During the Great War, signals was an element of Royal Engineers with some parts devolved or shared out to different cap badges including the Cavalry.
Now signals are not a particular interest of mine but they do have some very particular elements of equipment that link into the Mounted Units or have resulted in some interesting horse and saddle equipment.
I will confess that the idea for this post came about when I came across an interesting photo that was unusual for a couple of reasons.
The reason that I first look at this image as it is so unusual to find a rider of a horse in the Great war to be wearing 1908 Equipment (Webbing). The next thing was that item that was strapped next to the rifle bucket, I’d never come across that before and my initial curiosity thought that I may well have been a trials piece of kit or something linked with the Hotchkiss Machine gun, but I couldn’t find anything that related to that.
It was purely by accident that I came across another photo with a similar set up and it referred to it as “Signals Flags Bucket”.
With a little bit more digging and research I found out that this was partially true. The reality is that they form part of a set that are fitted to a saddle and they are for the Heliograph signals equipment. The buckets are fitted to each side of the saddle and are designed to carry the heliograph tripod, signals telescope, and signals flags, thus allowing a Cavalry Regiment to carry signalling equipment in the field.
Signallers of the East Riding Yeomanry using a Heliograph and observing telescope in 1917
I went looking to get some more information on the heliograph equipment and manage to track down the information on the buckets in the List of Changes (LoC) and as part of that it had 2 excellent images of the buckets loaded with equipment fitted to a UP Saddle.
The mirrors and the “headset” of the heliograph would be stored in a leather case with a leather or webbing strap and were carried by the signaller while mounted.
I found that there is a very good facebook group that deals with the Heliograph equipment, of which there are a couple of posts about the use of the Heliograph by mounted units and even some images of the buckets, the photo below is a brilliant image of the two buckets, in what looks like excellent condition. They are owned by a chap called Jonathan Paynter and he states that they are stamped 1914. The Facebook group is the British Heliograph Club https://www.facebook.com/groups/776510812960897/
The left is for the telescope stand and signals flags, the right is for the Heliograph tripod. The Straps/loops at the top of each bucket would have gone around the rear arch of the UP Saddle, allowing the bucket to hang down, in the same way as the Rifle Bucket and the RE Tool Bucket does. On both you can see the leather steadying strap (in the centre of the buckets) that would have reached across to the Girth strap of the saddle and leather loop at the end of the strap would have allowed the buckets to be secured/tied by having the surcingle strap pass through the loop.
On the left bucket the strap at the bottom of the bucket is a short retaining strap to help tie the flag bucket to the Rifle bucket next to it. On the right hand bucket centre strap you will notice a smaller loop, this is to allow the scabbard of the Cavalry Sword to pass through and again this also adds to the stability of the equipment on the saddle. Admittedly that is quite hard to see in the LOC photo above as that has the picket peg secured above the sword scabbard (as it should be) but also over the top of the leather loop on the heliograph tripod bucket
The heliograph was an excellent piece of equipment and was used through out the army from the Victorian period and the Survey Squadrons of the Royal Engineers were still using it through to the 1980s when they were out doing large scale survey works.
The size and weight of the equipment also made sense that Cavalry units should have access to it and that it should be available in the field rather than being in the unit baggage/ stores wagons. From what I can find it was issued at the rate of 2 heliograph sets per cavalry regiment.
Australian Light Horse signals team 1918 in PalestineUnit unknown but these signallers are only using the Flags buckets. the lack of rifle buckets on the saddles suggests a mounted infantry unit (they often slung their rifles on their backs)
So to come back to my original puzzle, I still don’t have an answer as to this rider wearing 1908 equipment but I have at least learned about what the additional equipment is, and also learned that whoever loaded the kit put the heliograph tripod in the wrong bucket! Oh well everyday is a school day and it is always great to use old photos to broaden your knowledge through investigation and research.
Firstly this post is not a “paid for post” or sponsored post but simply a personal recommendation for somewhere that offered a great place to stay and brilliant service.
A few months ago I was down on the Somme and decided to stay overnight and didn’t want to stay in Albert. I was tracking down several of the “Men of Hartshorne”, visiting Delville Wood and also trying to locate 2 river crossing points where 3rd Field Sqn RE put in bridges for the Battle of Amiens on the 8th August 1918. So it was a visit with plenty of things to do.
Having searched for somewhere to stay I found a cracking place at the village of Chuignolles. The property is a very impressive country house and there are 2 rooms for renting and the owners provide an excellent breakfast.
Le Logis d’Anne-Sophie, is a great place. It’s quiet and very comfortable and the use of the lounge with the very warm open fire was just what I needed so that I could spread out the maps and books while I planned my next day activities.
It is Bed and Breakfast, and I must say it is a bloody good breakfast – Home made Brioche, with home made plumb jam which I can highly recommend . The village is quiet and you may need to head to the surrounding villages and towns for an evening meal but as I had brought my own evening food (due to being on this bloody diet) that wasn’t a problem and the owners set a place on the dining table for me to eat.
It was also interesting chatting with Anne-Sophie’s husband, Bruno, that he mentioned that the house had been used by the Germans in both wars. This was particularly interesting as some of the Armoured Cars of the 17th Armoured Car Battalion came through the village on the morning of the 8th August 1918 and engaged a German MG Company in the village, considering the house is on the main junction in the village the chances are that the house was in the thick of it. It would be an interesting side project at some point to research into the events of that day and what happened in the village.
Overall I can say that Le Logis d’Anne-Sophie is probably an ideal place to stay if you are looking at researching and exploring the Amiens 1918 battle area and if you just want a quiet but very comfortable place to stay when visiting the Somme area at any time of the year then give them a visit.
Over the last 9 months I’ve been working on a more concentrated effort to track down the graves or memorials of the individuals that died in the Great War that are named on the village war memorial. As stated in the original blog post (https://horsebacksapper.co.uk/?p=798) about the “Men of Hartshorne” there is a really good document that has the details of each individual that is named and also background information.
Of all of the men named there are 3 which currently that I can’t get to, 1 in Kenya and 2 in Turkey but I am looking at possibilities to get the Graves photographed by people in those locations.
In addition there is one other that I have not visited as it is a bit further away from my current location and I’ll need to try and link them with some more activities or battlefield visits. I will get them but not just yet!
The other thing that I will try and do is also give an indication of what battles they may have been killed in. Now there is no guarantee that this will be an accurate assumption of the point at which they died, the reason for this is that some of these soldiers are buried in cemeteries that will have been located next to field hospitals, clearing stations or aid posts or they are in cemeteries that are amalgamation of smaller burial sites. So these are assumptions and educated guesses. If anyone has more accurate details then please let me know so that I can update the information.
Private John Warden Allen, 25th Battalion Royal Fusiliers
Died of Wounds on 26th May 1916 and is buried in Nairobi South Cemetery.
I’ll try and get one of the Royal Engineers based in Kenya to visit the grave and take a photograph of John’s headstone.
Private William Edward Benbow of the 1st/5th Battalion Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment.
Died of wounds on 1 August 1915. Buried in Lijssentoek Military Cemetery.
Lijssentoek Military Cemetry is a large cemetery located near Poperinghe, this area had 4 large casualty clearing stations. it is likely that William was injured on the front at Ypres and then evacuated back to one of the Medical clearing stations/ field hospitals.
Sapper Thomas Baldwin, 254th Tunnelling Company Royal Engineers (originally with the Lincolnshire regiment)
Killed in Action on the 22nd October 1917, buried in Poperinghe New Military Cemetery.
As a Sapper with a tunnelling Company I’ll do some investigation to try and find what may have happened at the time of Thomas’s death, it may be possible to identify from the unit War Diaries the what was going on.
Private John Bennett, 1st/4th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment
Died of Wounds 4 October 1918. Buried in Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez
This cemetery is north west of Arras and not far from the Vimy Ridge Memorial. it’s really well laid out and really worth the visit. I’d be interested to know what happened to John and it may well be something that I come back to look at further down the line.
Private John (Jack) Eaton, 6th Battalion King’s Shropshire Light Infantry
Died of Wounds 28th Jun 1918, Buried in Neuf-Brisach Communal Cemetery Extension.
The cemetery is located to the south of Strasbourg and the military extension contains the graves of 35 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War, all of whom died in 1918 as prisoners of war. Unfortunately I currently don’t have the details of when John was captured or the details of his wounds.
Private John William Gilbert, 8th Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment
Died of Wounds 31st July 1917, buried in Perth Cemetery (China Wall), Ypres.
The Third battle of Ypres started on the 31st July and in particular the Battle of Pilckem Ridge started on that day. the 8th Battalion were part of the units taking part in the battles and it is likely that Jack sustained his injuries in these battles.
Corporal Albert Booth, 1st/5th Battalion Leicestershire Regiment
Killed in Action 8 June 1917. Commemorated on the Arras memorial
Private James Blood, 10th Battalion Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment.
Killed in Action 4 March 1917, Commemorated on the Thiepval memorial.
Sapper Frederick Brazier, 180th Tunnelling Company Royal Engineers.
Died of Wounds 30 March 1919, Buried in Hartshorne (St Peters) Churchyard, Derbyshire.
Sapper Fred Brazier was transfered to the Royal Engineers from the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment due to his civilian experience working in the coal mines at Swadlincote. In March 1918 he and the others of 180th Tunnelling company found themselves on the surface fighting as infantry trying to stop the German offensive. During those battles the Germans used Gas and Fred wasn’t quick enough to get his mask on and as a result he was badly effected by the gas.
As a result he was treated but evacuate back to England for treatment. he was eventually invalided out of the Army in late 1918 and returned home to Hartshorne. He did try and return to work in the mines but continued to have difficulty with breathing, eventually he succumbed to the damage to his lungs and died in March 19, a year after being Gassed. As his death was attributed to injuries from service he is buried with a Military Headstone.
Private Richard Buxton, 1st Battalion Leicestershire Regiment.
Killed in Action 22 March 1918, Commemorated on the Arras Memorial.
Apologies for the poor image but with the weather and the angle that I had for taking the photo it is a poor effort, the next time I’m down there I’ll go in and take a better photo.
Died of Wounds 1st October 1916, Buried in Bac du Sud British Cemetery, Bailleulval.
This is a small but interesting cemetery and there are several Grenadier Guards buried here, along with several Royal Engineers. It is one of those locations that makes me want to investigate further what was happening in this area at the time that Willie lost his life.
Private Walter Carver, 9th Battalion Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment.
Killed in Action 10 August 1915, Comemorated on the Helles Memorial, Turkey
This is one of the sites that I’ve not been to and I’ve not been able to find an image of the Tablet that would have Walter’s name shown. I’ll try and contact a Battlefield study that is visiting Gallipoli and ask if they can get a photo of the tablet showing his name.
Gunner Geoffrey Gotheridge, 2nd Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery
Died of Wounds 30th October 1918, Buried in Premont British Cemetery.
This cemetery is located south of the 1914 Battlefield of La Cateau, however the soldiers in this cemetery are from the offensive that helped to end the war in 1918, this was known as the last 100 days and the “Pursuit to Mons”.
Corporal James Hallam, 15th Battalion Nottingham and Derbyshire Regiment.
Killed in Action 28 March 1918, buried in Assevillers New British Cemetery.
Able Seaman Frederick Hyde, HMS Lord Nelson, Royal Navy
Died 25th April 1915, Buried in V Beach Cemetery, Turkey
I haven’t been to Gallipoli but the there is a lot of information about the landings that happened on the 25th April. It appears that a detachment of sailors from HMS Lord Nelson provided the crews for the small boats that landed the infantry onto V Beach, throughout the morning. At some point Frederick was killed, but not before his bravery was noticed and he was Mentioned in Dispatches. I will definately look to do a blog post on the actions that Fred Hyde was involved in on the 25th April 1915.
Private Samuel Hyde, 9th Battalion Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment
Died of Wounds 3rd October 1916, Buried in Bourlogne Eastern Cemetery
Boulogne-sur-Mer is a large Channel port and was one of the main ports used by the British and Empire Troops. The town also had a large military hospital to deal with the wounded as well as prepapre those to be returned to England.
It is very likely that Samuel was wounded, treated at a forward aid station or field hospital and was then moved back to Boulogne to the main hospital or to be returned to hospitals in Britian but unfortunately succumbed to his wounds.
Boulogne Eastern Cemetery, one of the town cemeteries and is a large civil cemetery, split in two by a road. Unusually, the headstones are laid flat in this cemetery due to nature of the sandy soil.
At the moment this is one of the French Cemeterys that I still have to visit.
Private Tom Hyde, 10th Battalion Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment
Killed in Action, 14th February 1916. Commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial
Lance Sergeant Thomas King, 4th Battalion Grenadier Guards.
Killed in Action 25th September 1916. Commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial
Private Tom James, 2nd/6th Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment
Killed in Action 17th April 1918, Commemorated on Ploegsteert Memorial
Not the best photograph, but Tom’s name is at the top of the centre list. At the time of Tom’s death the Battle of Lys was occurring, this was part of the German spring Offensive, Operation Georgette.
Private Frank Masters, 1st Battalion Warwickshire Regiment
Died of Infection at Ypres, 25th April 1915, Commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial
Unfortunately the photo that I took of Frank’s name on the memorial was too poor to add to the blog and a recent visit to Ypres unfortunately I couldn’t get another photo due to the memorial being currently being renovated. As soon at the work is complete I’ll get back to Ypres and get the image to add to this post.
Private Thomas Meakin, 10th Battalion Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment.
Died 18th September 1918, Buried Gauche Wood Cemetery, Villers-Guislain
As you look beyond the cemetery you can see the Memorial to the Indian Cavalry in the distance, which is located between Villers-Guislain and the village of Epehy.
This is a small cemetery located away from the village, Thomas was with a unit that was taking part in the Last 100 Days offensive. Villers-Guislain is located North East of the village of Epehy
Private Joseph Herbert Pegg, 6th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment
Killed in Action 6th November 1918, buried Roisin Communal Cemetery
While this is a civilian cemetery it does have this single line of military graves, many of the men her are from the Lincolnshire Regiment, it’s hard to think that Joseph and his comrades died 5 days before the Germans surrendered and about 30 miles from the point where the war would end for the British, back at Mons.
Private George Roome, 11th Battalion Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment.
Killed in Action 16th September 1917, Commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial
George died during the Third Battle of Ypres, also known as the Battle of Passchendaele.
WO1 Albert Sabine, Royal Engineers
Albert seems to be an interesting character, the issue is that his death isn’t until 1935 and it isn’t clear what occurred with Albert that resulted in his addition onto the village war memorial as a Great War death. More research is needed into his background.
Gunner William Smith, 19th Heavy Battery Royal Garrison Artillery
Killed in Action 12th September 1917, Buried in Canada Farm Cemetery, Ypres.
Private Samuel Staley, 6th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment
Died of Wounds 22 August 1917, Buried in Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery
As stated for Private William Benbow, the Lijssenthoek Cemetery is located next to a number of Casualty Clearing Stations and it is highly likely that Samuel was injured during the Third Battle of Ypres and then evacuated back through the casualty system back to one of the Clearing stations or hospitals in the area of Lijssenthoek.
Gunner James Harrold Twells, 113th Siege Battery, Royal garrison Artillery
Killed in Action 28 September 1918, Buried in Ypres Reservoir Cemetery
Lance Corporal Sydney Walker, 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Regiment
Killed in action 14th July 1916. Buried in Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval.
Lance Corporal John Walton, 1st Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment
Killed in Action 1 September 1916, Commemorated on the Thiepval memorial.
Private Bailey Webster, 9th battalion South Staffordshire Regiment
Killed in Action 13 February 1916, Buried in Ration Farm Military Cemetery, La Chapelle-D’Armentieres
Sergeant Albert Webster, 5th Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment
Died of Wounds 7 February 1921, Buried in Hartshorne (St Peters) Churchyard, Derbyshire.
Albert is buried in the village church cemetery and died 3 years after the war, it would be interesting to find out what the wounds were that he died of, there will be the need to do a bit more investigation on this. Albert served in the same Battalion as my wife’s grandfather who was gassed in March 1918 and suffered with breathing issues for the rest of his life, a question could be was Albert gassed at the same time? So more research needed on this one.
Died of Wounds 19th July 1916, Buried in Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-L’Abbe
Looking across Heilly Station Cemetery
Heilly Station Cemetery is interesting as the vast majority of the graves are double or triple burials, most of whom are from the summer of 1916, which suggests that this was near or next to a field Hospital. This is supported by the fact that is it quite a distance back from the front lines of mid to late 1916.
Addition
The following soldier is not a Man of Hartshorne but his connection to the village is that he was the brother of Mr JT Alsop of the Scaddaws, Hartshorne.:
Private Samuel Alsop, 13th Company Machine Gun Corps.
Killed in Action 13th September 1916, Commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.
Hello Everyone, you may have noticed some changes to the website, this has been due to changing the website host and also the layout. The new hosting plan now works better for how I use the website and for what I want to do with it going forward.
I’ve also been busy recently with tracking down some more of the Men named on the village war memorial, this will probably require a couple of separate posts, such as those in the Ypres area and those in the Arras and Amiens area.
Also there will be an update on the next stage of progress on the 1890 Saddle.
There are also a number of events that I’ll be attending this year, the first of these will be at the RE Museum in early April, this will be used as practice as we have been invited back to the “We Have WaysFest 5” which is in July.
So there is a lot planned, and also there will be continued adjustments on the website, please feel free to give some feed back on the layout and style of the pages and post. That way I can look at adjusting where I can.
Right then, time to finish my brew and get on with mucking out the nags.
I’ve always been interested in the Campaigns in the Middle East, probably due to films such as “Gallipoli” and “The Light Horsemen”. When I started to really dig into the RE Mounted History an area that does offer a lot of information is the Campaigns in Palestine and Mesopotamia. While I am about to finish an post on the engineer work put in place for the attack at Beersheba on the 31 Oct 1917 as part of the 3rd Battle of Gaza, I have been distracted by current Middle East events in the Gaza area.
The thing that has created the distraction is the media cries that water has been cut to Gaza and that the locals don’t have access to water.
I’m not going into the politics or side taking, those are discussions that can take place else where away from this history blog. I want to consider the facts that the British and Imperial Forces fought the Ottomans over this very ground in 1917 over three battles. In this theatre, water is a key requirement because without it you cannot fight, particularly in the period of the Great War. There are three key users of water in this type of warfare:
Men
Horses, Mules, Camels and Donkeys.
Train Engines.
The Ottomans held the wells at Gaza and also the significant wells at Beersheba off to the east (the end of the Ottoman Defensive Line). What existed south of this point were considered as minor wells and were used by the Bedouin Arabs that lived and migrated in the area.
To meet the water requirements for the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) there would be a need to supply water either from existing supply and sources back in Egypt or to create/ exploit water sources locally.
The Royal Engineers could meet the requirements of both options.
A pipeline was created to push water forward across the Sinai, following a coastal route, from the Nile and would be added to as the EEF advanced. Also all of the EEF Sapper units would have water development and water supply as one of their key roles in the campaign.
The Egyptian pipeline under construction with RE Works supervision and Egyptan Labour Corps personnel
By January 1917 the British and Imperial Forces of the EEF had crossed the Sinai and were established at El Arish and were raiding Rafah (9 Jan 1917) to the north. At El Arish the pipeline from the Nile had arrived and was providing 230,000 gallons of pumped water per day.
By March 1917 the EEF had pushed forward to south of the town of Gaza. As they moved forward the sappers worked to repair and develop sources of water at a local level.
On the 12th March 410 and 412 Field Companies RE moved to Rafah and developed the water supply in the local area, good quality water was found in the Sand Dunes near the sea and many tube wells were sunk and all provided good yields. 412 Fd Coy RE and support from the Egyptian Labour Corps troops errected 100,000 gallon water storage in this area.
North of Rafah at Khan Yunis, 437 Fd Coy RE repaired the the well and the pumping plant to bring it back on line.
By 21 March, in the Khan Yunis area 439 Fd Coy ARE had sank wells to provide a yield of 100,000 gallons per day.
Further deep wells were developed at Khan Yunis between the town and the coast to provide 130,000 gallons per day.
Norton Well Driving apparatus could be used to drive both shallow and deep wells – ground conditions dependant
Initial well set up, probably a shallow well, due to the lift and force pump being used
The EEF had created their front line north of the town of Deir El Balah. In this area the RE units had created several shallow wells which were giving very good yields. It was also found that the area of Wadi Ghazzee which ran from the coast, just north of Deir El Balah, and headed East/South East into the Desert offered good potential and as such would allow the EEF to widen it’s front against the Ottomans and not to be constrained to the narrow coastal strip.
When exploring the Wadi Ghazzee area it was found that there was large supplies of water, this was particularly the case towards Shellal, which had natural springs.
A large part of the water used for the 1st and 2nd battles of Gaza (March and April 1917) were provided from these sources and also from the pumped pipeline from El Arish. It should also be noted that even once wells were developed work did not stop on them, improvement works were constantly happening and it was noted that the deep well at Khan Yunis had been improved to produce 168,000 gallons per day by the 27th March 1917 (the second day of the 1st battle of Gaza).
Working hand in hand with the water supply was the pushing forward of the rail network, which had been pushed forward to Deir El Balah. this allowed troops, stores and supplies to be moved forward, part of this was water supplies from the end point of the Nile Water Pipe at El Arish. Water storage was created at the rail head to store this train shipped water. The wells in the Deir El Balah area were connected to pumping system at the rail head and this allowed for water to be pumped to a water storage area near Khan Umm Jerra in Wadi Ghazzee. This storage area provided 90,000 gallons of stored water and water points for 300 Camels and 300 horses at a time, this was all in a location that could not be observed by the Ottomans.
Typical style of construction of Reservoirs, these are in Wadi Ghuzzi – IWM Q81517
After the close of the 1st battle of Gaza, (26&27 March 17), 410th and 413th Fd Coy REs move into Wadi Ghazzee and sink 21 wells in the gravel areas, while the majority are shallow wells some go as deep as 60 feet, these wells end up providing 40,000 gallons per day. These field Companies are then joined by the Sappers from 54th Infantry Division who create more wells in the Wadi Ghazzee and also clean and repair old water cisterns, these additions provide 70,000 gallons daily
The 2nd Battle of Gaza occurs on the 17-19 April and while it is more successful than the first battle it does not dislodge the Ottomans from Gaza so work must continue to support the troops holding the area in preparation for the future actions.
In May 1917 the deep wells at Khan Yunis were upgraded with pumping plants, this allowed production to increase, for one of the deep wells on its own the production increased to 80,000 gallons per day. On the 11 May the 220th Army Troops RE started work on a 250,000 gallon Water Reservoir in the Khan Yunis area.
Gwynnes’ Portable Pumping Set – Capacity 6000 gallons per hour
Aster- Gwynnes’ Pump set mounted on wheels
By the end of May work continued to create new wells in the Wadi Ghazzee area, these added a further 120,000 gallons and had pipes laid to forward water dumps, complete with concrete water tanks and sunshades.
By this point in time the pipeline from Egypt had reached it’s final limit and was a 150 miles long and maintained a pumped pressure at all of it’s delivery points.
The gravel wells in Wadi Ghazzee were continuing to produce plenty of water but the quality was classed as Brackish but was still classed as potable (drinkable) water. The springs at Shellal had been enhanced and were providing 250,000 gallons per day, while the springs at El Qamle and Bir Esani continued to provide good yeilds (100,000 gallons per day at least per day)
On the front line sector of El Mendur (from the coast and directly across the front of Gaza town) it was found that the local wells were sufficient to supply the troops on the front, and as such the localised pipeline from Deir El Balah and the Wadi Ghazzee reservoirs.
It was recognised that there would be further actions to take Gaza and as such the Corps developed extra wells in the dunes areas at the mouth of the Wadi Ghazzee (at the coast, west of Deir El Balah), these wells would yield brackish but drinkable water of sufficient quantity to supply 2 infantry divisions as emergency supply if required.
By June 1917 220th Army Troops RE took over the Khan Yunis water area to free up RE Field Companies for front line/ forward area works. This was as part of the preparation work for what would be expected as the 3rd battle of Gaza. During June and July the water sources between Deir El Balah and Shellal were fully developed and provided with mechanical pumping plants.
Mechanical engines would often be used to power the larger pump sets at the larger yielding wells.
In September 1917, the Sheikh Abbas Sector (the eastern sector in front of Gaza Town and joined the El Mendur Sector) now had deep wells yeilding 123,000 gallons per day, with having this source close to the front means that there is now reduced requirement to move water forward from Deir El Balah and Wadi Ghazzee. At the same time 410th Fd Coy RE was installing mechanical pumps on the smaller wells in this sector.
A lightweight mechanical pump found to be ideal for the smaller and shallow wells – Rotorplunge Pump and Lister Petrol Engine.
The last major piece of water works in this area was the installation of a pumping plant at the deep well at the mouth of Wadi En Nukhabir (located 2 miles South West of Deir El Balah), this work was carried out by 496th Field Coy RE.
By the start of September the plan for the 3rd Battle of Gaza was being developed and the plan is to attack the far Eastern end of the Gaza defensive line at the town of Beersheeba, and as such the focus for forward areas water development and supply was to push away from the coastal area and start to develop further east into the Wadis and desert areas. This work along with the railway expansion will be covered in it’s own blog post hopefully before Christmas.
One of the developed well sites believed to be at El Baqqar out in the desert on the route to Beersheba as preperation for the 3rd battle of Gaza.
So from all of the information above it is possible to see how the British and Imperial forces were able to cross the Sinai desert and take the battle to the Ottomans. Also while the pipe line from Egypt helps to sustain the force and allows it to push forward, it is key that sappers push ahead and develop the existing sources and develop significant new water sources. Once more equipment and time permitted then the new wells are improved and fitted with pumps and reservoirs.
The questions that I currently have going around in my mind in relation to the current conflict are:
Are any of the deep and shallow wells from 100 years ago still in use? If they are what type of yields are they producing?
Considering that the Corps was developing water extraction both in terms of shallow (30 feet) and Deep (100 feet) depth and from a variety of locations and sources, have the Palestinians developed their own set of wells and extraction points?
There has been plenty of discussion about the use of desalination plants, but accepting that these can be expensive, but has there been any work by any of the aid agencies to look at creating more localised water extraction?
The Great War locations of Front Line, Deir El Balah, Khan Yunis and Rafah shown on a modern map og the Gaza Strip.
I don’t know the answers to the above questions but it does strike me that modern conflicts forget to look back at solutions that may actually be more viable but have been forgotten due to the advance of technology. It is clear that there was good viable sources of potable water right across the area of Gaza and Sapper field units were able to exploit them quickly and once established they could be improved in infrastructure terms and this would in turn improve the yield.
I wonder what could be done by 8 people with some modern equipment, a modern version of the Norton Tube Well driving apparatus, a robust submersible pump and some modern flexible/ collapsible storage tanks. Its just a thought?
Notes and references:
1. The History of the Corps of Royal Engineers, Volume 6. (1952) Institution of Royal Engineers.
2. Lt Col EWC Sandes DSO MC RE (1937), The Royal Engineers in Egypt and the Sudan 1800-1936, The Naval & Military Press.
4. Lt DC Howell-Price (1914), The Light Horse Pocket Book, Originally published by Angus & Robertson Ltd, Reprinted in 2020 by The Kangeroo Feather Publishing Company.
5. Instruction in Military Engineering (Part 5)- Miscellaneous (1898) School of Military Engineering, Fifth Edition, War Office.
6. Military Engineering Volume 6 Water Supply (1922), His Majesty’s Stationery Office.
7. David Murphy (2008), The Arab Revolt 1916-18, Osprey Publishing
8. Mike Chappell (2005), The British Army in World War 1 (3) – The Eastern Fronts, Osprey Publishing
In the Great War the biggest challenge facing operations in the Palestine Theatre of operations was to try and to provide water to the troops and 1916 saw the troops of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force push out into the Sinai Desert with the aim of taking the fight to the Ottomans. However to fight in the desert, one of the essential logistic items is that of water. Without sufficient water the range of operations would always be severely limited.
Therefore there was a need to develop existing wells to increase production and also to create new wells. The Royal Engineers had equipment to create wells but the difficulty was to develop equipment that could be more portable to allow the provision of water as the troops advanced, as well as having the ability to produce water in an appropriate quantity.
What appears to be a shallow well with a lift and force pump
A Royal Engineer attached to the ANZAC Mounted Division, in 1916 developed a more portable system of equipment that could be carried by horses and deployed quickly by a Royal Engineer Mounted Troop. The officer was Major Alexander RE.
Maj Alexander RE in 1918 examining a Turkish “Air torpedo”
Major Alexander looked at the existing deployable equipment and realised that a large amount of it was transported by Camel, while this allowed it to get out to the remote areas that it was required in, it was too slow and certainly could not keep up with the Mounted Divisions during operations, as such the camel mounted system was better suited for follow on operations. What was needed was a lighter system.
It became clear to Major Alexander that the whole system had to be modified to be fitted on pack horses, this would allow the equipment to be utilised by the RE Field Troops attached to the Mounted Brigades and still keep up with them as they moved.
His system developed what was known as a Spear tip for the driving head of the pipe that would be sunk into the ground – this appears to be very similar to what the Sappers of my era would recognise as the driving head for a Camoflet – the Spear Tip method was already used in rural Australia but by looking at the whole water supply requirement he brought together a full system that would be portable by pack horse/ mule.
The well pipe would be driven in using a drop weight system or if necessary it could be hammered in by Sappers themselves using sledge hammers.
While the lift and force pump was the main pump set used by the Royal Engineer Field Troop and Squadrons they would not be sufficient to raise the quantity of water needed to sustain units in the desert, so he looked at existing pump sets. He found that the Lister and Worthington Pumps were light enough to be carried on pack saddles but also powerful enough to pump water from both the shallow and deep wells. The Royal Engineers defined wells into 2 categories – shallow (40 feet deep) and Deep (100 feet deep).
Image shows the drop hammer and also driving heads.
Authors Note -While this may be a light weight construction, I would suggest that this is pushing it a bit as a load for the horse! I think it would have been better for the pack horses to have these collapsed into more manageable loads!
The key is to get the load balanced.
Having looked at all of these photos it does appear that all of the loads are fitted to the standard General Service Pack Saddle with only slight additional modifications such as additional straps and extra surcingles. Also the loads – with the exception of the Well Set load – all look very manageable and balanced.
While his developments and creation were put in place for the Sinai campaigns in 1916, they would proved invaluable for the campaigns at Gaza and Beersheba in 1917 and would become essential equipment of the Royal Engineer Field Troops attached to all of the Mounted units of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force.
Authors Note – I first came across Major Alexander RE and his work in 2016 when researching the work of the RE mounted Troops in the wider Middle East. I came across a New Zealand Website which gave the details of Maj Alexander’s background being of Irish and New Zealand extraction. The majority of the images of the pack horse loads are from that website, unfortunately the website no longer seems to be available as I would like to give credit to that site as it provided a big chunk of the information that I used in my original facebook post on this topic and provided the basis for this blog post.
If anyone knows if the New Zealand website has moved to a new address then please let me know as I would like to provide a link to it and to give it the credit for setting me off in the right direction with this research. Regards Will Mac
This morning I represented the British Forces at the Church at Maisieres at Mons. This is the local church to where I live out here in Belgium and I volunteer to lay the wreaths here due to the Royal Engineers connection of the village and the church.
At the Church there is a memorial plaque that commemorates the British units that defended the section of the Nimy Canal on 23 August 1914.
56 Field Company Royal Engineers are named on the Plaque and as such I feel it is my responsibility to attend this location on behalf of SHAPE and the Corps.
Why? well 56 Field Company RE were tasked with the demolition of the 4 bridges in this area and were the first RE unit to be engaged by the Germans, they also sustained the first Royal Engineer Casualty from enemy action of the Great War – 2Lt HW Holt RE.
Holt and the other dead from the Engineers, Royal Fusiliers, Royal Irish and the Middlesex Regiment were originally buried in Maisieres before being moved to the combined British and German cemetery at St Symphorien on the eastern side of Mons.
The thing that struck me was the passion that the locals have to remember those that fought in 1914-18.
With a wreath laid at the Church memorial we all moved up to the village war memorial for a small ceremony where the names on the memorial are read out and Wreaths are laid. The move up to and back from the village war memorial had us escorted by 2 Horses and riders. From all accounts this is a local tradition and possibly dates back to just after the Great War when there was a Belgian Cavalry unit based at the Barracks that now form part of SHAPE.
Only apt that the Horseback Sapper grabs a photo with our escorts from this morning’s wreath laying.
So with wreaths laid it was Duty done and respects paid, it was a honour to do this morning.
Having been told to take things at a slightly steadier pace, I decided to do some more research for a few more of the men that are named on the Hartshorne War Memorial.
While I accept I’m not born in the village it has been my home for the last 23 years and that of my better half since the late 70’s, and I have firm sense of belonging to the place. So each remembrance Sunday when back in the UK I have taken great pride in representing the Royal British Legion in the village and laid a wreath at the village war memorial.
One of the interesting things is that a villager produced a document called “In memory of the Men of Hartshorne who fell in the Great War”.
I’ve been using this document to search for where each of the men are either buried or where they are commemorated. During my posting to Mons, I’m aiming to try and visit as many as I can of those that are in Belgium and in France.
This weekend has seen me look to locate those that are in the Somme area. This covers 4 of the men listed on the village war memorial, these are:
Private James Blood, 10th Battalion Notts and Derby Regiment.
Lance Sergeant Thomas King, 4th Battalion Grenadier Guards.
Lance Corporal Sidney Walker, 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Regiment.
Lance Corporal John Walton, 1st Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment.
Of these 4 men, 3 have no known grave and are commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.
The first is James Blood.
He is located on Pier 10 of the memorial and face “C” of the pier. Each pier and face of the memorial is coded to help locate the names, the numbers are at the base of the pier. As shown below:
The memorial has the names of all of the fallen with no known grave listed by Regiments, so by looking for the Unit it is then a case of looking for the rank and then the names are listed alphabetically.
For those visitors who are not of a military background the Regiments appear across the memorial by Regimental precedence, not in alphabetical order.
The next one that I’ll deal with is LCpl John Walton of the 1st Bn North Staffordshire Regiment. His name is located on the 14th Pier/ Piller and on Face B. His name appear just above the pier marker.
L/Sgt Thomas King of the 4th Bn Grenadier Guards is slightly different from the other 2 soldiers, in the fact that his name is not listed with in the Grenadier Guards roll, he is located separately as an addendum, which indicates that he was added to the list of the missing after the main list had been completed and carved. His name is located on the outside of the memorial on Pier 4 face C.
The last Man of Hartshorne, LCpl Sidney Walker of 2nd Bn Royal Irish Regiment, that I visited today does have a grave and he is located at the Caterpiller Valley Cemetery, which is just outside the village of Longueval. He is located in section 11 of the Cemetery, row E and grave 21.
Its been an interesting day tracking down these 4 names and their memorials.
The aim is to get photos or visit as many of these villagers graves or memorials as I can during my time in Belgium. I’ve already done a visit to Ypres and got a few and also a visit to Arras recently picked up a few more. I plan to create a blog post for each group that I track down.
Over the last couple of months there has been a bit of work done on the refurbishment of the 1890 Universal Pattern Saddle.
The 1890 UP when I originally picked it up.
Now I have to admit the main reason for the increase in activity has been two fold. The first was having been contacted by Gerard Hogan, a Military Saddler from Australia who had spotted a few “quirks” with my saddle that he was interested in getting some more details on. The other fact was that I needed something to be a focus away from the day job.
The result was that I did some work with Gerard to supply him details, photos and in some cases traces/ templates of some of the particular parts of the saddle to help with his research of the 1890 UP. That has really increased my knowledge about the saddle and how rare it is.
With its rareity in mind I’m aiming to refurbish it but with keeping as much of the original parts as I can.
So where are we at the moment?
The Saddle Tree (Arches and Timber boards/ fans) have been cleaned up and the arches have been repainted with metal paint and the boards have been cleaned, lightly sanded and given a couple of coats of varish.
All the leather work has been cleaned and scrubbed. With the advice of Gerard I used sunlight soap to help lift the 120 years (ish) worth of crud off the leather work, that did a cracking job of cleaning the leather but it took a blood age to clean the sink afterwards – Just as well that I did it out here in Mons, rather than at home where the GOC UKLF (AKA the Long Haired General) would have killed me!
One of the finds from the scrubbing clean was that there was a makers stamp in the middle of the Seat Leather. Showing D Mason & Son Ltd, Birmingham, 1902. With finding this set of markings the saddle now has 3 sets of period marks – 1901 for the Arches, 1902 for the Seat and 1903 for the wooden boards.
All of the leather was allowed to dry and then has a good coating of Leather balsam to get some life back into it. with that done all of the smooth leather was given several coats of Dark Tan boot polish and the rough sides given a good covering of brown boot dubbin.
With some of the life now back in the leather it was time to start doing a few of the smaller repairs, such as replacing some of the damaged/ failed stitching. this was mainly on the front flaps of the seat. One of which had to be completely removed and restitched back on.
There are still parts of the saddle leather work that needs repair, in particular is the Y Girth straps. As part of the chat with Gerard it appears that the shape of the leather panel indicates that these are a second edition version and quite rare, so the plan is to replace the damange leather strap only and to keep the rest as original as possible, so brass rivets have been ordered and a local leather worker is making me a new replacement strap. (I suspect that they have all been replaced at some point in the past already by the look of them – which is not unreasonable as the UP Saddles are designed to be fixed in this way ).
The next phase of the refurbishment is to put new webbing straps onto the tree to support the seat. I’m in the process of ordering new screws for the refitting of the Y straps and the Sweat flaps and I need to get replacement short straps to replace the broken ones on both of the felts and also on the felt numnah.
damaged leatherwork on the saddle felts
So I’ve made a start on the refurbishment and there is strill a good bit to go at the moment but it is something that I don’t want to rush too much as I want to get the saddle back to a condition that I can use it for riding and not just as a show peice.
The other item that has now been added for the saddle is that Gerard made a set of period appropriate Saddle Wallets and straps to go with the 1890 UP when it is complete.
Gerard also added some Derbyshire Imperial Yeomanry markings on the wallets and straps as he knew that I intended to set the saddle up as a Yeomanry Saddle and the Derbyshire Yeomanry was my local mounted unit, a really nice touch and very appreciated.
I wanted the wallets to be darker in colour to match the saddle so a dark brown/ havanna brown leather dye was applied. and once dry the inside of the wallets was given a bit of nourishment with dubbin and the exterior was given several coats of dark tan boot polish and good going over with the boot brushes to buff them up.
Half way through the dyeing process, dye applied by paint brush.Wallets polished and buffed.
I really must thank Gerard Hogan for his excellent work on the wallets and also his help and advice with the refurbishment of the saddle. I still have a quite a bit to do but things are moving now and I can see it starting to come together.
The next phase of work will be over the autumn period and hopefully I’ll have a completed project by Christmas. If you have any comments or thoughts on the work so far then please let me know via comments or via the contact page.
I follow quite a few historians, Battlefield Guides and Reenactors on Twitter, Youtube and a few other platforms. Why? well I like history, I like researching battles and then walking (and Riding) the ground, often giving a talk on the battle to those that I’m with, and I also do Living History/ Reenacting. So whats the issue?
Well…….
There are times when everyone hates each other or condemns each other but particularly at this time of year, the events season, I see quite a lot of focus on the the dislike and condemnation of the Reenactors and Living Historians.
“Its that time of year when fat old blokes appear dressed up as aged paras….“
“there is nothing I hate more that seeing fat middle aged men pretending to be Richard Sharpe….“
and so on and so on.
As a living Historian I’ve been on the end of this flak and I’ve also been part of the reason for the flak. But I’ve also seen the hypocrisy and double standards of the Historians and battlefield guides. So this is going to be a tale of how we all have a problem, how we can look to prevent the problem and how we all fit together and can work together.
Before I go any further – There are people out there that that already do this and are bloody good at it and it makes for really good events, talks and lectures. We just need to be:
Honest with ourselves.
Open minded to learning
Open minded to learning from others from the other groupings.
Prepared to work together
Understanding that just because you are in one of the groupings (Historian, Battlefield Guide or Reenactor), don’t think that there aren’t people from your grouping in some of the other Groups.
So what do I mean by some of these observations? Well lets have a chat.
I got into the Living History by accident but once in I really enjoyed it and for me the ability to learn history, demonstrate it and then engage with the public is the bit that pushed/ pulled me further into it.
So lets get things straight to start with I am the middle aged chubby bloke that likes to dress up (Steady now…….!) in historical uniforms. I’m 52 and stocky in build, I am not going to cut the mustard as a 1918 Royal Engineer Sapper aged about 21. However I have worked out that I can pass as a Warrant Officer or as a Major, and that works for portraying Sappers and Infantry. I have also kitted myself out as a Sergeant of the 5th Seaforths but not of an Infantry Company but of the Transport Section – why? because from images of the time there is a good spread of older blokes in that type of unit.
Its an early lesson that I learned from some reenacting groups – Do you look like you belong dressed the way you are? The other bit of my rationale is that I have been a Warrant Officer and an Officer, now I agree that doesn’t mean that I can carry it off as a period Officer or Warrant Officer/ SNCO but it gives me a basis for the role but I’ve had to dig in and learn the specifics of the role in the period portrayed.
Mistakes that I have made as a Living Historian that could be or are spotted a mile away by others in the Reenacting world:
wearing modern glasses. I’m a speccie git and I need my specticals all of the time (I’m not blind….) but for some of my early events I just wore my modern glasses, while they were plain metal frames I was very aware that they were not period appropriate. I now have period appropriate glasses for the Victorian & Great War period and also for the 1940s period. You get them from companies such as Dead Man’s Spex (https://www.deadmensspex.com/)- A very good company and great to deal with!
Using Modern Drill – this is a common issue with British Soldiers that start doing reenacting. The lifting your knee to parallel to the ground and stamping your feet is a post ww2 thing. And I’ve been caught out by it – yes the non-drillie sapper was caught out doing modern drill. WW1 drill is more akin to Royal Navy drill – sliding the foot in, less formality to it. The good reenacting groups do a lot of training to get their group and individuals to look the part and to break the habit for the serving soldiers in their ranks so that the foot drill is appropriate of the period.
Missing the small details – I have an officers SD Cap that dates from the 1940/ early 50s. Fairly well battered and was a good starter cap to use with WW1, when I picked it up it had modern stay bright ER2 side buttons on it. It was only after a couple of events that I clocked it and changed them for brass period buttons (I’ve also replaced it now with 2 period specific caps). Which was lucky as at the next event that I attended I was checked over and the individual was looking particularly for this type of thing.
Riding Boots – Riding boots are not cheap and most people have black riding boots. Luckily when I decided to invest in a set of long riding boots I went for brown ones which was not a bad idea for when I was doing competitive riding but for reenacting they just weren’t right. It wasn’t until I did the Warhorse 14 Event where we were asked to bring our own long riding boots that I realised how much they they were not appropriate. The style and cut of them was just not right. so over time I have managed to invest in a couple of pairs of boots. These haven’t been cheap, but they are really good to ride in and between them I can cover all of the Great war period.
There are other faux pas but as I’ve realised them or they have been pointed out they have been corrected or removed.
The so-what of this is that my journey to become better and more accurate has taken time, effort, research and some bits of embarrassment and some wrong turns, added to which it also costs. Next to no one can afford to come into this hobby and buy a full set of kit in one hit that is perfect. You tend to start with the basics and build from there or get loaned some kit to get you through your first season of events. Once you know that you enjoy it then you should start the real investment of time, effort, research and money.
So this is why you tend to have the middle aged individual with a bit more cash dominating the field.
A lot of people from the historian side of things are keen to point out the Fat SS bloke or a group of “Living History” bods at an event that just look shite while wearing all sorts of uniform, kit and equipment. Here is my take on things –
The WW2 German and SS reenactors get a shit load of flak from the historian community and others, they are an easy target to critise and often used as a focal point to have a go at the wider reenacting community. They are seen as right wing sympathisers, or Nazis in plan sight etc. Well while a very small number may be, the vast majority are not. Theres a whole wider discussion to be had rather than roll out a blanket – THEY SHOULD BE BANNED! – I don’t agree with that. There are some very good living history groups that do WW2 German Forces, they do it in an educational way and they do excellent displays. if you ban them then you lose an important part of history, you only see one side of the story and that means that parts of the story go missing or are glossed over or simply disappear. My view is that incomplete or unbalanced history is not good history and wrong lessons can be taken from that – this is a far bigger discussion for a later blog post perhaps.
I’ve seen arguments where these uniforms should only been seen in Museums. Well guess what?Museums occasionally get their uniform and equipment displays wrong and they often don’t like being corrected by the reenacting community! (I’m aware of 2 museums at least that have incorrect 1902 UP saddle and Tack set ups on display which are wrong and the equipment they display is not period appropriate for the display! In both cases the displays were done by the museum staff and historians).
As with all living history events and groups, if you get the right people, with the right reputation for doing the displays and talks right, and you will have the ability to understand the soldier’s perspective, from both sides of the conflict.
Another important thing where reenactors get criticised is where they just look like a bag of shite and don’t look appropriate. Reenacting groups will often look for funding or costs to attend an event, and often that really expensive event that you paid a fortune to attend will look to cut costs and in doing so they will book groups that are cheaper or to cut the costs further by using in-house volunteers.
Now some groups are are cheap because they are starting out and need the money to cover travel costs or to fund then next part of their development. Established groups need to cover their travel costs, public liabilities insurances, repair and maintenance of their equipment etc, that means they are not cheap but you do get a very good display and experience, these are groups such as The Warwicks 1914-1918 Group or the 16th Lancers Group.
Some events decide that they just don’t want to pay out for these groups so they either get some of their volunteers to dress up in uniforms or in a couple of cases they have hire some actors and provided some kit for them to wear. From a Reenactor point of view this is the worst of the all possible worlds, as people will look at these individuals and think “feck me they look fecking rubbish!” and they are right but trying to make people realise they are not reenactors is bloody impossible, They have been trotted out by an event that is too cheapskate to allocate some funds to get a half decent group booked, and regularly we see photos from these type of events being trotted out by Historians and Battlefield guides as the evidence of why reenactors are shite!
To the event organisers, do yourself a favour, if you can’t afford or won’t pay for a decent Living History or Reenacting Group then either don’t add a dressed up element or speak to a Reenacting group and ask if they can provide a small contingent to do a talk or smaller display. All that happens is the reenactors get a bad reputation and the event gets black listed by reenacting groups for the future.
To the Historians out there I have listened to a number of you publicly complain that you are invited to speak at events with an expectation is that you will not be paid – well it is the same thing for the Reenactors.
I’ve worked with historians and on Battlefield Studies/ Staff Rides. Some of these have been really good and some have been shockingly bad. Here is my take on things (this is my opinion and my experience. so you can take it or leave it).
On an Army Staff ride event in France and we are stood on a battlefield. The Historian steps up and gave a really good brief on the Context to the battle, the formations involved and the Generals and the factors that affect the battle to this point. At this point he handed over to the Battlefield Guide who then talks everyone through the battlefield that we were stood on and pointed out all of the relevant features of the battlefield that could be seen and what happened as the battle proceed. At this point he handed over to us the Living History team for us to talk though the kit and equipment that the British, French and German infantrymen would have worn and carried for this particular battle, we then handed back to the historian who then talked through the results and consequences of this particular battle! Job done, good partnership!
On the same staff ride I then had the problem of a different Historian talking through a Battle, in really Big Hand terms and skimming over the particular details of the actual events and location that we are stood on. And then used me as the equivalent of a tailors dummy to talk about my kit and equipment which he proceeded to get completely wrong. Which is really bloody annoying! This well respected individual and published author, while comfortable with the Strategic and operational aspects of the events, was bloody clueless on the tactics and fighting on the site and the particular loads carried by a British Infantryman on the day!
I also attended Battlefield study provided by a commercial company, 5 days around the Ypres battlefields with a focus on 3rd Ypres. By Day 3 it was clear that our guide was really good at the tactical battles of each of the sites we visited, he could walk us through each site and give us great detail about the events, the bravery of the soldiers and wins and losses at each point of the battle. What was lacking was the piece that linked each of these battles together what made these battles part of the Third Ypres Offensive? The operational and strategic aspects were lost or missing, why is that important? Well the audience was Warrant Officers, Majors and a couple of Lt Colonels, and getting to know the bigger picture was probably a bit more important. The follow up letter to the Company Head office expressed the disappointment of missing the key component of what had been asked for when the battlefield study was booked! To resolve this we ended up asking for a War Studies academic from Sandhurst to come and spend a day with us, who quite successfully managed to stitch everything together for us.
Another observation that I have is the hypocrisy of some historians. The number of times that I have seen some historians criticise reenactors and living historians and later appear either in badly fitted and incorrectly worn kit themselves as part of a talk that they are giving or where they give a lecture or presentation and use reenactors as part of that event.
Guys, if you don’t like us then stay the hell away from us and don’t try and jazz up your presentation by slinging some kit on. If you are going to wear kit and equipment then get a hair cut, make sure you are wearing the right kit for the period you are presenting on and make sure you know your stuff about what you have on. If you want to do this then come and talk to us, embrace it and make the effort. The reenacting community wants to help and wants to engage, thats what we do this dressing up milarky for. A really good example of this was on the Ride to High Wood in 2016 we were joined by a professional artist who had been commissioned to produce a piece of art of the battle. He could ride and as such was kitted out as a 7th Dragoon and had spent time prior to the event learning to ride in a WW1 Saddle and equipment and then joined us for the 2 days to ride the ground of the 14th July 1916. He wanted to get an understanding of how the uniform, equipment and saddlery was worn and used prior to starting his artwork.
I’ll leave you with a last anecdote. I was part of a group of living history members doing a set of static WW1 displays at Sandhurst showing the support and logistics involved in the later parts of the Great War. These displays were part of the pre-deployment presentations for the Army Staff Ride in 1918. Those attending the staff ride were broken down into smaller groups and moved around each of the stand and got briefs and the chance to ask questions and handle the kit and equipment. Each of the groups had a mix of nationalities and also civilians Historians and Academics. with one of the groups I noticed most of the academics were not particularly engaged with the displays but with one group one of the academics was really interested, lots of questions, keen to get his hands on the kit and really engaged with what we had on display.
This acedemic later came back to have a chat with my mate and myself. He was really fascinated by the differences in our uniform but by the fact that we were both Royal Engineers. We explained that I was kitted out for a soldier with the Field Squadrons and my younger counterpart was kitted out for a Field Company Sapper and we ran through the differences and similarities for him. He explained that as a Historian he knew about the activities of the Royal Engineers and the wide functions of the different units but to actually see and understand the difference in kit and equipment was something that just wasn’t part of what he dealt with. We had a good discussion and by then end of it had agreed that to get the full picture there is a need and a place to have historians, Battlefield guides and Reenactors working together. I regularly see this Historian on TV and I’m always impressed by him, the fact that he was open to ask questions and engage has probably helped in my opinion of him.
In summary – there are good, bad and middling Reenactors, Battlefield Guides and Historians. The vast majority of reenactors and Living History people are passionate about their area of history and strive to get things right or as near as damn it. Quite a few of the living history and reenacting community are also Battlefield Guides and or Historians so give them credit.
Yes we are a older bunch but we do aim to get younger people engaged and to support them into the community and into groups.
Not everyone that you see in photos are reenactors or living historians, some events are just too tight to pay or invite good quality groups to their events. So sometimes we are tarred with the “Bad” brush due to the poor efforts of event volunteers and actors.
It can be hard to build a reputation as a reenacting group and often that takes attending smaller events and just not quite getting it right to allow them to refine, adjust and correct things, but don’t be too critical because some of these groups have to go through the pain of “not being 100% right” so that they can correct themselves.
And to the Historians who like having a go at criticising some of the reenacting groups, be prepared to eat a bit of humble pie if you suddenly find yourself needing some reenactors for your next book launch or your next history talk, and especially if you find yourself looking like a bag of shite tied in the middle with a 37 pattern web belt!
Lets all play nice and work hard together to give the public and audiences some good quality history events. And most of all lets learn from each other!
