2120 Pte Leslie Andrew Hase, 9th (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Queen Victoria's Rifles)

Leslie Andrew Hase - synopsis

Leslie Hase volunteered with the 9th (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment, (Queen Victoria's Rifles) on 8th August 1914 and by November of that year he was in France. He served with the 9th Londons until severely wounded on the Somme on 1st July 1916

I interviewed Leslie Hase at The Royal Star & Garter Home in Richmond on 6th November 1988 and although we corresponded after that date, I never met him again. He died in Richmond in January 1990 aged 95.

Four pages of Leslie Hase's army service record survive in the pension series - WO 364 - at The National Archives in Kew, West London. They are also on-line via the Ancestry website. For further information on army service numbers in the 9th Londons, visit my Army Service Numbers 1881-1918 blog.



The interview

PN:
[What is] your name please?

LAH:
Leslie Andrew Hase. Well that’s a very unusual name because nearly everybody else with that name spells it H A Y E S. My name is spelt H A S E and we all come from East Dereham, Norfolk.

PN:
When were you born Mr Hase?

LAH:
1895. That was the year when the Thames froze over for the first time. They had wagons and [unclear] on the Thames at London Bridge. Did you know that? January 1895. That was the year I was born and I’ve been cold ever since.

PN:
You weren’t born in the January though were you?

LAH:
Yes I was born in the January and there was thirteen or fourteen feet of snow.

PN:
Were you born in Norfolk?

LAH:
No, I was born in Blackheath.

PN:
Oh yes, it’s still a nice area.

LAH:
Very nice area and of course, my father had a big house. We had servants and he was an accountant. He had a big house alright and of course he needed it with seven boys and three girls. That’s twelve sitting down for a meal each day. I’ve only just lost my young brother who was in the Queen Victoria Rifles same as mine[1]. QVRs.

PN:
When did you join the army then Mr Hase?

LAH:
War broke out on the 4th August and I joined up on the 8th, four days after.

PN:
Were you in the Territorials?

LAH:
No I wasn’t, I wasn’t at all. We were just nuts all of us, of course.

PN:
Why did you join up?

LAH:
Well because everybody else was joining up. We all thought it was going to be over next Christmas.

PN:
Did you join up with some pals?

LAH:
Well of course we all had friends. I really wanted to join the HAC. I tried them first, they were the nearest to me, but they were full up. I couldn’t wait four days, couldn’t wait, I thought it might be over. How ridiculous you can be.

PN:
So then you joined the Queen Victoria Rifles.

LAH:
Yes that’s right.

PN:
Which battalion?

LAH:
The 1st Battalion. They were all trained practically when war broke out. They had a few vacancies, just a few, and I got into them and I got shipped out to Ypres before Christmas. I am entitled to that medal.[2]

PN:
Which division were you part of then?

LAH:
5th Division.

PN:
Which brigade?

LAH:
13th Brigade.

PN:
So who else did you have in your brigade? Was it other rifle battalions?

LAH:
Oh yes, there was the Duke of Wellingtons, King’s Own Scottish Borderers, and then Royal West Kent.

PN:
You were shoved out there pretty quickly then weren’t you?

LAH:
Yes absolutely. I hadn’t fired a rifle in England because I was taken down with scarlet fever to my astonishment. I was as fit as a fiddle, absolutely, and yet by putting somebody’s uniform on I got scarlet fever. It came from that you see. And of course, they put me in hospital for six or eight weeks and then on top of that I went back to join the regiment and I didn’t have time to fire a rifle. First time I fired a rifle was in Havre once we got out there.

PN:
So did you go out there with a draft?

LAH:
No, I went out with the whole battalion, not a draft, the original battalion.

PN:
Whereabouts did you train in England?

LAH:
Well I didn’t have time for any training at all. I think once we fired a rifle on the course but that was only one day and the next thing we were in action.

PN:
Where did you first go into the line?

LAH:
Ypres. Messines. I was at Hill 60 and over the Yser Canal. I was in the first gas attack in 1915. By that time I’d done all the fighting at Messines there was going on.

PN:
What was your rank?

LAH:
Rifleman.

PN:
Do you remember your number still?

LAH:
2120.

PN:
On Christmas Day 1914…

LAH:
Oh yes, I was in that[3].

PN:
Were you?

LAH:
Yes, I was in that show. I tell you what actually happened. They started with the people in this regiment. They weren’t ordinary Prussian Guards they were just Silesian troops I think and being Christmas they started singing carols; very, very nicely indeed. And so of course we said, [clapping his hands], bravo, bravo, well done Fritz and all that sort of thing. And before you know where you were somebody was half out and it didn’t want much encouragement. And then we showed each other photographs of our various sweethearts and one thing or the other. And somebody brought a football out and then we got on with this talking and then we gave some concert, singing, but it wasn’t so well as the Germans. They were very, very good. They did Silent Night.

PN:
Which part of the line were you in then on Christmas Day?

LAH:
Well the trenches were absolutely half full of water. Terrible really. And just after Christmas I got frostbite on the corners of my ears and I couldn’t get my shoes off. I had to go sick for a few days because of this. It really, really was terrible.

PN:
How long did the truce last?

LAH:
Well you see in no time at all it was broken up by a battery. Somebody said, “Oh, they’re shaking hands with each other, we’ve got to stop all this.” So they blew down the line to the artillery to [send over] a few rounds of shells and everybody scattered back in.

PN:
And you actually had a football match with them did you?

LAH:
Well, kicking the ball around.

PN:
Don’t you think that’s amazing, thinking back?

LAH:
Well I think it was absolutely amazing but of course you wouldn’t have got that from Prussian Guards. The German soldier was almost as good as the British soldier. For training, ‘course we were all better trained. But they had to be about ten to one laden in their favour. Course they were well backed up all the time but if it came to a hand to hand fight you needn’t think the Prussian Guard would run away. He wouldn’t, nor would our chap.

PN:
No, I think our regular army was possibly the best in the world but as you say it was only a small army.

LAH:
Contemptible Little Army.

PN:
Did you exchange cigars or cigarettes with the Silesians?

LAH:
Well I don’t think that we had much at the time to exchange with. Whatever we had we’d give them, cigarettes or something like that but not cigars. No, we hadn’t got to that stage. This was the very first year you know.

LAH:
Have a look at that [showing PN his leg].

PN:
Yes, that’s nasty isn’t it?

LAH:
Well that was a 1916 wound and I had gas gangrene. When I was taken away on the stretcher, number one they dropped me from the stretcher down below onto the ground and I called them all… well, you can imagine. But poor devils, we’d been shelled all the way back ad I had to crawl back a mile and a half to find a stretcher and it was full of people going up! I was going back and they were coming forward.

PN:
You were lucky not to lose your leg weren’t you, if you had gas gangrene?

LAH:
My dear boy I owe my life to this doctor and I never found out his name. He was a Canadian major and that’s all I know. He would have been older than me of course. But there were four doctors round my bed and I could hear them talking. They wanted to amputate, four out of five. And the fifth one who was the senior major, I owe my leg to him. Marvellous, look what I’ve done on it since all those years. I mean, you wouldn’t be alive today – my age, 93 – if you’d had an amputation. Gradually go down hill, but look what I’ve been able to do. I’ve been a great swimmer, been swimming all my life.

PN:
Which part of the Somme was that?

LAH:
Gommecourt. That’s where I got actually wounded, there.

PN:
Has it given you trouble since then?

LAH:
Well, odd times yes but on the whole, marvellous. Even my doctors think I’m incredible. I’ve been living alone; I married again when I was 78 having lost my wife, because I didn’t want to be alone. My dearest friend died and I married his widow. Anyhow, she died after two years. She lost her memory unfortunately. That’s pretty sad. It was awful really.

PN:
Did you never apply for a commission in the army?

LAH:
I did my boy, I was granted commission in those early years. Colonel Dickins – who was Dickins and Jones – who was the colonel of the Queen Victoria Rifles, called me into his hut one day because he thought I had the raw materials. Course, we were all from the City you know, I was really an importer and I had qualifications. Pretty well he could have let the whole regiment go. He couldn’t let everybody go but he did what he could. Anyhow, I was supposed to be sent home to get my commission and then leave was stopped just because of this battle of the Somme. So I was knocked out as a Tommy.

PN:
Was that the end of your war after you were wounded on the Somme?

LAH:
Oh yes, I didn’t go back. It was too long clearing up unfortunately. I had an awful time with my leg.

PN:
Were you wounded going over the top? Advancing?

LAH:
I hadn’t really started off. A shell came over and hit about half a dozen in one little clump and a great friend of mine got a piece that went straight into his guts and I knew that with all that iron mongery inside him it was hopeless. But mine was a cushy one embedded in the bone.

PN:
It’s a painful place to be hit isn’t it, in the shin?

LAH:
Shocking, and then the go and drop you from a bloody stretcher. I know they were being shelled and they’d all got the wind up.

PN:
Was that the 1st of July?

LAH:
1st of July. I got in that field and one thing I cannot stand is the heat. And it was a hot day from the time we got up. The sun came out and we were all dumped in this damn great big field, Germans as well. Once the battle started you soon got casualties coming in from all over the show. I had a German laying alongside me and he was knocking me and saying could I give him a drink of water. Poor devil of course I gave him a drink of water, I’d got a bottle full, and he was terribly thirsty. After that, it was awful. I’d just got a field dressing on and eventually, until they took me away I had gone right the way from dawn - three or four o’clock in the morning, that time, right ‘til the evening before they came to take me away on stretcher and put me into a train.

[We] went to the coast to Le Treport and the engine was shunting and shunting and every time it moved it was murder, agony with this piece of metal inside shifting out of this hole. That’s when they got me into this thing [ward] and there were the four of them [the doctors] in this hall. They didn’t think I could hear them, but I knew. I was very conscious of everything that was going on around me and I listened carefully and heard them say. I didn’t know what they meant by making incisions in my leg, but they did[4].

PN:
Did you take part in the Battle of Loos as well?

LAH:
No. I had a brother that was wounded. As a matter of fact there were three[5]. One brother in the Queen Victoria Rifles, they asked him to join up about a year after me and he joined our regiment so as that we might possibly meet up at some time or other but we never did. He was badly wounded but it was only two years ago he died. He was the last of my brothers but we did pretty well; good stock. We lived in moderation. I like everything; very good food and wine and I’ve smoked a pipe for 72 years, what about that? That can’t be bad. But everything in moderation. I’ve been in the hotel business and had plenty of good food and enjoyed it all.

PN:
I know you’re anxious to get away but could you tell me briefly about the gas attack in 1915.

LAH:
Yes I can tell you briefly about that because you’ve got to remember this: we hadn’t a respirator of any kind. Once you’d got a good dose of that boy, it was curtains. I was lucky again I think because… I’d only got an ordinary pocket handkerchief and you wetted that and had that, well it couldn’t have been any strength at all. It’s a horrible thing it’s phosgene gas – green and all sorts of things. I can only put it down to the fact that I didn’t get a very heavy dose. I’m sure of it, I know it.

PN:
There’s a chap in the home who was on the gas squad in the Engineers. And he was gassed quite badly himself by mustard gas.

LAH: I didn’t think I got my due desserts from the war office over the gas attack but I didn’t pursue it because I couldn’t prove it.

PN:
Did you find employment easily enough after you came back from the war?

LAH:
Well fortunately no, on neither occasion, but I’ve always been a director of something or other. No, but what annoyed me I was ruined with my particular business which was an importer. And on each occasion I’ve had to buy something to tied me over, like a hotel.

PN:
Which company were you in in the QVR?

LAH:
C Company.

PN:
Do you remember the name of your commanding officer or any officers in your company?

LAH:
I think I’ve forgotten them now. I could if I thought about it a bit.

Interview End


[1] Percy Cameron Hase, born 9 Mar 1896, died Apr 1984 in Thanet, Kent. Served as 6047 Pte in QVR. Service record survives in WO 363.
[2] The 1914 Star and clasp.
[3] I have found no reference elsewhere to the QVRs being involved in the famous Christmas truce.
[4] From service record, LAH remained in France until 5th July 1916 but is then recorded as being at Home from the 6th. GSW leg 1st July 1916 is noted.
[5] Besides Percy Cameron Hase, 10315 Leonard Algernon Hase joined the Royal Fusiliers on 5th December 1914 and was discharged on 19th June 1917. His service record survives in WO 364. There is also a Reginald Hase who joined the ASC in November 1915 (probably under the Derby Scheme) and this may or may not be another brother. Remarkably, his service record also survives in WO 363.