20th December 1915 Monday
All material produced or reproduced here and throughout this work is the sole copyright of the author and the family of Doctor D.C.M. Page MC.
Douglas and Captain Anderson were up very early despite their disturbed sleep. At 5am they left Glomenghem for Terouanne* with 2 motor ambulances and 4 drivers to join the 38th Division. Douglas’s duty was picking up marching stragglers, mostly men with bad feet. They paused at Crecques for an hour, before moving on to Mametz where they waited again by the crossroads.
Here he met Major Gwilym Lloyd-George “complete with red tabs”, the second son of Prime Minister David Lloyd George and they chatted for a while.
The red tabs he describes were in fact known as gorget patches that signify general staff who rarely saw any action.
You may remember in BBC’s “Blackadder Goes Forth” General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett asking private Baldrick if he was looking forward to the “Big Push” and going “Over the Top”. Baldrick replies, “No sir, I’m absolutely terrified”. Melchett reassures him that both he and Captain Darling will be “right behind him”. To which Captain Blackadder mumbles “about 35 miles behind”. Both Melchett and Darling sported red gorget patches.
Gwilym Lloyd George, became the 1st Viscount Tenby and in the 1950’s became the Home Secretary that sanctioned the execution of Ruth Ellis the last woman to be hanged.
Then they carried on through Aire, Thiennes, St. Floris to Calonne. The company remained in Calonne until 26th December, collecting the sick for the hospital and attending to them. Whilst there he visited Rebecq**, St. Venant and St. Floris. He then spent three days in bed with flu brought on, he felt, by constantly getting soaked through in the terribly wet and very cold weather.
The next diary entry will follow on Christmas Day.
* Probably Thérouanne
** Probably Robecq
Find out about our connection with Dr Page and an introduction to his diary here
19th December 1915 Sunday
All material produced or reproduced here and throughout this work is the sole copyright of the author and the family of Doctor D.C.M. Page MC.
A pre-Christmas dinner was to be served, as they were to be moved closer to the battlefront the following day.
“We had a great feast, turkey, potatoes, brussel sprouts, two plum puddings, mince pies, red wine, Benedictine, almonds and raisins, figs, nuts, cheese and biscuits, cakes, coffee and cigars”. No mention of what the other ranks had.
Following the festive banquet, Douglas spent the night in the chateau with Captain Anderson as he had to be up early the next day. During the night the pair had a nasty fright when an almighty crash awoke them as they were sent tumbling to the floor and they were certain that a shell had hit the chateau. Picking themselves up, they were enormously relieved to discover that it was nothing more serious than that the bed had collapsed!
Find out about our connection with Dr Page and an introduction to his diary here
17th December 1915 Friday
All material produced or reproduced here and throughout this work is the sole copyright of the author and the family of Doctor D.C.M. Page MC.
It appears that even in war there were “slow days”. Douglas had no entry for this day and the Regimental Diary simply states “Nothing to report”. Apart from a few actions in other countries and a German cruiser “Bremen” that was sunk in the Baltic after hitting a couple of Russian laid mines, it seems it really was “all quiet on the Western Front”.
The next diary entry will follow on 19th December.
German cruiser “Bremen” taken before the outbreak of war
Find out about our connection with Dr Page and an introduction to his diary here
16th December 1915 Thursday
All material produced or reproduced here and throughout this work is the sole copyright of the author and the family of Doctor D.C.M. Page MC.
“A” section of the 130th (St.John) Field Ambulance left the camp for the front in a series of London motor buses. They went off to be attached to the 9th Field Ambulance (Guards division) in the trenches at Neuve Chapelle and were given a great send- off by the men remaining. The London Transport Museum have in their collection at Acton one of those very same buses (pictured below), currently restored to its Western Front condition.
A B-type London bus converted for war use
Men boarding. Off to the front! © IWM (Q 5238)
Find out about our connection with Dr Page and an introduction to his diary here
11th December 1915 Saturday
All material produced or reproduced here and throughout this work is the sole copyright of the author and the family of Doctor D.C.M. Page MC.
The company received their pay. Their first payment since landing in France.
The next few days were mainly passed by driving around the local countryside collecting the sick and injured, described by Douglas as a pleasant duty, getting to see the countryside and meeting various “interesting people”. He even found time, being a Scot, to buy some New Year cards in Terouanne* for a franc each.
He describes an old church at Ecques as being very similar to the Parish Church of St Monan’s, Fife.
All the time while driving around they could hear the thunderous rumble of the guns in the distance and they would often see great battles taking place in the sky.
Writes Douglas, “One day there was a great fight with 30 machines in the air. Three Germans were brought down, one in flames. It was a thrilling sight. Another day four Zeppelins were spotted on the horizon and were chased by our planes”.
It’s interesting to note that the sight of thirty aircraft locked in combat was merely twelve years after the Wright brothers’ first powered flight in 1903.
A new skill was learnt in the art of riding a horse. Douglas describes the excitement of it with all the big motor lorries and buses using the narrow lanes, but he soon got to grips with it, but described feeling a bit stiff and sore for the first few days.
*Probably Thérouanne
The next diary entry will follow on 16th December.
Find out about our connection with Dr Page and an introduction to his diary here
10th December 1915 Friday
All material produced or reproduced here and throughout this work is the sole copyright of the author and the family of Doctor D.C.M. Page MC.
Taken from the Regimental diary – Supplied by UK National Archives Reference WO 95/2549/2 and recommended by Stephen Lyons, 130th (St. John) Field Ambulance research group.
The whole Company went on a route march and the usual collection of the sick was undertaken.
Arrangements had been made for the Field Cashier to be at Brigade Headquarters by 10am. Captain Anderson of this unit attended at Headquarters at this hour to draw money for the Unit, and after waiting an hour a telephone message come through saying that the Cashier would not be able to come and that Captain Anderson should proceed to Divisional Headquarters at Roquetoire for the money. On arrival there found that the Field Cashier had no money left. The Field Cashier then advised Captain Anderson and other Officers requiring money to proceed to Mereville a distance of 25 kilometres for the money – this was done and the money obtained by 6pm.
Find out about our connection with Dr Page and an introduction to his diary here
9th December 1915 Thursday
All material produced or reproduced here and throughout this work is the sole copyright of the author and the family of Doctor D.C.M. Page MC.
The day after Douglas arrived in Glomenghem, an Army Service Corps. motor group arrived along with 4 Sunbeams, 2 Fords and 2 motorcycles. The arrival of an A.S.C. group with vehicles serves to illustrate the dynamic nature of the British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F.) with different groups of equipment and men to add to or simply replace those lost or damaged in the fighting.
A Sunbeam Ambulance of 1915
Find out about our connection with Dr Page and an introduction to his diary here
8th December 1915 Wednesday
All material produced or reproduced here and throughout this work is the sole copyright of the author and the family of Doctor D.C.M. Page MC.
“I reported to the ADMS (Assistant Director Medical Services) Colonel Morgan who took me in his car to a village called Glomenghem where I was attached to the 130th (St John) Field Ambulance”, wrote Douglas.
The men of the 130th marched into Glomenghem from their previous position at Enguingatte and arrived about 1pm. They were billeted in barns and stables and were to remain there for the next twelve days.
Douglas also remained in Glomenghem until 20th December. He described the great welcome he received from the commanding officer Colonel Davies, a Wrexham doctor and that the other officers soon made him feel at home. Here his jobs included collecting wounded or ill soldiers from around the district with a motor ambulance. Each day the rain persisted and by now the roads were just rivers of mud.
Ambulances near the front
His motor ploughed its way around Marthes, Enguingatte, Terouanne, Creques, Rebecq, Ecques and Mametz (Not the Mametz near Fricourt a scene of the famous Battle of the Somme), bringing back sick and injured men for treatment or to be hospitalised.
Headquarters were the semi derelict Chateau Bussy which had no furniture and was “very wet and damp, but we had to make the best of a bad job”.
Douglas at this point describes his temporary home.
“I was billeted in a small cottage with a thatched roof and a stone floor. It was a damp hole and full of rats. Hens paraded about the house all day and there was a fine view of a midden heap from my window”.
“The old dame of the house called me ‘l’enfant officer’ ”.
The weather remained the same, cold and very wet. The countryside looked very desolate. Douglas writes, “We often took the men out for route marches to keep fit. After these occasions we returned to our billets very wet and covered with mud splashed up on us liberally by passing cars and horse wagons”.
“We were very comfortable in our mess. The catering was plain but good and a piano helped to liven things up. Censoring the men’s letters and bridge soon made the evenings fly”.
Find out about our connection with Dr Page and an introduction to his diary here
7th December 1915 Tuesday
Through the night and the next day the train ambled its way along through the flat countryside. The track seemed to be lined all along the route by French troops. The locals were crying out to the slow moving train’s occupants to give them souvenirs as they passed. The young men responded by throwing them hard biscuits and empty bully beef tins. By 2pm they eventually reached Abbeville where the officers took lunch. The lunch consisted of Camp pie*, Oxo, biscuits, cheese, lemon cheese and whisky! The whisky was described as “doing them a power of good”!
On they went through Etaple, Boulogne, Calais, St Omer. As well as travelling at a slow pace there would have been plenty of signal stops for passing traffic, but eventually they arrived in Aires sur Lys where they finally got off the train.
Out now again into the darkness and the driving rain they set off on another five mile march. Three times they lost their way, finally arriving in a village called Roquetoire around midnight where they knocked up the local mayor, who managed to find them all billets.
Douglas writes, “His (the mayor’s) wife gave me a glass of beer and I aired some of my schoolboy French. I slept on a mattress on the floor of an empty room, with rats chasing all around me”.
* Camp pie is a kind of luncheon meat
Find out about our connection with Dr Page and an introduction to his diary here
6th December 1915 Monday
All material produced or reproduced here and throughout this work is the sole copyright of the author and the family of Doctor D.C.M. Page MC.
Early next morning and still in the darkness the Huanchaco arrived in Le Havre. The men waited patiently. The ship’s crew hosed away the sickness through the gunwales, while others busied themselves below decks in an effort to get the little ship fit for sea again.
Eventually, some time around midday the men began to thread their way along the narrow gangway onto the dockside where they assembled into organised groups again, preparing to move on. After another long delay the men marched to a rest camp about 2 miles away. After some refreshment another 3 mile march to a railway station.
The arrival in France had been met with the horrible kind of weather that was to endure for a lot of their time there. The wind had now subsided, but the rain that delayed the sailing was to continue. Douglas described rest camp as “a sea of mud”.
That night at around 8.30 pm they boarded a train to begin another slow journey, men and horses in cattle wagons and officers in first class. Douglas described the first class carriage as being dirty and unkempt, the whole thing smelling of “Cooke’s Circus”, but a sight more comfortable than those in the wagons behind.
Find out about our connection with Dr Page and an introduction to his diary here