Untold lives blog

On the eve of the Centenary of the Battle of the Somme, Laura Walker, our Lead Curator of Manuscripts 1851-1950, looks at diary accounts of the Battle. Tomorrow, on the day itself, Michael Day, our Digitisation Preservation Manager, considers the death of a British Museum clerk and soldier at the Somme.

The Somme is one of the most well-known battles of the First World War fought on the Western Front. It is chiefly remembered due to the scale of the casualties with over one million dead, wounded or missing by the end of the offensive. The British Library holds eye witness accounts of the fighting at the Somme from Major General Hunter Weston and Captain Roland Gerard Garvin.

Private War Diary of Major General Hunter Weston, Add MS 48365 f.53v

Major General Hunter Weston was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1884 and saw active service on the North West Frontier, present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, in Egypt and in the Boer War before he was given a command on the Western Front in 1914. Hunter Weston kept two diaries of his experiences of the First World War one official and one private. These diaries provide us with a fascinating insight into the fighting in 1914 on the Western Front, in Gallipoli in 1915 and at the battle of the Somme in 1916.

 Private War Diary of Major General Hunter Weston, Add MS 48365 f.54

In his private diary for 1916 Hunter Weston has included photographs showing the advance of the troops under his command, the 8th Corps to their assault on the fortified hamlets of Beaumont-Hamel, Beaumont-sur-Ancre, and Serre on the first day of the battle on 1st July 1916. Despite their efforts the 8th Corp’s objective was not achieved and they suffered 14,581 casualties on that day alone.

 Private War Diary of Major General Hunter Weston, Add MS 48365 f.55v

Captain Roland Gerard Garvin was the son of journalist and newspaper editor James Luis Garvin. The First World War broke out the week after his last day at Westminster School. Despite winning a history scholarship for Christ Church, Oxford, Garvin enlisted in the 7th Battalion South Lancashire Regiment.

Photograph of Captain Roland Gerard Garvin, Add MS 88882/10/2

Garvin attended a staff training course in Chelsea in December 1914 and this continued in Camberley in April 1915 before he was sent over to France on 17th July 1915. The Library holds his notes from both of these courses and diary extracts from when he was serving on the Western Front. The diary extracts below record his account of the first day of the Somme.

Field Message Book of Captain Roland Gerard Garvin, Add MS 88882/9/31

Field Message Book of Captain Roland Gerard Garvin, Add MS 88882/9/31

On 20th July Garvin wrote a letter to his family saying good bye as he knew he was going into action in a day or two. Three days later between 12pm and 1pm Garvin was killed by machine gun fire. His body was never found.

Letter from Captain Roland Gerard Garvin to his family, July 20th 1916, Add MS 88882/3/9

Letter from Captain Roland Gerard Garvin to his family, July 20th 1916, Add MS 88882/3/9

The complete diaries of Hunter Weston and the papers of Garvin can be found online at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/.

Laura Walker, Lead Curator, Manuscripts and Archives 1851-1950.

On 18 October 1914 a British officer named Lieutenant Fitzpatrick arrived at Bahrain bearing a letter marked ‘very secret’  for the Bahrain Political Agent, Captain Terence Keyes. The letter was from Keyes’ superior, Political Resident Lieutenant-Colonel Knox, and informed him that 5,000 Indian troops would be arriving in Bahrain in less than a week's time.

   

Sketch of camp, 1 mile south of Manama (Bahrain Island), IOR/R/15/2/1820, f 3. The key lists divisions that were part of Indian Expeditionary Force ‘D’. 

Keyes and Fitzpatrick had just five days to select a site on Bahrain’s main island, capable of supporting a camp for 5,000 men. The two men quickly set about identifying disembarkation points in the town for the troops and livestock, routes through the town’s narrow streets to possible camping grounds, water supplies and sanitation.

On the morning of 22 October, the Ruler of Bahrain, Shaikh Isa bin Ali Al Khalifah was informed of the plans. The Shaikh’s response, Keyes later wrote to the Resident, was ‘extremely satisfactory’. Shaikh Isa did, however, raise one point: the camp site selected, close to his own fort, would prove awkward in the following June, when his ‘own people’ had arranged to encamp in the very same place.

 
Extract of a sketch map indicating disembarkation points and route through the town to camp sites. IOR/R/15/2/1820, f 14.

Shaikh Isa’s comment alludes to the fact that the Indian troops bound for Bahrain – troops that comprised part of the Indian Expeditionary Force D, and that would go on to fight against the Turkish Army in the First World War’s Eastern theatre in Mesopotamia – were not working to any fixed timetable. Their stay in Bahrain was to be open-ended, entirely dependent on events in the war.

Unsurprisingly, the arrival of the transport ships and other military vessels off the Bahrain coast on 23 October 1914 was met with excitement and unease in the streets of Manama. Even though the vessels could hardly be seen from the harbour and wharves of the town – the convoy being moored more than three miles out because of the islands’ shallow coastal waters – there was much nervousness about their presence.

In spite of the support of Bahrain’s rulers and the most prominent Arab merchants in the town, Keyes wrote that ‘several deputations of Arabs endeavoured to work the Shaikh up against the landing of the troops'. They might have been encouraged by Herr Harling, Bahrain agent for the German company Robert Wonckhaus & Company. Harling, so Keyes claimed, was stirring up anti-British feeling amongst Bahrain’s Persian inhabitants, and conniving with ‘some minor member’ of the Al Khalifah ruling family. On 28 October Keyes had Harling arrested, with orders for his internment for the duration of the war.

   
Extract of a letter sent by the Political Agent at Bahrain, Captain Terence Keys, to the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, 4 November 1914, describing the German Herr Harling’s activities at Bahrain. IOR/L/PS/11/86, P 4923/1914.

Meanwhile, the ladies of the American Mission were sent out on a charm offensive to allay the fears of the female inhabitants of Manama. In spite of all efforts though, Keyes had to concede that there was a growing sense of uneasiness and objection to the anticipated presence of the troops, in spite of all his efforts to dispel any concerns. Rumours abounding (reported by Harling in a letter sent to the German Consul at Bushire) that a further 15,000 troops were on their way to join the 5,000 already arrived at Bahrain doubtless did little to help matters.

 

Extract of a letter sent by the Political Agent at Bahrain, Captain Terence Keys, to the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, 4 November 1914. IOR/L/PS/11/86, P 4923/1914.

Ultimately, the 5,000 troops that anchored off the coast of Bahrain did not set foot in Bahrain. They remained on their vessels until 2 November, when they sailed to the Shatt-al-Arab, in response to Turkish hostilities against the Russian fleet in the Black Sea.

 

Extract of a translation of a letter written by Herr Harling to the Imperial German Consulate in Bushire, 24 October 1914. IOR/L/PS/11/86, P 4923/1914.

Mark Hobbs
Subject Specialist, Gulf History Project British Library/Qatar Foundation Partnership 

Further reading:

‘Campsites in Bahrain’ IOR/R/15/2/1820

‘Bahrain: arrival of Expeditionary Force D; state of feeling on the island; intrigues of Messrs Wonckhaus, and his deportation’ IOR/L/PS/11/86, P 4923/1914.

‘Correspondence of Wonckhaus agent at Bahrein’ IOR/L/PS/11/91, P 1203/1915.

‘File 8/16 Bahrain Intelligence Reports’ IOR/R/15/2/314

‘Naval Staff monographs (historical) vol 4 no 15 - Naval operations in Mesopotamia and the Persian Gulf’ IOR/L/MIL/17/15/73

‘Report by Brigadier W. S. Delamain, C.B., D.S.O., on the operations of the Indian Expeditionary Force "D" up to 14th November 1914' IOR/L/MIL/17/15/88

‘Critical Study of the Campaign in Mesopotamia up to April 1917: Part I – Report’ IOR/L/MIL/17/15/72/1

Paul Knight, The British Army in Mesopotamia 1914-1918 (London: McFarland & Company, 2013)

Today is Anzac Day. On 25 April 1915 Australian and New Zealand forces landed at Gallipoli. Many lives were lost in the eight-month campaign. Since 1916 a day of commemoration has been held on 25 April to recognise the sacrifices of Australian and New Zealand servicemen and servicewomen.

During the First World War my great aunt Annie Procter worked at the Australian High Commission in London. Some months ago we discovered her autograph book in the loft at my parents’ home.  One of the contributions was this cartoon drawn by K A Tunks on 20 June 1916.  An army officer is addressing an Anzac: ‘Why don’t you salute? Can’t you see I’m an Officer?’  The relaxed Anzac replies: ‘Gee! You’re lucky. I’m only a bally Private’.

The Officer and the Anzac

Keith Aubrey Tunks was born in Parramatta, New South Wales.  He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 8 February 1915 at the age of 19.  In April 1915 Private Tunks left Australia for Gallipoli with the 1st Field Ambulance. He was wounded at Gallipoli and fell seriously ill with dysentery after the Lone Pine engagement. In August 1915 he was evacuated to England, contracting malaria on the way. On his discharge from a hospital in Wandsworth, he was sent to Monte Video Camp at Weymouth in Dorset. This camp was established for soldiers of the Commonwealth Military Forces who had been invalided to England from the Dardanelles with either sickness or wounds and who were almost fit for return to duty.  As he had been dangerously ill, Tunks was posted to the accounts section of the Australian Military Office at 130 Horseferry Road, London. This was how he crossed paths with Annie Procter, a 21-year-old Civil Service stenographer, and drew a picture in her autograph book.

  Annie Procter - family photograph

Tunks ended the war as a Lieutenant in the Australian Army Pay Corps. His eye-witness accounts of his experiences were published throughout the war in Parramatta’s local newspaper The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate. He arrived home in July 1920 to be met by the Parramatta Welcome Home Committee followed by a special reception at his sister’s house:
‘Lieut. Keith Tunks, of Parramatta, one of the last left in England, was the honored guest at a welcome home held on July 7 at the residence of his sister, Mrs. C. Woods, of May's Hill. The decorations were festive and specially the table, which was arranged artistically with the Lieut.'s staff colors. Toasts were given in honor of the King and the forces, and reference was made to the valuable services Lieut. Tunks had rendered to his country and the Empire both in the field and later in the more intricate establishment of the Australian Headquarters Staff, where work was always plentiful and fatiguing; and the least service we could render him was to welcome him heartily and sincerely’ (The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate,17 July 1920).

Margaret Makepeace
Lead Curator, East India Company Records 

Further reading:
Discovering Anzacs – service record for Keith Aubrey Tunks
The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate via Trove
Fighting Australasia: a souvenir record of the imperishable story of the Australasian forces in the Great War
Europeana 1914-1918

Born on this day in 1886, Edward William Charles Noel remains one of the lesser known British political officers and spies who served in the Middle East during the First World War. In his book, On Secret Service East of Constantinople, Peter Hopkirk likens Noel to Ludovic ‘Sandy’ Arbuthnot, friend of Richard Hannay in John Buchan’s novels.

Noel began his career as a subaltern in the Indian Army and later served as British Vice-Consul at Ahwaz, in Persia. During the First World War he took part in various secret missions, one of which involved assisting the Russian Tsarist General Peter Polovstov and his wife (who were disguised as a United States missionary and his wife) in their escape from Russia. 

Personal file of Edward William Charles Noel IOR/R/1/4/1284

As Hopkirk states, Noel remained throughout his life an elusive character. The British Library holds copies of a published official diary by Noel, which documents his activities on special duty in Kurdistan during 1919, but Noel kept no private diaries and despite living well into old age never felt compelled to write his memoirs.

However, there are various stories about Noel’s early career in the Indian Army. For instance, he may well have been the first (or at least one of the first) to cycle all the way from England to India, in 1909, and again in 1910.

David Fitzpatrick
Content Specialist, Archivist, British Library/Qatar Foundation Partnership 

Further Reading:
Peter Hopkirk, On Secret Service East of Constantinople: The Plot to Bring Down the British Empire (Oxford, 1995)
Edward William Charles Noel, Diary of Major E.M. Noel, C.I.E., D.S.O., On Special Duty in Kurdistan from June 14th to September 21st 1919 (Basra, 1920).
Documents from the India Office Records about Noel's service are listed in Explore Archives and Manuscripts

The Woking Muslim Burial Ground at Horsell Common, Woking, Surrey was originally created by the India Office, with War Office funding, in response to casualties amongst Indian Army soldiers on the Western Front.  The bodies of Muslim soldiers who died in hospitals along the south coast of England had to be buried in accordance with their beliefs, but there was very little such provision available. 

There was one Muslim burial plot within the private cemetery at Brookwood near Woking, not far from Britain’s only purpose-built mosque.  This was used at first and it was agreed that Woking Mosque would organise the individual burials. At first, Maulvi Sadr-ud-Din from the mosque arranged the troop burials at Brookwood and ensured that they were carried out with military honours.  However, costs at the private cemetery were found exorbitant and the War Office decided to requisition a plot of land for a dedicated military Muslim Burial Ground at Horsell Common near Woking. 

The army put up a 6ft high wooden fence round the new site and marked out some rough paths. A wooden hut was provided as a mortuary and shelter for mourners.  The ground was waterlogged and bare when they handed over the keys to Sadr-ud-Din  in May 1915.

Dissatisfied with this crude arrangement, Sadr-ud-Din campaigned to get a suitable permanent enclosure created which would also be a lasting memorial to the Muslim war dead.  He contacted leading Muslim converts such as Lord Headley, wrote to Lord Kitchener at the War Office and also got the Agha Khan to visit Woking.  He pushed the India Office to come up with plans for a properly built perimeter wall with “some oriental decoration including a gateway”.

IOR/L/MIL/7/17232  Coloured elevation drawing for the burial ground enclosure by T.H. Winney, India Office Surveyor  

The India Office, ever mindful of public opinion in the sub-continent, felt the necessity of improving the Horsell Common site and recommended that Sir Samuel Swinton Jacob be approached to design it.  Swinton Jacob had retired to Weybridge near Woking after more than 40 years in service as architect to the Maharajas of Jaipur.  He was a leading exponent of the “Indo-Saracenic” style based on historic Indian models.  In the event, Swinton Jacob could not design the Horsell Common burial ground enclosure because of failing health.  The work was done instead by T.H.Winney, India Office Surveyor, but the influence of Swinton Jacob’s “Jaipur Portfolios” is very evident in the detailing of Winney’s graceful design preserved in the India Office Records.

  
IOR/L/MIL/7/17232

Recently, the Muslim Burial Ground has been restored as a Peace Garden to mark the centenary of the First World War.  Full details of the site and its history can be found here.

Rachel Hasted
Heritage and diversity consultant and researcher

PhD students are invited to apply for a new placement which focuses on the British Library’s collections of First World War printed ephemera. This is an opportunity to examine an alternative perspective on what went on behind the lines on the Western Front.

The Printed Heritage and Collections team are looking for a postgraduate student to help them promote a hitherto largely hidden collection of First World War ephemera. This 3-month (or P/T equivalent) PhD placement, is one of seventeen projects currently on offer at the British Library.

British soldiers at play France (Photo 24-320) H.D. Girdwood collection (1915). British Library, Wikimedia Commons.

The background for this project is the Library’s wider collection of printed items published during the First World War, located within Western Heritage Collections, and including monographs, periodicals, pamphlets, leaflets and other ephemera.

In the context of the First World War Centenary, this project offers an exciting opportunity to research one of the British Library’s collections of ephemera, discover more about the context of its creation and promote it to a wider audience. The body of material, which has not been digitised, includes programmes for sports contests, vegetable shows and musical productions. The placement holder will be responsible for producing a descriptive record of the items, including details of the creating organisation (unit etc), place of publication and date. This record will be made visible through the British Library’s public catalogue, and there will be further potential opportunities to disseminate any findings via the Library’s World War One website, the Untold Lives blog, and/or through a resource guide or outreach event. 

The successful candidate will be granted considerable autonomy in deciding their research approach, and the most appropriate way of promoting the material. They can expect to work closely with specialist curators in the Printed Heritage Collections and develop valuable research skills. In addition to an induction to the British Library, training in the use of spreadsheets, and an introduction to a range of online subscription databases, all placement students will be allocated their own desk and/or workspace, and will be fully integrated into the working environment of their team/department.

Full details of the scheme and profiles of the 17 projects that are being offered can be seen here. All applications must be supported by the applicant’s PhD supervisor and their department’s Graduate Tutor (or equivalent). The application deadline, for all of the 2016/2017 PhD placements, is 19 February 2016.

Jane Shepard
Research Support Intern

One hundred years ago, British, French, Australian, New Zealand and Indian troops were holding the Gallipoli Peninsula against the Ottoman Empire.  The British Library holds eye witness accounts of three Allied Officers who were involved in the action: Roger Keyes, Chief of Staff to the Vice Admiral in command of the British forces at the Dardanelles; Major General Hunter Weston in command of the 29th Division; and Captain F.H. Mitchell of the Royal Navy.

The Gallipoli Peninsula lies on the European side of the Dardanelles Straits, which divides Europe from Asia.  After the Western Front turned into the stalemate of trench warfare in late 1914, a number of Allied Leaders began to consider new theatres of war to try and break the deadlock.  The ‘Easterners’, including Winston Churchill, believed that it would be possible to overcome the Ottomans at the Dardanelles and take Constantinople (now Istanbul).  This would undermine Germany and allow Britain and France to help their Russian allies.

The British Navy led a number of attacks during January, February and March 1915 in order to force the Straits but on 18 March the final attempt failed with heavy losses for the Allies.  Hunter Weston had doubted the success of this ‘Eastern’ strategy.  In his private diary he records: ‘I pointed out that owing to the ill-advised action of the Navy, our greatest asset, the element of surprise, had gone’.

 
Private Diary of Major General Hunter Weston, Add MS 48364 f.20 

The landings went ahead on 25-26 April 1915 and Mitchell described what happened in a letter to his wife:

‘The great day for which we have been working has come & gone, & although it proved the last day for many, was crowned with success. The army is now established on the end of the Gallipoli Peninsula, sufficiently firmly, I believe not to be turned off- It was a terrible landing place. Picture yourself two small coves with cliffs on each side which  were hollowed out to hold maxim guns- the whole of the beach planted thickly with barbed wire, & several lines of trenches just above the beach. That was what our men had to force, & by jove they did it, but at a price of losing 3000 men out of a total of 12,000 landed’.

The defences mentioned in Captain Mitchell’s letter are shown in this chart which belonged to Keyes and in these photographs from Hunter Weston’s diary.

Plan of the S.W. End of the Gallipoli Peninsula Showing Turkish Defences as existing 25 April 1915, Add MS 82485 D
 

Private Diary of Major General Hunter Weston, Add MS 48364 f.52

 

Private Diary of Major General Hunter Weston, Add MS 48364 f.56

After successfully landing the troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula the Allied Troops were halted and contained by the Ottoman troops and trench warfare was implemented. The photograph below shows Hunter Weston in the trenches leading to his dugout.

Private Diary of Major General Hunter Weston, Add MS 48364 f.84

The Allies began to attempt to push back the Ottomans and gain more ground. The photograph below shows a heap of empty shell cases after one such attack. These attacks were not successful and disease was sweeping through the camps, made worse by the lack of food, water and unsanitary conditions.

 Private Diary of Major General Hunter Weston, Add MS 48364 f.59

In August 1915 Hunter Weston was invalided home with sunstroke. The photograph below shows him leaving the Teigne Hospital in Malta.

Private Diary of Major General Hunter Weston, Add MS 48364 f.128

The decision was taken in December 1915 to evacuate the troops without having achieved their objective. Both sides had suffered huge losses through casualties and illness.

Laura Walker
Lead Curator, Modern Archives & Manuscripts 1851-1950

Further reading:
Most of the papers of Keyes, the complete diaries of Hunter Weston and the letters of Mitchell can be found on the Europeana website and on the British Library’s Digitised Manuscripts website

In 1905 a proposal was put forward to appoint a consular assistant to the Consul-General at Bagdad, with the Government of India recommending John Calcott Gaskin for the position. Gaskin had most recently served in the newly created position of Assistant Political Agent at Bahrain and had impressed both the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf and the Foreign Department of the Government of India with his diligence in the role. However Gaskin could not be appointed Consular Assistant as he was not a member of the Diplomatic Service.  After much toing and froing he was named Assistant to the Resident, later amended to Commercial Assistant.

When war broke out in 1914, Gaskin was instructed by the Consul-General (on leave in Europe) to sink all of the Residency’s ammunition in the nearest river to prevent it falling into enemy hands. This action prompted his arrest by Turkish officials  and on 22 November 1914 he was sentenced to three months in jail. On 12 December 1914, however, he was released from prison and instructed to retrieve his belongs and depart Bagdad for Constantinople with other consular officials to be repatriated.

On arriving in Aleppo in March 1915, en route to Constantinople, Mr Gaskin was detained by police for having failed to serve the full three months of his sentence and was again imprisoned. The other consular officials on leaving Aleppo placed his case in the hands of the US Consulate, which promised to try to assist him.

'Prospect of Aleppo' from Henry Maundrell, A Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem at Easter. A.D. 1697 (London, 1810) BL flickr

On finally being released from prison Gaskin found himself trapped in Aleppo without the means to obtain food, clothing, or residence, as foreigners were no longer permitted to leave the city.  He  approached the US Consulate for assistance. The US Consulate asked the Foreign Office and India Office if Mr Gaskin could be paid his salary through them in order to survive in Aleppo.

This presented an unprecedented situation for both the Foreign Office and India Office. The Foreign Office’s rules stated that consular officials removed from their positions owing to war would receive full pay for six months, provided suitable work was found for them by His Majesty’s Government.  As Mr Gaskin had been interned, and therefore was not in a position to be provided with suitable employment, it seemed unfair to deprive him of a means of livelihood.  Military officers who had been interned received full pay for 61 days and leave pay thereafter.

The case was ultimately brought before the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Sir Edward Grey, who concluded that as Mr Gaskin was unable to leave Aleppo, and as this situation was likely to continue for the foreseeable future, he should continue to receive full pay until he was released from internment and then suitable employment should be found for him.

John Calcott Gaskin was eventually released from internment following the end of the war in 1918, and reached England in November 1918 where he was placed on furlough to allow him time to recover from his ordeal, before being sent to his new posting in Mesopotamia.

Karen Stapley
Curator, India Office Records

Further reading:
IOR/L/PS/10/117 - File 636/1907 'Turkish Arabia: Bagdad Consulate. Mr Gaskin (Commercial Asst). Detention by Turkish authorities (1914-1918). Settlement of accounts'.
Foreign Office Records at The National Archives: FO 383/102 Turkey: Prisoners; FO 383/341 Turkey: Prisoners.