAPTER 4
The unpublished recollections of John Evelyn Carr are reproduced by kind consent of Northumberland County Record Office. Arthur Roberts’ fascinating memoir is reproduced in full in As Good as any Man – the Diary of a Black Tommy, co-authored by the present writers and published in 2014 by History Press. Norman Gladden’s account is extracted from his own memoir Ypres 1917, published in London by New Kimber in 1967.
CHAPTER 5
The recollections of George Harbottle are from his privately published account Civilian Soldier (Newcastle, 1981) and are reproduced by kind permission of his literary executors. The description of Sergeant McGuffie winning the VC is included by kind permission of the Trustees of the KOSB Museum.
CHAPTER 6
As before, the words of Charles Moss are included by kind permission of DCRO, as is the extract from Gibbs and the verse to A Conscientious Objector. The extract from the diary of Frederick Tait is by kind permission of family while information on the trial by court martial of Willie Stones comes from the excellent Blindfold & Alone: British Military Executions of the Great War by C. Corns and J. Hughes-Wilson (London, Phoenix, 2005). Every evening at eight o’clock in the Belgian City of Ypres, ‘Wipers’ as it was known to Tommy, the local fire brigade band sound the last post in memory of those who died in the Ypres Salient: men who have no known grave, 54,395 of them. They have conducted this simple but infinitely eloquent tribute since Sir Reginald Bloomfield’s great arch was competed in 1927 (with a short interruption from 1940–44).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book could not have been written without the generous assistance of a number of organisations and individuals, particular thanks are due to: Roberta Goldwater of ‘A Soldier’s Life’ and colleagues at Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums, Jules Wood of the Military Museum at Carlisle; Ian Martin of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers Museum, Berwick upon Tweed; Trustees of the Green Howards Museum, Richmond; Trustees and staff of the (former) Durham Light Infantry Museum and Art Gallery, staff of Durham County Record Office; the staff of Northumberland County Archives at Woodhorn; the Trustees of the Fusiliers Museum of Northumberland, Alnwick; colleagues at the (former) North East Centre for Lifelong Learning at the University of Sunderland; staff at the Literary and Philosophical Society Library, Newcastle; Anna Flowers and colleagues at Central Libraries, Newcastle and Gateshead, Clayport Library Durham, Northumberland Libraries at Morpeth, Alnwick, Blyth, Hexham and Cramlington, to Glenn Baume and colleagues of the Heugh Gun Battery Trust Limited. We are also indebted to Lindsey and Colin Durward of Blyth Battery, Blyth, Northumberland; Peter Hart and the staff of the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive; Richard Groocock at the National Archive; Amy Cameron of National Army Museum; the archive staff of the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom at Shrivenham; David Fletcher of the Tank Museum, Bovington; Rod Mackenzie of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Museum; Thomas B. Smyth of the Black Watch Museum; Paul Evans of the Royal Artillery Museum; The curator and staff of the Royal Engineers Museum & Archives, Chatham; Peter Barton of La Boisselle Study Group; John Stelling, Anthony Hall and Henry Ross of North War Museum Project; Tony Ball of the Western Front Association and the Women’s Library. Special thanks are due to John Dale, Tony Hall, Rob Horne and David Metcalf, together with Ruth Sheppard and colleagues at Casemate for another successful collaboration.
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders for those individuals whose diaries and correspondence we have used, held in the archives listed above. We would be grateful for any information which might help to trace those whose identities or addresses are not currently known.
John Sadler & Rosie Serdiville
February 2017
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Tommies: The British Army in the Trenches Page 14