WW1

August 29th 1915

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We had hoped to hear better news of our friend and colleague, Leslie Eastwood. He is still in the 17th General Hospital in Alexandria and he is now suffering from dysentery.

His family have kindly passed on to us his most recent letter to them:

Leslie Eastwood

2nd Lieut. L Eastwood, King’s Own Royal Lancaster Reg’t

“The 20th of the month and I am still lying in bed; what a waste of time it seems to be lying here, day after day! I was wounded on the 28th July, so I have been in bed 24 whole days; what a time it does seem. This dysentery which I have got takes a lot of getting rid of, but there is no doubt I am getting better gradually.

I think you would hardly recognise me now if you saw me. I have gone so thin, but it will all come right again when I once more get on my legs. My wounds have been quite all right and are healing well.

We get all sorts of visitors to the hospital: young ladies come with flowers and chocolates, cigarettes and tobacco, older ladies come with testaments and good advice and comforting words, and men come round with what news they can get from the Peninsula, which amounts to nothing.

I am in a nice airy ward with two other officers, one slightly wounded but also suffering from dysentery like myself, the other sent back from the Peninsula sick; I don’t know what is the matter with him.

Outside on the balcony is a poor Australian boy of 22, who has had one of his hands blown off by a bomb and is blinded in both eyes; he is just beginning to learn the Braille system of reading; it is very sad and I have seen many cases like his, or little better…”

It is typical of the man that he should be thinking of those worse off than himself. However, we would all be most relieved to hear that he is out of hospital before long. Let us hope that by the time the boys return for the Christmas Term, we will have news for them of the full recovery of one of their most loved and respected masters.

There are currently five OPS assistant masters, who left us over the last year, in the Army. Along with Leslie Eastwood, we continue to keep Blair Watson, Tom Higginson, Pug Wallace and Mr Bye very much in mind.

 

 

 

 

 

August 25th 1915

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We have further news of the recent developments on the Gallipoli Front, where some twenty Old Boys of the OPS are currently serving.

Unfortunately, it seems that the troops who landed at Suvla Bay have not advanced very far inland and there has been a fierce counter-attack by the Turk. Major Geoffrey Mott (South Lancs Regiment) was in the Anzac sector at the time of the Suvla Bay landings and here describes part of the battle and the Turkish counter-attack at Chunuk Bair on August 10th.

Maj. GR Mott

Major GR Mott

“I will tell you of the great Turk counter-attack of the 10th August which dashed itself against us for nigh on six hours, or, at least I should say, of that sector of it which came within my vision.

On my right, and below me, was a trench full of little Gurkhas huddled together, their bayonets gleaming in the sunlight; down on my left, across the gully and some 80 yards away was the trench we had withdrawn to the day previous. Immediately on my left, but in the scrub, lay a sentry – a volunteer for this perilous duty – keeping vigil on the gully below and connecting us with the trench beyond it. A great lad this, but, alas, to him of as to many of his spleen, came a soldier’s death ere the action closed.

Like waves advancing on the sea shore, great lines of Turks with shouts of ‘Allah!’ surged continuously over the crest, only to be cut down by shrapnel from the battleships and the fire of machine-guns sweeping up the gullies from well-concealed positions on ragged little knolls to our rear. To see these brave men, ay and fair fighters too, being literally cut down like corn before the reaper, was a sight indeed. Never have I seen greater pluck than that displayed by the Turk, particularly on this day.

Besides these masses advancing, I observed men running down singly from various directions and collecting behind bushes, which must have been concealed from the view of our machine-guns and other trenches, for no fire appeared to be directed at them. Partly on these, therefore, and also on individuals taking up sniper posts, I directed my aim, and how many rounds I fired during all those hours I should be sorry to count. By my side lay a man who passed me ammunition and my field glasses as required – fresh rifles were handed on to me as each one got too hot to hold, and another man kept record of my score.

The strike of the bullet was easily visible on that sandy soil, and the range thus quickly found in each instance. Perhaps the most interesting and important target taken on was a machine-gun detachment getting their gun into a cleverly concealed position, yet visible enough from my post. The range was but 150 yards, and the officer in charge clearly a German; I picked him off with my second shot, and shortly after, two of his gunners, and then opened rapid fire on the remainder, which must have dispersed them as that gun never came into action, at least not from that position or anywhere near it.

With regard to the bushes, I let a dozen Turks or so bunch together behind them before pouring in the contents of my magazine, or sometimes two; this had the effect of making a few men bolt in all directions to get clear of such false cover, but how many I hit in this way it would be impossible to say, and not one could be fairly included in the ‘bag.’

At the end of the six hours this had amounted to 47, not including the German officer – a fair day’s work, though very trifling, of course, in comparison with the wholesale slaughter effected by our guns and machine-guns whose handiwork would beggar description, for the Turkish dead must have amounted to thousands.”

 

August 20th 1915

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Basil Parker 2

 Captain Basil Parker (Hampshire Regiment)

We have received the following account of events surrounding the death of Basil Parker at Krithia:

“Exactly at 4 p.m. Captain Parker, who was in command, called out, ‘Time’s up, my lads,’ and those in the first trench immediately leapt out, those in the second at once taking their places and leaping out a minute later, and those in the third line doing the same. All were well up in a good deal less than 5 minutes, and with a cheer they rushed forward.

It was a glorious charge and everyone showed splendid courage. The Turks were startled, and took a minute or two – not much more – to get their machine guns (of which they had one for about every 5 yards, and which during the bombardment they had hidden in the trenches) into position, so that our men got some way across the open space. Apparently, however, none reached the Turkish trench. All were mown down.

Of the second line, a few got across. Of the third line which had fewer men, more than half got through, and those who were left of the battalion held the trench until they were relieved by the Royal Scots and Royal Fusiliers. A private said positively that the Turks were driven from their front trench which remained in our hands, as perhaps did some others.

The open ground was so heavily swept by gun fire that it was impossible to bring in the wounded or the dead, even at night. Some may have crawled in, but the severely wounded must have died. As none could be recovered and identified, they were posted as missing.

In the evening of the 6th only 250 out of 900 of the Hants answered to their names.”

The 2nd Hants SurvivorsWhat was left of the 2nd Hants  being congratulated by the G.O.C. Division.

August 13th 1915

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We have another letter from Leslie Eastwood, written from the 17th General Hospital in Alexandria, to which he has been transferred following the wounds he suffered in the Gallipoli campaign.

Leslie Eastwood

2nd Lieut. Leslie Eastwood

“I don’t think I have yet given you any detailed account of how I was wounded. We had just come out of a long communication trench to the firing line on our way to camp for the night; we were marching by small parties. I was at the end of my platoon. For some reason we were held up and I went forward to see the cause of the delay. I had just stopped under a tree to speak to two officers, when shrapnel burst and picked me off in the leg and arm; it felt just as if I had been hit by a mighty blow with a sledge hammer.

I was taken to the clearing hospital where I was very uncomfortable for 16 hours, having nothing to lie on but a stretcher; then I was taken on board a hospital ship where I remained 10 days. I was operated on and the bullet taken out of my leg; chloroform is not at all bad, not so bad as gas. I arrived here two days ago and am very comfortable. 

How long I shall be a cripple I don’t know; the Doctor on the ship said my knee is damaged; the Doctor here does not think so, so I don’t know how long it will take. There is no chance of my getting home, as they only send cases that take over three months to cure.”

August 9th 1915

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Leslie Eastwood was one of the first members of the OPS staff to leave us for service in the Army. Now a 2nd Lieutenant with the King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, he has been serving in Gallipoli.

We have just received a letter from him, informing us he has been wounded:

Leslie Eastwood

2nd Lieut. Leslie Eastwood

2/8/15. “I hope you will get this letter before you hear from any other source that I am wounded. I have two wounds, one in the arm, quite slight, and one in the leg which may, perhaps, have done some damage to the knee. The bullet is still in and the Doctor has not yet made a thorough examination; it gives me practically no pain now and I don’t think it can be at all bad. I am on a new Hospital Ship which had just come out here.”

It is good of him to write to us so promptly and we all hope that he will make a speedy recovery.

August 4th 1915

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Whilst we are enjoying our holidays, it is good to learn that some of our troops are also enjoying a break from the war. The soldiers need to be entertained as well as rested and it takes an Old Dragon Royal Engineer with experience of life on the River Cherwell to organise something like this!

Aquatic ‘Spasms’ at the Front

August 1st 1915.

“Yesterday we organised a Regatta, or rather some water-sports on the Canal basin, by the side of which our train is stabled. Everything passed off most successfully, and it was a very laughable affair as well as a big success. The greasy pole was however too easy, and the expert came too soon among the competitors and released the coop which held the duck, who fell into the water, where it was chased and captured by one of the competitors.

We wound up the programme with a surprise for the spectators. A mock telegram was read out as from the Kaiser saying he was sending a submarine to stop the sports. A submarine with U.29 painted on it was then pulled in by wires, and as a wind-up, we exploded a mine under it.

All events were held in the water; and the instability of the rafts (which were made of sleepers lashed to drums) was a source of constant amusement.

The very last item on the programme was the presentation of prizes, among them being a Challenge Shield made out of a German shell.”

 

Aquatic Spasms

July 10th 1915

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The next edition of ‘The Draconian’ is due to be published in August and we are grateful for news from Old Dragons at their Public Schools. Our Oundle School correspondent has contributed a good piece on the war work they have been doing this term:

“It is an ideal school for Dragons, as it is run on very much the same lines as the OPS, namely liberty and open air life. This term we have been doing very strenuous work, as we have taken advantage of the fact that we have the best school workshops in England, and we have been making munitions of war.

A firm in Peterborough is supplying us with the rough castings, which we finish and return to them to be tested. We started by doing various brass pieces of aeroplane engines and also mine-heads; these required turning on the lathes, drilling, planning and plenty of filing which needs some patience! Of course everything has to be done very accurately, the usual standard being that they should be correct to 1/2000th of an inch, and after the parts have been worked they are tested by the more experienced boys by means of micrometer screw gauges.

The firm was very pleased with the first lot of work which we returned and have now sent still more as the demand is so great at the moment, and they have also promised us more difficult and varied work in the future. It is possible to have 30 boys working in the workshops at the same time, and the work has been organised by forms, each form spending one whole day (7-8 hrs) at it each week…

Owing to the enormous demand we have now started working in double shifts of six hours each, so that the shops are being used for 12 hours each day, and the work is to be continued during the first month of the holidays by about 60 boys who have volunteered to stay, and are to be under military control…

I have written all this thinking that you might be interested to know how we at Oundle (and some other Public Schools which have now, I believe, followed our example), are doing some little active work, small as it may seem in comparison to the needs, for the Country.”

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We have received news from 2nd Lieutenant Robert Rawlinson, 2nd Border Regt., 20th Brigade, 7th Division, BEF, dated June 30th 1915.

Robert Rawlinson

2nd Lieut. Robert Rawlinson

“We came into the trenches on Sunday afternoon and all was quiet till breakfast time on Monday morning, when they dropped a few High Explosive (H. Ex.) Shells into our front line…

About 1.30 p.m. they started again and got the range perfectly. One officer and three men were blown to nothing; the shell pitched in the dug-out and all we found was the officer’s head and one shoulder; nothing at all of the others. Another officer lost his nerve and a third was wounded…

Tuesday was fairly peaceful till the early afternoon, when they shelled the next regiment on our right for a time; then all was quiet again till 5.45 p.m. when a fiendish rifle and machine-gun fire was opened on our right. We had sent up a couple of mines and had caught the Germans bolting. In less than half a minute the air was full of shells, shrapnel and rifle-fire. They shelled our lines too. I’ve never heard such a row in all my life; the H. Ex. Shells are most frightfully demoralising. One pitched with a deafening crash 15 yards to the right of my dug-out. Two hailstorms of shrapnel bullets splattered all round me when I was going along a communications trench and a bit of H. Ex. Shell missed my head by a foot. The old hands said that it was really bad shelling.

We didn’t lose many, but I saw two ghastly sights in it all. It gets on my nerves! I didn’t mind the sniping and shrapnel, but I can’t stand the H. Ex. shells. You don’t stand a chance with them…

The gunners think that the Huns are running short of shells; it has been very noticeable in the last ten days, so they say, and for every shell they send over they get about four back from us or the French.”

 

May 30th 1915

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A second Memorial Service for the life of Ronnie Poulton was held in St Giles’ Church, Oxford, yesterday, which I attended with some of the OPS staff and boys.

Rev. William Temple gave an excellent address in which he emphasised the role Ronnie might have played at Huntley & Palmer (which he had inherited in 1913) and in a wider field of industrial relations after the war.

“Many of us believed that with his ready sympathy, his utter freedom from selfishness, and his courage to follow what he saw to be right, he would grasp the causes of our labour unrest and class friction, and by removing them from the great industry in whose control a large part was to be his, set an example which would prove a great force in our social regeneration… What he hated most in our usual manner of life was the artificial barriers that hold people apart, and the suspiciousness of one class towards another…”

Further to Ronnie’s “ready sympathy, his utter freedom from selfishness and his courage to follow what he saw to be right,” he added,

“There are many of us who, if asked to point to a life without blemish, would have pointed to Ronald Poulton.”

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We are grateful to Lieut. G.M. Gathorne-Hardy, who recently sent this picture of Ronnie’s grave to his parents.

RWPP grave

May 27th 1915

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Attempts to break through at Gallipoli continue, where Pat Duff is currently with the RFA. Part of his job is to join the infantry in their trenches to identify suitable targets for the artillery. This, strangely, includes the Turks’ tea-time.

22/5/15. “I was in the observing station yesterday evening with G. We peered through our glasses for ages and could see nothing, until at last little puffs of smoke came out of one of the Turkish trenches, signifying that the Ottoman was making his tea.

This was more than we could stand, so we telephoned down to the Battery, ‘Action,’ and gave various angles and elevations with the result that the Turkish trench was heavily shelled, causing, as we hoped, AAD (which being interpreted means ‘Alarm And Despondency.’)

It is rumoured that the above condition prevails in the English Press regarding this expedition; not surprised.”

May 18th 1915

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Pat Duff (another of our 1911 Oxford Hockey Blues – see May 4th picture) is now a 2nd Lieutenant in the RFA with our forces in Gallipoli. He has some amusing stories to tell about our French allies.

9/5/15 “There have been some strenuous night attacks, and stray people dashing into one’s lines at night give alarming views of what is going on. The Frenchman gets rattled at times. One dashed into my lines two nights ago (being nearly shot by my guard).

I shouted ‘Francais, venez ici.’ He was a little man with a huge rifle and bayonet, and looked as if he were supporting a lamp-post. I asked what was happening, and where were his comrades.

He gesticulated and danced about saying ‘on crie, sauve qui peut. Rien ne va plus; les Turcs do this, that, and the other and I am a most miserable soldier.’

So I replied, ‘Courage, comrade; revanche, Marseillaise, Paris attaque, grande attaque.’

Upon which he took heart and returned whence he came, leaving me, however, a bit disconcerted, as that was the only news of the situation I had, and the shrapnel was very frequent and rifle fire seemed to be getting nearer. However, Frenchmen always get hold of the wrong end of the stick, so I decided to wait for confirmation, which of course didn’t come…

Great fun talking to the French tommies, and hearing how as the Corporal was about to bayonet a Turk, another Turk was just about to knife the Corporal when Alphonse and Pierre appeared behind the last-named Turk. As they go to kill him, a sniper appears in the rear.

‘But I am here, and tire mon fusil and lui make brûler la tête, which flees into two piece’ – whereat he waves his arms like a windmill.

15/5/15. There was rather fun the other day, though I didn’t see it. A hare got up and all the English, of course, leapt to their feet with fearful yells. Presently a French General came to complain of this behaviour: ‘à la guerre, comme à la guerre, et à la chasse come à la chasse!’  He explained that his enfants think it is the Turks who arrive when they hear the row. 

I must honestly say that I think this is going to be a long affair, but I hope to return some day.”