26.9.15
Dear all
When I arrived [Fort George] I walked through the worst rain and hail storm I have ever seen. It is pouring down now and had been on 24 hours without a stop. The water went through my puttees and stockings and my boots were full of water. Lights were out when I got to the Fort and I had to borrow matches. Someone had collared my bed and blankets so I had to find one and make a bed and undress in the dark. My bed consisted of one blanket and a wet overcoat with my tunic for a pillow. I ate a wet rabbit pie in the dark and enjoyed it, then had as sound a sleep as I’ve ever had until 4.30 this morning. A chum of mine here has just got a letter from France (his brother is Sergeant Major in the 4th Seaforths) and he says that we have bombarded the lines for four days and hope to commence an advance when the guns cease. [Ed. a reference to the Battle of Loos]
Men of the Scottish Rifles spar outside their barracks. Norman practised the pugilist’s art with the brother of the champion boxer Billy Wells.
Best love, Norman
28/9/15
Dear all
There have been no letters to the Fort this week as about six bridges have been swept away and a lot of roads flooded by the storm. We have sent a fatigue party of 100 men to help repair them. One bridge is south of the Grampians and one between here and Inverness, also the Inverness road is flooded. Two bridges farther north have also gone. My train was the last one to cross them. It is impossible to go to Inverness or Edinburgh so if I had stayed over the weekend I would have perhaps had a fortnight at home. The weather is very cold here. Yesterday we paraded in a heavy hail storm. Hail as big as peas. I drew 23/- in money yesterday. I received 1/9 a day ration money for the four days’ leave besides my pay for a fortnight. For the time in hospital 7d a day was deducted. It is a shame that they stop that as the wounded men who are making an allowance to their wives are in debt as the Government allows the wife about 12/6 and the man also 3/6 out of his 7/- a week, so if he is in the hospital he is charged 4/- a week and only draws 3/6. I have seen cases in John Bull where a man has been discharged unfit after six months in the hospital and when he has claimed six months’ pay has been told that he is over £1 in debt. The allowance stops when he is discharged. Funny thing the army. A man who was in hospital when I was remarked what a fine time he was going to have when he drew his wages for three months (he expected about £5) and got a shock when I explained that he owed the Government about 7/- instead.
We were expecting a big advance in France last week. Two boys were drowned here after the route march on Wednesday. Both under age. Very strong currents in the Firth. I will be very careful.
Best love, Norman
Editor: It seems palpably unfair that a man who, through no fault of his own, should have his pay docked when in hospital. It was not a meanness peculiar to the forces: merchant seamen whose ships sank at sea also lost their pay once they were cast adrift. The thinking was, in both cases, that once the soldier was incapacitated or the sailor had lost his ship, neither could perform the job for which he was being paid.
October 15, Thursday 9.00pm QMS Office
Dear all
…..It is dark very soon now and I don’t know how we will put the winter in here as there are no amusements at all. Hesleden is a frivolous place compared with the Fort. There are no lights here except in the rooms. We have a church in the Fort and two schools for the children and band boys. There is a burial place for the Regiment pets and all have headstones stating their histories. The last dog was in India, Malta, South Africa and Fort George.
Did I ever tell you that Bombadier Wells’ brother is in our battalion? I know him very well and have boxed with him. He is 18 years of age and is six feet high and is the image of his brother Billy, same style in boxing. He often seconds me. He was wounded in seven places at Neuve Chapelle
On Friday I saw our C.O. about my papers. The silly ass had signed them but doesn’t know what he has done with them. He advised me to get attached to a unit and make out fresh papers (Territorial).
Editor: ‘Bombardier’ Billy Wells (1889-1967) was the great white hope of British heavyweight boxing, in the years leading up to and including the First World War. Champion of Britain, he successfully defended the title thirteen times. Among his fifty-four fights between 1910 and 1925 were those against the famous black boxer and future world champion, Jack Johnson, and the French heavyweight Georges Carpentier. Bombardier Wells is also remembered for being the man who banged the gong at the start of the J Arthur Rank Films in the 1930s and ’40s.
Sunday
I couldn’t get an interview with the C.O. so will have to wait until he decides to sign my papers. If he had signed them in August I would have had my commission within a month, the 10th Seaforth (Kitchener’s Army) need officers. I hope the C.O. has not lost my papers. He treated the Quarter Master Sergeant very shabbily. The Q had a commission practically in the Sussex Rifles. The C.O. of the Rifles accepted him as a 1st Lieutenant and was putting his papers through when our C.O. offered the QS a commission in this regiment so the first was cancelled but he has not sent his papers in yet and he should have had his commission two months ago.
If I do not hear any more about my papers when I get to Ripon (they may easily be lost in moving) do you think I should apply again to the 10th Seaforths?
Sunday [one week later]
I will be home in three weeks as I am now on with my musketry course and will be a trained man when I finish it and will be given seven days’ leave, pending overseas draft. My papers for a commission were signed by the Major a long time ago but I will have to finally have an interview with a Brigadier General at Cromarty. I am to see the Major tomorrow to see when I can get this interview.
Wednesday
I will be home on Monday for six or eight days. I have not been on parade this week as I was inoculated on Monday afternoon. The C.O. sent for me yesterday and had about half an hour talk. He has signed my papers for this regiment and written to the Brigadier General asking for an interview as early as possible. In Kitchener’s Army it is not necessary to see anyone above your commissioning officer. I don’t know why it is more difficult in the Territorial Force. My papers are sent to the War Office next week, I will be gazetted within three weeks from now.
With best love, Norman
Norman
In the autumn of 1915, we moved down to Ripon and I was very pleased about this because I had some relations who lived there, an aunt, uncle and two cousins, and I visualised the possibility of popping round for something different to eat. We came from an isolated fort in the north of Scotland to a very well populated army camp that held many thousands of men. There we lived in army huts with a much better social life altogether.
LCplWN Collins 9304 C Coy
3/4 Seaforths No2 Camp
No3 Brigade South Camp Ripon
5 November 1915
Dear All
Arrived Ripon 7.30am Wednesday. Left Fort 4.45pm.
Very muddy here but much better than the Fort. We are allowed into the town after 5.30pm. I never thought 2 years ago that the next time I crossed the river at Ripon would be behind the bag-pipes without trousers on.
I will probably be able to get home occasionally.
Our musketry party will be delayed some time as the range here is not ready yet. The nearer Christmas the better.
Love Norman.
(undated)
Dear all
I am writing this from ‘Cader Idris’ [Ed. the home of his aunt and uncle]. Aunty Edie, Uncle George etc have gone to church and I have just had a hot bath. It is playing at soldiers, being at Ripon. I enclose a territorial form and would like Mr Bell to sign it or could Col. Robson? There are thousands of kilties in Ripon. Seaforths, Gordons, Black Watch, Camerons; and the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders come tomorrow. The Seaforth uniform beats the rest easily. I will try to get home for next week-end. The huts here are very comfortable and have electric light installation.
You mig
ht send my sporran to Auntie Edie’s as this is a different place to Fort George. I passed through Hartlepool on my way to Ripon. The troop train left Fort George about 4.45pm and arrived here at 7.30am. We only stopped at Perth, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Stockton but weren’t allowed to leave the train from the Fort to Ripon. It snowed coming over the Grampians. As the range isn’t ready here it will be some time before I can apply for 7 days leave. The range is 4 miles from camp. We are allowed in the town on Saturdays and Sundays after 2pm and during the week after 5pm. The English soldiers here don’t show up very well against the kilties.
South Camp, Ripon, where the Seaforths moved in the autumn of 1915.
No more news so ta! ta! the noo, Norman
(undated)
Dear all
Hope you are all well. I only have another 35 shots to fire and will then be inoculated and get 7 days’ furlough, so hope to be home early next week. Will you get my birth certificate ready. I am writing Uncle Tom to see if he can get me a replica of Col. Robson’s recommendation as the C.O. lost the other with my papers. I haven’t any time to waste now as ‘C’ Coy is being broken up and my Captain who will do anything he can to assist me is being transferred to another company on Saturday, also another draft is going out before Christmas and I am available for it.
If you can possibly do it I would like you to send the papers, birth certificate and recommendation this week.
The rifle range is 4 miles away from camp. It is very cold firing in the snow, and must be very cold in Scotland.
Will you send me the mail thro’ occasionally as I like news of Hartlepool. The people here seem to pity us going abroad with bare knees in this weather.
No more news so will close with love Norman.
P.S. Thanks for sporran etc. Send papers to Aunty Edie’s. If there is any possibility of obtaining the recommendation from Col. Robson please wait for it.
Wed
Dear all
I have just received the papers. You will have also received my letter of this morning [previous letter] asking for them. Tomorrow I will finish my musketry on the range, then there will be a field day and inoculation so that I will probably be home on Monday.
If they do not inoculate us until after our furlough I may be home on Sat, so I think you had better not come this week-end as I am unsettled.
If Uncle Tom can get that recommendation please send it as soon as possible. We are sending a draft away before Christmas. Thank Mr Bell for signing the papers. You forgot to enclose my birth certificate. I am sorry that my Captain has been transferred (tonight) to another company as I don’t know the new one, and I must apply through my company officer. If I get the recommendation it will carry weight with him I suppose.
This is the first time this week I have been out of camp as I have been so tired after firing or being on the range from 10.0am – 4pm.
We have nothing to eat now from breakfast until 5pm as the range is 11/2 hours walk to the camp, so I don’t feel inclined to go out at night. The 3/9th H.L.I (Glasgow Highlanders) have just arrived here. They have a fine band. I ought to get into one of the Highland battalions, there are over a dozen now.
There is no more news so I will close with love. Norman.
Editor: On November 28th 1915 Norman was sent to join ‘O’ Squad at the School of Instruction at Fulford Barracks in York for a month’s musketry training. The day after arriving, 29th November, he was promoted to the rank of Corporal, receiving a grand total of 1/8 per day, approximately £5 in today’s money. After completing the course he was given over two weeks’ leave, returning to Ripon and duty possibly as late as 9th January 1916. Writing home on the 13th January Norman noted that he was very busy and had had the ‘hardest day’s work since I enlisted. We attend an officer’s and nco’s class of Swedish Drill [Physical Training] and bayonet fighting every night 5.30pm – 7pm.’
Wed.
Dear Dad
I’ve just come down to Aunty Edie’s for the first time this week as I was doing Swedish Drill on Monday and digging trenches by moonlight last night.
She says that she has heard mentioned that I am going to France in a week or so. Well I was chosen for the draft on Sunday but it will not go this month.
The C.O. is away on his holidays and comes back this week-end. It rests with him who has to go to France and it is certain that he will withdraw me as he has signed my papers for a commission and he also wrote to the Brigadier and asked him to grant me an interview.
The Brigadier sent for me on the 4th but I was on leave. Another interview will be arranged as soon as the C.O. comes back. If I had seen the Brigadier General on the 4th I would have been gazetted this week.
There isn’t the least cause for worrying and you needn’t mention it to mother. I will write if there is any news.
With best love Norman
Saturday
Dear all
I am sorry I didn’t write sooner but I’ve been busy from 6.30 to 8pm every night this week. We have Swedish Drill 4 nights a week and about 3 lectures.
The C.O. has not rec’d any word from the Brigadier since the 4th of Jan. I am disappointed that I was away on leave then as I would have been gazetted within 10 days.
Rising through the ranks: Corporal Norman Collins.
I’ve been busy today with a kit inspection and have also had two men in my room up for orders for staying out until 11pm and sleeping in etc. It isn’t all honey looking after a hut with 40 men in, and nearly all ‘boozers’. In fact one died yesterday. He drunk himself to death…
We are very short of n.c.o’s in our battalion and I am getting plenty of work to do. All this week I have been the senior N.C.O. of the lot. The officer in command (an expeditionary man of 1914) got mixed up and didn’t know how to get the men on the parade ground with the front rank in front etc so when we were resting during the march he asked me to tell him what commands to give and I put him right.
Our officers carry packs the same as the men now.
I will write if there is any news during the week.
With love Norman.
L/Sergeant WN Collins
Friday
Dear all
Just a line to let you know of my promotion. I was on orders on Tuesday evening. At present I do not get extra pay but I have the benefit of the Sergeants’ Mess. The food is fine and is properly served up by orderlies, cups and saucers etc. Here is a sample of a day’s meals.
Breakfast :- sausage, H.P. Sauce, bread, butter and jam with tea in teapots, not out of a bucket.
Dinner :- two or three plates of vegetable soup, roast, stew or pie, H.P. Sauce, pudding with milk and jam.
Tea :- fried fish, H.P., jam etc.
I ought to get fat now.
I am allowed to wear a solid cast metal or silver badge and may get a sergeant’s kit. Also I have the privilege of wearing a bayonet out of camp.
No word from the Brigadier yet tho’ it will come sometime. I am rather glad that I have risen from private thro’ all the stages when I am not 19 until April. I have my meals at the same table as the Regimental Sergt. Major and Coy. Sergt. Majors etc.
The draft went away at 5.30pm today.
Best love Norman
Sat. 12.30pm – just seen the Brigadier General. I was in trousers and very dirty after cleaning the room out. The C.O. took me to him personally and he only asked my age and father’s profession then signed them. In about 10 days or 14 look out for L’ Sergt. WN Collins to be 2nd lieut. In Seaforth Regt, Rosshire Buffs.
The only notification I will get will be in the London Gazette.
Best love N.
Men of the Seaforth Highlanders shortly before their posting to France. Several of these men appear, on closer inspection, to be little more than boys.
Tuesday
15/2/16
Dear all
I have just come off the Main Guard so am not on parade this morning. We have got a new C.O. from the 1st/4th in France, Lieut. Col. David Mason-Macfar
lane. He was wounded at Neuve Chapelle when leading the 4th in a charge. [Ed. Macfarlane was shot through the left thighbone].
He is very strict and believes in plenty of marching and only turns back when his horse gets tired.
I ought to be gazetted this weekend or early next week. There are no firms in England that make Highland uniforms but they all send to Scotland for them. The Newcastle firms are all very dear. I have price lists from Glasgow, Dundee and London firms and London is easily the best. The majority of our officers go there and the material and prices are very good.
The price of a pair of tartan trousers is £2-5-0. Kilt £5-5-0. The Newcastle firms charge £4-4-0 for a tunic (without badge or buttons). I have a list of all the necessary articles for £40, so will have £10 over.
I will probably be going to Auntie Edie’s tonight.
With a bit of luck I shall be home within a fortnight and then the rabbits etc had better look out.
Yours affect. Norman
Another group of Seaforths pose for the camera. The sergeant, second from the right, was killed at Arras in April 1917.
CHAPTER FOUR
The King’s Commission
Norman
In April 1916, I was sent off to an officer cadet training college, the 8th Battalion Army Cadet College at Whittington Barracks at Lichfield. There we were demoted from Sergeant to Cadet and were trained by officers and men from Sandhurst, all regular instructors. We were treated rather harshly by these men. I, of course, had become used to a certain amount of prestige as a Sergeant, but a cadet was the lowest form of life in their eyes. We wore no badges of rank, just a white band around our Glengarry to signify the fact that we were trainees, while the instructors seemed to delight in taking it out on anyone who held non-commissioned rank. We were drilled on the barrack square as if we had been in the army for only one day, and this we resented. I certainly did. Any show of discontent was dealt with straightaway, the Instructor who noticed transferred the individual to what was know as the awkward squad and this of course was an insult and hurt very much. All we had to do was to learn to obey orders and smarten up and I think we turned out to be some of the finest drilled cadets in the country.
Last Man Standing Page 6