376664 Pte Robert J B Nosworthy - 8th London Regt

I wrote to Robert James Branscombe Nosworthy in 1986, when I was trying - much too late in the day - to find men who might have served with my great uncle, Jack Nixon.  Mr Nosworthy replied as follows:


"The name doesn't strike a bell at all with me, but then again I didn't experience any of the horrors of the front. I was called up as a telegraph messenger on July 2nd 1918 and on August 14th I was put on a draft for France but withdrawn with six others when it was discovered we hadn't even fired a rifle.


"I was again put on a draft on September 29th but having developed rheumatic fever in the meantime, I again escaped being sent out and slaughtered. I learned eventually that that draft was wiped out to a man by a heavy bombardment soon after its arrival in early October, which should coincide with your great uncle's death.  I later went on the Army of Occupation at Bonn, and it took me nearly a year to get out of the army."


There is of course, no medal index for Robert Nosworthy but there are, fortuitously, papers which survive in WO 363 and which I only discovered this morning whilst contemplating subject matter for this post. The papers include a letter from Mr Nosworthy, writing to the Army Records Office from his home in Elsenham Street, South West London in 1927, and seeking evidence of his service. He wrote:


"I was eighteen on the 23rd June 1918 and presented myself at the Bunhill Row Headquarters [of the 8th (City of London) Battalion, (Post Office Rifles), The London Regiment] the next day, one day after, in an attempt to join them. There I was informed that they could not accept me then owing to the suspension of recruiting in favour of the Military Service Act, but all my particulars were taken and a card given me stating that I was a Post Office servant and wished to join the P.O.R. [Post Office Rifles]. This I was informed, I was to show when I received calling up papers and it would signify that I had attested and would be treated as such.


"I received my calling up papers on July 11th 1918 and was posted to the 8th London on the 12th. Would it be possible for that card [to be forwarded to me?] I must apologise for putting you to any undue inconvenience but it is essential that I have proof of some description."


The letter is signed as "late Rifleman, A Coy, 2nd Battalion, 8th London Regt; transferred to G Company, 3rd Battalion, Rifle Brigade and demobbed from same 26th October 1919."


Surviving papers show that Robert was posted to the 35th Territorial Force Depot on the 12th July 1918 and compulsorily transferred to the 5th Rifle Brigade at Codford on the 20th March 1919. He was issued with a new regimental number at this point: 62818.


Robert was interviewed by the Imperial War Museum in later life and appears to have covered a lot of ground; this from the IWM:


Background in London, 1900-1914: family; education; memory of outbreak of war, 8/1914. Aspects of employment with Post Office in London, 1914-1918: duties as messenger boy; uniform; examinations; musketry drill at Chelsea Hospital; attitude to conscription and war; memory of delivering telegrams; uniform; attitude to female employees; question of shortages and rationing; transferred to Admiralty as messenger, 1918; union activity; story of call-up, 28/Jun/1918; medical examination; classified A4 and posted to Blackdown Camp. Aspects of training with 3rd Bn London Regt (Post Office Rifles) in GB, 1918: opinion of sergeant-major; description of camp; accommodation; washing and sanitary facilities; issued with kit and uniform; opinion of food. REEL 2 Continues: story of gaining and losing stripe; drill; musketry practice; obstacle course; route marches; bayonet drill; memory of accident with bomb; story of role in re-enactment of battle for film; night operation exercises; reaction to being placed on draft, 8/1918; marksmanship award; attitude to army life and discipline; opinion of NCOs and officers; relations with fellow recruits and composition of 3rd Bn; sporting and recreational activities; posted to Newport, South Wales to break miner's strike, 8/1918; relations with local community; posted to Codford Camp and description of conditions; problem of rioting Australian troops; opinion of Australians; story of contracting rheumatic fever; story of being drafted, 10/Nov/1918; arrival at Southampton transit camp; reaction to news of Armistice, 11/11/1918. REEL 3 Continues: treatment for rheumatic fever; disbandment of 3rd Bn and transferred to Rifle Bde, 12/1918. Aspect of period with 2nd and 4th Bns Rifle Brigade in GB and Germany, 12/1918-11/1919: posted to C Coy, 2nd Bn Rifle Brigade at Rugeley Camp, 12/1918; story of fighting Irish troops and death of soldier; NCO course; description of further strike-breaking duties in Coventry; drafted to 4th Bn Rifle Brigade, Bonn, Germany as part of Army of Occupation, 8/1919; promoted to corporal; billets; daily routine and duties; story of forming football club; relations with German civilians; demobilisation at Crystal Palace, 11/1919. Post-war life and employment with Post Office: question of pension; reflections on period of military service; effects of rheumatic fever. Aspects of period with Post Office Home Guard unit in GB, 1942-1945: role as officer and nature of duties in Surrey Docks; description of training recruits to throw live bombs; question of unexploded bombs.


The IWM catalogue number is 10658; also see here: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80010436


During the Second World War, Robert Nosworthy served in the Home Guard and he is quoted in "In search of the real Dad's Army". His death was registered at Wandsworth in January 1998 which would have made him 97 years old.

371858 Pte Francis P Ball, 8th (City of London) Battalion (Post Office Rifles), London Regiment

Replying to my quest for information about my great uncle, Jack Nixon, Frank Ball, writing to me in 1986 from his home in Polegate, wrote,

"I am afraid I cannot help you... I was hit in both legs by German shrapnel in High Wood on 15th September 1916 and as a result returned to Blighty and remained there marked category B2".

Francis Patrick Ball was born in Shoreditch on the 27th April 1896, the son of Charles and Amelia Ball. His birth was registered in the second quarter of that year but it was not until the 22nd March 1903 that he was baptised at St John's, Hoxton. By then, his father was dead. Frank appears on the 1911 census living with his widowed mother and two brothers - Alfred and Steven - at 31 Herbert Street, Hoxton. His trade is noted as a telegraph messenger for the Post Office and so it is hardly surprising that he would later join the Post Office Rifles. His entry on the silver war badge roll notes that he joined the 8th Londons on the 17th July 1915, whilst the British War and Victory Medal roll confirms that he served overseas in France from the 3rd February 1916 until the 25th September 1916. He also later served in Egypt between December 1918 and August 1919.

Frank Ball died in Sussex in 1992.

1606 Pte Reginald Gordon Prew, 1/8th London Regiment

I never met Reginald Prew but I did write to him in 1986 when I was attempting to contact men who'd served with the Post Office Rifles in the hope that one of them might have known my great uncle, John Frederick Nixon.  Mr Prew's daughter replied that her father's handwriting was now a little shaky and that he was unable to assist as he had been discharged in 1916 after being wounded in France. She added that he had helped to cut the Post Office Rifles badge in the chalk downs at Fovant and that until 1984 he had attended the annual drumhead service.

As can be seen from his medal index card (above), Reginald Prew landed in France on the 18th March 1915 and was discharged on the 12th August 1916. The silver war badge roll confirms that he had originally joined the 8th London Regiment on the 25th March 1913, (three weeks after his seventeenth birthday). Born in New Cross, south-east London, he was almost certainly working for the Post Office at the time of his enlistment as he appears on the 1911 census as a 15-year-old messenger.

Reginald Prew died in 1988 aged 92.

371690 Pte Harold Keyser, 8th London Regiment

I never met Harold Keyser but I did correspond with him in 1986 when I was seeking information about my great-uncle, Jack Nixon. Jack had been attached to the Post Office Rifles when he was killed in action in October 1918 and, sixty-eight years later, I contacted all surviving members of the Post Office Rifles Old Comrades Association to see if there was anyone who remembered him.  Not surprisingly, given the passage of time, no-one did.

Writing to me in November 1986 from his home in Alton, Hampshire, Mr Keyser wrote, "I have no recollection of your relation in the Post Office Rifles. I had suffered an operation in a long period of convalescence prior to the dates you give and subsequently found myself transferred to the 17th London Regiment, much to my disgust but perhaps to my advantage."

 

Harold Richard Stratton Keyser was born in London on the 5th October 1898, his birth registered in Camberwell in the fourth quarter of that year. He was baptised at St Philip's, Camberwell on the 11th December 1898 and appears on the 1901 census return as a two-year-old living with his parents, Richard (a boot-maker) and Harriet, at their home at 5 Astley Street, Camberwell. Ten years later, the family had grown and moved. Harold is recorded on the 1911 census as a 12-year-old schoolboy and elder brother to Gladys (six) and Sidney (two). The family was now living at 17 Upper Grange Road, Bermondsey.

 

Harold's medal index card, above, indicates that he joined the 8th London Regiment in January 1918 while the medal roll entry indicates that he served in France between the 2nd and 14th February 1918 with the 8th London Regiment, and then from 15th February until the end of the war with the 17th London Regiment. His medal index card suggests that he was posted back to the 8th London Regiment prior to discharge.

 

Harold Keyser died in Alton on the 4th July 1989 aged 90.

 

 

For assistance with your own military search, please contact me.

370395 A/Sgt Francis G Seddon, 8th London Regt

 

When I interviewed Frank Seddon it was 1986 and he was aged 89 and living on his own in Portslade, Sussex. No service record survives for him but I did record his experiences on my tape recorder.

 

I'm Francis George Seddon, but they always know me as Frank. I was born in June 1897 in Bethnal Green, East London. It's all knocked down now. Before the war I was a telegraph messenger delivering telegrams. I started at the age of fourteen, but of course that's not allowed now.

 

I joined the Territorials on 4th June 1914, seven days before my birthday, and when I finished the war I was a sergeant-instructor when I was an instructor to young soldiers aged eighteen. The reason for that was that over the years the casualties was terrific and we had no fit and able-bodied men to send to France any more and so they had to rely on eighteen year-olds. They were being called up when they were eighteen and there were special battalions throughout the country for them only. Of course, I was only twenty-one myself at the time.

 

I joined the Territorials in the first place because there was one ot two doing it who had that sort of encouragement and some of our inspectors belonged to the Territorials as well. I was young and active then and full of adventure and I fancied the Territorials to go camping you know; there was no signs of war.

 

When war did break out we were going to camp, Eastbourne I think it was. The train got as far as Three Bridges and stopped. Then the rumours started going around and the train went back, shot uis back to London Bridge. We detrained there and marched to our barracks in Bunhill Row with a band playing. When we got there we were paraded and lined up and Colonel Labouchere addressed us. His words were, "The ultimatum to Germany expired at midnight. The Post Office Rifles will be mobilised" and a big cheer went up, I remember that.

 

I was with several friends: William Harfleet, Johnny Harris, Greig Haynes; I can't remember them all now. We was all about the same age and came from the same office as you might say, West Central London.

 

I think I was in number three company and we were a happy crowd, all part-time soldiers who'd joined for a holiday really. We had a big shock when we got to France although the shock don't come till you get to the trenches. Till then, you're singing and marching and full of life."

 

Frank volunteered for service overseas but was held back because he was too young:

 

Like a few others I went to Cuckfield which is near Haywards Heath in Sussex.I was there four or five months and a nice billet it was. I spent Christmas there and blow me, my mother and sister came down to see me, all that way. They was more worried than what I was. We eventually went to France in 1916, about May I think it was.

 

Frank's entry on the British War and Victory medal roll notes that he was overseas between the 27th May 1916 and the 13th October 1916. He remembers that he was wounded on the 7th October and that it was nearly twelve months before he recovered from his wound:

 

I had electric treatment and exercise, all kinds of things. Of course, the nerves were severed in my leg which never really got well. I went back to my battalion and they reckoned I was fit to go out to France again. I didn't go back though because a notice appeared saying they wanted men who would like to go in for drill instructors.

 

Frank never went back to the trenches. He received the British War and Victory Medals and the Territorial Force War Medal. He died in November 1990 at the age of 93.

 

 

 

 

 



375232 Pte George A Douglas, 8th London Regiment

I never met George Armet Douglas but I did contact him in November 1986 when I was trying - fruitlessly and unsurprisingly, as it turned out - to find men who may have served with my Great Uncle John (Jack) Frederick Nixon.  This was Mr Armet's response to my letter of enquiry.

Dear Mr Nixon

Your letter about your great uncle has certainly come when our memories become numerous and very vivid. Nevertheless I am sorry that I cannot say that I made contact with him before he was unfortunately killed in action. As we were under 19 years of age we were barred from active service, but once the casualties multiplied during the March 1918 German advance and then the Allies went over the top in August 1918, the A4s or under 19s were drafted out to France.

I survived the German offensive of March 1918 and then we had a spell of trench warfare in front of Albert-sur-Somme. We went over the top on the 8th August and again on the evening of 9th August, suffering heavy casualties. That return to Round Wood to be made up to strength again would most likely be your uncle's debut.

Within the trenches we ate bread, bully-beef, pork and beans, bully stew and machonochies (a tinned stew) that was heated up on our own personal improvised stove: an oily candle rag inside a ventilated bully tin (bully meaning corned beef). But as a special treat our cooks made bully rissoles and they were kept HOT in a hay-box by the quartermaster sergeant who came up with the rations in the middle of the night.

We advanced solidly after that, obtaining food when we were lucky. There was no trench life after September and it is most likely, since we moved north after breaking the Hindenburg Line to the area of Lens and Lille, that your relative was killed during the fighting in the suburbs of Lens. His name does not appear in the roll of honour published in the Battalion's history. He was so unlucky not to survive until the 11th November.

Strange to say I came home in a hospital ship in March 1919 with the flu and after sick leave was transferred to the Rifle Brigade.

Yours sincerely, George A Douglas

Jack Nixon was attached to the Post Office Rifles from the Rifle Brigade and he was killed on 3rd October 1918. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Vis-en-Artois memorial.

George Douglas's medal index card, courtesy of Ancestry, is posted above. He also has a badly damaged service record available on both Ancestry and findmypast but easier to find on the latter. It shows that his original number with the 8th Londons was 63885 and that he attested at Edinburgh on the 10th January 1918 aged 17 years and 318 days. At the time he joined up he was working as an assistant postman and living at 55 Ashley Terrace, Edinburgh.

George's attestation was approved on the 20th March 1918 (he was now 18 years old) and he was posted to G Company of the 2/8th London Regiment and then embarked for France shortly thereafter. The date of embarkation is faded but he was certainly with B Company of the 1/8th Battalion by 7th April 1918 and thus survived the German offensive the previous month because he was too young and still in the UK.

George was admitted to a casualty clearing station with influenza in September 1918 and was still sick when the armistice was declared. Posted back to base depot on the 15th November and then back to the Post Office Rifles four days later, he served with his regiment until 13th February 1919 when he was transferred to the 2/17th London Regiment. He was admitted to hospital in Boulogne five days later with a recurrent bout of influenza (in all probability he had probably not recovered from his initial bout) and by 1st March 1919 he was on a hospital ship back to the UK. On 27th June 1919 he was transferred again, this time - as he remembers - to the 5th Rifle Brigade. He was finally discharged from the army on 22nd October 1919.

370217 Cpl Jerry Hawkes, 8th London Regiment

 

 

Jerry Hawkes (seventh from left in the photo above) deserves more space than I am able to dedicate to him on this particular post. He was one of several Post Office Rifles veterans that I interviewed in the mid 1980s and he had a good recall for names - and nicknames.  This post will try and shed further light on some of the characters he mentioned in my discussion with him.

Jerry Hawkes was actually Albert William Francis Hawkes and he was born in Goswell Road in the City of London on 25th October 1896. He told me, "They know me as Jerry. I don't know where I got that name from, no idea. I became a telegraph boy when I was just a lad. I was in the Post Office orphan homes because my father died early and I was there for a long, long time." His original regimental number with the 8th (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Post Office Rifles) was 1585 which indicates that he joined the regiment in early 1913.

Jerry's pals and acquaintances

"My best pal of all was Ted Harsant and poor old Ted he got killed. He lived in Goswell Road near me."  This is 1920 Sergeant Frederick William Harsant who was killed in action on 21st May 1916. The Commonwealth War Graves website tells us that he was the son of William David and Emily Virtue Harsant, of 2, Pickard St., City Rd., London. Ted has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial.

"We had an officer called Maxwell and he always used to say, I want the deepest dug-out you've got. We used to call him dug-out Maxwell. He finished up as brigadier. Brigadier! Maxwell was windy but his boy wasn't a bad bloke." This is Captain A Maxwell CMG, DSO; later Brigadier-General 174th Infantry Brigade.

"They were nearly all post office men in our mob and we had a fella, Sergeant-Major Chivers, and he always got nick-named "Chum" because every time he spoke  he used to say, "Now don't forget this, chum". Chum this and chum that and so we nicknamed him Chum Chivers." 1443 CSM Simeon George Chivers MC died of wounds on 19th September 1916 aged 42. He was the husband of Charlotte Florence Elizabeth Chivers of 34 Douglas Road, Surbiton, Surrey. He is buried in St Sever Cemetery, Rouen. As well as the Military Cross, CSM Chivers was also Mentioned in Despatches.

"I was in number 4 platoon, Captain Milne's company which was number 2, the same as Bill Howell. I remember being with him in the trenches. We always called him Sammy; I don't know why."
There is a medal index card for a Major D D Milne, 8th London Regt, later Highland Light Infantry. Bill Howell is the same 2518 Bill Howell I interviewed at around the time I met Jerry Hawkes. I have posted about him HERE. 

"We had two relations in our mob, Aberdeen their name was. One was a boy messenger same as me and he put his age up same as I did. Two brothers: Aberdeen and Aber; we always knew the other one as Aber." Probably 520, later 370045 Alexander A Aberdeen and 1559 Frederick Arthur Aberdeen. Frederick, the younger of the two boys, was killed in action on the 15th September 1916 and is buried at Caterpillar Valley Cemetery in Longueval. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission notes that he was the son of Mr and Mrs A W Aberdeen, of 389 Northampton Buildings, Clerkenwell, London. His elder brother joined the Post Office Rifles in 1908 and may well have seen prior service with the 24th Middlesex Rifle Volunteer Corps. Jerry remembered that "Abber finished up as a sergeant major. He was a wonderful man."

"After the war they transferred me to Stoke Newington because we lived near there and one of the blokes in the office there finished up in my platoon: Harry Diggins. He was a proper clown. He didn't care two hoots about anybody up the line. He just didn't care." This is 1806 Pte Henry Diggins, later 370316. Although his number indicates that he joined the 8th Londons in February 1914, Harry did not go overseas until after 1915. His service record survives in WO 364.

I only met Jerry Hawkes once, at his home in Iwade, Kent in 1986. He died in late 1988 or early 1989, his death registered in January of that year. The photo is taken from Charles Messenger's Terriers in the Trenches.

370713 Cpl Bill Howell, 8th London Regiment

I see from my notes that I interviewed Bill Howell at his home in Hanwell, West London, in November 1986 when he was then aged 92.  Back in 1914 he was working as a telegraph boy for the Post Office and here he describes the situation in August 1914.

"The balloon went up on 4th August 1914 and ninety per cent of postmen were reservists.  The only way you could get in as a postman in those days was through being a reservist or being a telegraph boy.  No civvies could get in.  Well the order came for all reservists to rejoin the colours immediately and out they went leaving the office empty bar eight of us telegraph boys.  So the old man said, "Well go on then, you've got to take all this stuff out.  Go and get wheelbarrows, stay out all night delivering it if you have to.  These men are going out to fight for you and your country."

"The eight of us got in a corner and we said, "well what about it?" We'd heard that the Post Office Rifles wanted two hundred to make up their full strength so we all marched out of the office and left him there swearing at us.  We marched up to Bunhill Row and the place was absolutely packed tight.  Everybody was on the streets and there was a corporal trying to make this two hundred up.  I thought I'd never get in.  He counted off twenty and he was marching them in when he saw me with a telegraph uniform on and my hand on my pouch and he thought I'd got a telegram in there.  He beckoned me over and I said, "tell them I want to join the 1st Battalion."  I didn't want no 2nd Battalion."

[Bill Howell refers to the 1/8th and the 2/8th Battalions here.  When Britain went to war in August 1914 the battalion was designated the 8th (City of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Post Office Rifles).  It only became the 1/8th Battalion in September 1914 when a second-line Territorial Force battalion, the 2/8th London Regiment, was formed.  Bill's original number, recorded on his medal index card, was 2518 and this number certainly dates to around the 8th or 9th September 1914 rather than the early days of August 1914 as might be implied from his narrative.  In Bill's defence, he was recalling events that had happened over seventy years earlier.]

"I goes in there, peels off my uniform and bungs it in the kit bag that was there and never sees it again. I goes over to the doctor and he said, "You're a very fit man, you are, but you want to put on a bit of weight and height.  Go and get measured." So I went over to the scales and got measured and the corporal said, "sorry son, you're half an inch under.  It's five foot two and you're only five foot one and a half." Well, he could see the tears in my eyes.  "Well", he said, "perhaps I made a mistake.  Get on again.  Now" he said, whispering because they were all watching you, "stand on tip-toe you bloody little fool." So I stood on tip-toe and got the extra half inch.  He said, "Now you're in" and that's how I got in.

"After two days a uniform came.  I went home in a shocking affair: a hat two sizes too big and an old coat.  I goes upstairs and there's my mother with the old corrugated washing tub.  She saw me and she said, "What are you doing here?  Who told you to come here?  Get out, I'll call the police."  I took my hat off and said, "it's me, your Willy."  She fainted.  After we got her round she said, " you go and get that shilling back."  I said, "I never had it, just this bit of paper.  It's no good, nothing can take me out."

Bill Howell died in July 1991 aged 96.  His account of the Battle of Loos is here.  I'll continue with some of his other recollections in future posts.

The photo above dates to 1977 and appears in Charles Messenger's book Terriers in the trenches: The Post Office Rifles at War 1914-1918. Bill Howell is seated third from left.  Chelsea Pensioner, ex sergeant Jim Nunn, seated to Bill's left, wears the MM & Bar.

370395 Pte Francis George Seddon, 8th London Regt

I interviewed Francis Seddon in November 1986 when he was then aged 89.  Born on the 11th June 1897, Francis - always known as Frank - had joined the 8th (City of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Post Office Rifles) one week before his 17th birthday on the 4th June 1914.  He was given the number 1959. Frank had left school at the age of 14 and taken a job as telegraph messenger for the Post Office. Born and bred in London's East End and still living in London, The Post Office Rifles was a logical choice.  As Frank told me, "I was young and active and full of adventure and I fancied the territorials.  There was no sign of war."  I'll let him take up the story in August 1914.

"We were on our way to camp, Eastbourne I think it was, and the train got as far as Three Bridges and stopped.  Then the rumours started going around.  The train shot us back to London Bridge where we detrained and marched to our barracks in Bunhill Row with a band playing.  When we got there we were paraded and lined up and our colonel addressed us.  His words were, "the ultimatum to Germany expired at midnight.  The Post Office Rifles will be mobilised." And a big cheer went up, I remember that.

"I was with several friends, all boy messengers, about half a dozen of us I suppose: Harfleet, Johnny Harris, Greig Haynes and some others I can't recall now.  We were all about the same age and we all came from the same office: West Central London. [1780 William A J Harfleet must have joined up in late January or early February 1914.  1816 John F Harris must have joined up in February 1914.  I have been unable to identify Greig Haynes].

"My parents were terribly worried about me going to fight.  In fact when I was at camp they came down to see me to see if I was alright.  I wasn't a bit worried though, I was enjoying it.  We were addressed by the Bishop of London and in his sermon he said, "I would not like to see England a German province."  Because at that stage it was a critical time and the Old Contemptibles were fighting for their existence in France.  They really wanted the territorials to volunteer and we got around the contract about home service by volunteering [to serve overseas].

First of all we occupied the basement of King Edward Building in the City of London and we occupied that for two weeks.  We was having kit inspections and getting our equipment ready and eventually we marched all the way down to East Grinstead and we set up a camp there.  That was our first stop.  After that we went to Abbots Langley and that's where the 1st Battalion went to France from.  I was too young though, even though I'd volunteered, and so I and a few others went to Cuckfield near Haywards Heath in Sussex. I was there four or five months and a nice billet it was.  I spent Christmas there and blow me, my mother and sister came down to see me, all that way.  They was more worried than I was.

"We eventually went out to France about May 1916 and all of us pre-war telegraph boys was together.  I spent my nineteenth birthday in the trenches and I got my bullet on the 7th October at the Battle of the Somme.  We had what they called a creeping barrage when we went over and in between the bursts there were German snipers picking us off one at a time.  That's how I got caught.  I crawled to our trenches, inch by inch, and a bloke who was in the trench helped me down.  I was taken to the nearest field hospital and was sent from there to another little town, Dijon I think.  I was there for about a week and then crossed the Channel in a hospital ship.  From there up to Bradford and we was heroes then; top VIPs.  Everything was laid on for us: travel, theatre, music halls, cigarettes; everything was laid on for us because they knew we'd given our lives in the trenches to save England.

"I was nearly twelve months recovering from that wound and I had electric treatment and all kinds of things.  Of course, the nerves had been severed in my leg which never really got well."

Frank eventually rejoined his battalion but never served overseas again.  Instead, he became a sergeant instructor, passing out at Aldershot and then helping to train up young eighteen-year old soldiers.  At 21 years old, Frank was now a seasoned veteran and he would later receive the Territorial Force War Medal along with the British War and Victory medals; a collectable trio by dint of being underage and having volunteered to serve overseas.

Writing to me in February 1987 after I had sent him a typescript of our interview, Frank wrote:

"Very interesting, however I want you to know that my main concern is what happens today.  I am half blind and half deaf caused by hospital treatment. Furthermore, during my treatment, I was evicted from my house and home by and Act of Parliament.  I had paid rent for 18 years but along with many ex-servicemen, evicted at the end of our war.  You probably do not remember that famous Lloyd George speech [where he said] we will make England a land fit for heroes to live in.  Being evicted was a deep down body blow.  I am now in the last few days of my life but my record still remains: Post Office Territorials 1914."

When he died in November 1990 at the age of 93, Frank Seddon was one of the last Post Office Rifles veterans of the First World War.

POR cap badge cut into chalk at Fovant courtesy of Panoramio.

Corporal Bill Howell, 8th Londons - Loos 1915

25th September 2009 marks the 94th anniversary of the Battle of Loos. I met a number of men who fought at Loos, and Bill Howell of the 8th (City of London) Battalion, the London Regiment (Post Office Rifles) was in the thick of the fighting on this day in 1915. This is an extract from an interview I conducted with Bill in the 1980s.

“After four days’ bombardment, the first lot went over; The Shiny 7th. That’s the 7th Londons and they were known as The Shiny 7th because they all wore brass buttons. They went over and they took this trench in front of them and they seemed to me to have got it very light because I only saw one bloke on the wire. We were laying in support and we were the next to go over. Well, The 7th captured theirs pretty cheap and so did we. I think it was a soft battle for us.”

“We had a creeping barrage, light shelling with the shells going over just in front of you. You had to let the artillery know how far you’d got and we had our haversacks painted yellow so they could see and there was a bloke with a disc, similar to those used to see children over the road with. As you go over and you go down you’re supposed to stick it in the ground so the artillery can raise their sights. The bloke who did this was always at the side of me and I said to him, “Blimey George, can’t you go with somebody else for a change?” I knew that would attract all the snipers in the world and it did. He got one through the neck and I got hit as well.. Something hit the rock in front of me and all up my forehead and in my hair were bits of cartridge casing, little bits of brass. I thought, I’ve only got a hundred yards to go, I may as well stick it.”

“We were on the right flank, The Double Crassier was our flank. We got in there and they expected a counter attack from a German bombing squad. The REs come up and put a bit of wire in front of us and me and two other snipers had to go up on top of this Double Crassier. They had like a little narrow gauge railway line where they put the trucks with the muck in and it made lovely cover. I made myself a little hole, lay down there and waited to pick off any Germans although I never saw any at all. What I did see was a panorama of the whole battlefield. The night before we’d been up with the cylinders of gas and now I could see the Seaforths advancing behind it.”

See also today's entry for WW1 Remembrance.