The Battle of Jutland – 100 years on

This week sees the hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Jutland, the largest and most important naval engagement of the First World War, and also a particularly Scottish event, as the majority of the British ships involved set out from Scottish ports – from Rosyth on the Forth, up to Scapa Flow in Orkney.

As the Navy, the politicians and VIPs, heavy security and the media descend on Orkney this week, it seemed an appropriate moment to see what we could find in our collections of the contemporary reporting and commentary on the battle.

The outcome of the battle of Jutland was complex: the losses of British ships and lives were far higher than the Germans’; but, it was a tactical advantage in that Britain retained control of the seas, maintained the blockade of German shipping and ultimately it contributed to winning the war.   However, immediately after the battle the longer-term consequences were not obvious and the consequences of the confused action were very much open to interpretation.

Jutland, was, for the Admiralty, a media disaster: the German High Seas Fleet, having retreated to port, issued prompt communiques declaring it their victory.  The Admiralty was unable to report so rapidly; the British fleet was still at sea, and they had no information.  When they did issue their own communique it was so badly worded as to make the British media interpret it as a defeat.

This was embarrassing.  The situation inspired the Admiralty to start a systematic propaganda campaign, as well as a review of how they handled these matters.

Their propagandist of choice was Rudyard Kipling – famous, influential, very much in support of the war, but long sympathetic to the lot of the ordinary soldier or sailor.  He was already writing general newspaper articles for the Admiralty – three were ready for publication when Jutland happened, appearing in The Times in late June 1916.  Kipling’s visits to the Fleet in connection with these had made contacts among the officers, and he had heard first-hand accounts of the battle as soon as a week after it happened.   In August he was provided with all the official reports, and in October four articles were published in The Daily Telegraph.

SB 82391 Kipling sea warfare c

These begin by outlining a positive interpretation of the battle, stressing the confusion of the action and the difficulty for those involved of being sure what was happening.  The rest of the articles, consistently upbeat in tone, consist of anecdotes showing the bravery, resourcefulness and ingenuity of the men involved, in overcoming battle damage, hitting their enemy targets, and getting their ships home.  They owe as much to Kipling’s contacts among the ships’ crews as to the official reports, and are as colourful in the telling as his fictional stories.  Indeed, they are openly somewhat fictionalised to avoid disclosing military intelligence.

From a modern perspective the thing which seems odd about these is the timing.  In our modern instant-news culture a series of lengthy articles would be unlikely to be published four and a half months after the event, and certainly not as a means to win round public opinion in that way.  What is even more alien to modern media culture, is that these, along with Kipling’s other articles for the Admiralty, were republished in book form before the end of 1916.

SB 82391 Kipling sea warfare b

However, the book version interspersed the articles with verse, and acquired a greater nuance of interpretation than that conveyed by the original articles alone.  The Jutland section of the book opens with ‘My Boy Jack’, a reflection on the dead.  This undoubtedly carries some of Kipling’s feelings about the loss of his own son at the battle of Loos the previous year, framed in naval terms.

SB 82391 Kipling sea warfare d

Our copy of Sea Warfare, can be consulted in the Centre for Research Reading Room, shelfmark: S.B. 82391 Kip.

II: 100th anniversary of ‘Zeppelin’ air attack on Edinburgh – Incendiary bombs and the Infirmary

Following on from Archibald Campbell’s account of the Zeppelin raid on Edinburgh and Leith one hundred years ago this weekend, minutes and images from Lothian Health Services Archive (LHSA) reveal its impact on the city’s hospital services.

As Archibald noted, the raid inflicted great damage on his school, George Watson’s College, just minutes away from the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh on its Lauriston Place site. The impact upon Scotland’s largest voluntary hospital was less than that suffered by the school, but still notable. Luckily, LHSA holds a comprehensive account of the effects of the bomb damage on the Infirmary in minutes of the hospital’s House Committee. The Committee met a week after the blast, on 10th April 1916 (LHB1/1/54). According to the account, the George Watson’s bomb caused windows in three wards to be broken, along with damage to side rooms and an operating theatre – miraculously, however, no staff or patients were killed.

Bomb damage to Infirmary buildings in Lauriston Place, 2 - 3 April 1916 (P/PL1/E/208).

Bomb damage to buildings near the Infirmary, 2 – 3 April 1916 (P/PL1/E/208).

In addition, an incendiary bomb was dropped on the Infirmary itself, on the boiler house, although this caused relatively little damage.

Incendiary bomb in situ at the Royal Infirmary , 1916 (P/PL1/E/021).

Incendiary bomb in situ at the Royal Infirmary , 1916 (P/PL1/E/021).

Like Archibald Campbell, Infirmary staff kept their own souvenir. Here at LHSA, we have this memento: a part of the actual incendiary bomb in a glass display case, which we store in our off-site store (because it is bulky rather than because it could go off!)

Incendiary bomb in glass display case at Lauriston Place site (LHSA object collection, O26).

Incendiary bomb in glass display case  (LHSA object collection, O26).

The Infirmary kept services going despite the raid, with the House Committee minutes praising medical, surgical and nursing staff, who carried out their duties ‘notwithstanding the immanence of personal danger … their individual efforts to reassure the patients did much to allay the alarm which naturally existed in the Hospital.’

The minutes record that 27 people were treated for bomb damage during the night, 12 of whom ‘were treated as in-patients, two of whom subsequently died and the remainder  were treated in the out-patient department.’ The Infirmary’s General Register, which records admissions to the hospital, reflects the casualties from the night. Although the injuries to some are not explicitly stated as caused by the bomb, it is possible to have a good guess at the identity of these twelve patients and to trace the individuals who were to die from their wounds. The House Committee states that two of these patients did not survive their injuries. The General Register suggests that these unfortunates were a 45 year old carter from Grassmarket who died from perforation of the liver with a shell and an arterio-sclerotic 74 year old mason who succumbed to shock after an operation for an injury to the knee caused by the bombing.

Section from the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh General Register of Patients (LHB1/126/61) showing how bomb injuries were described.

Section from the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh General Register of Patients (LHB1/126/61) showing how bomb injuries were described.

One thing that those injured by the bomb had in common was their locality. Patients were centred around the old town, from the Grassmarket to St Leonards and the area of the present University of Edinburgh, making injuries such as ‘scratches to face and ear’ to people from these areas more likely than not to have been caused by effects of the raid. Others suffered injuries to the arms, legs, abdomen and head, or had eye injuries through flying glass. We can also match their addresses to bomb sites named on contemporary police and fire brigade reports.

For example, two of these patients were from 16 Marshall Street: a male tailor, who underwent surgery for a serious perforation wound to the eye; and a dressmaker, whose face had to be stitched. Both were discharged (the dressmaker on the same day and the tailor after almost four weeks). Nonetheless, they were the lucky ones in this four-storey building, housing shops, domestic dwellings, a dispensary and a school. A police report cites that six people were killed in total from the address. Three people standing in the building’s doorway and a man standing across the street were amongst the fatalities, according to the fire brigade account of the night.

However, although no staff were injured in the explosion, the House Committee minutes point to its possible psychological effects. The Lady Superintendent of Nurses, Miss Annie Warren Gill, was worried that, if another raid should occur, members of her staff could be ‘rendered unsuitable for duty through nervousness – some of them having suffered considerably that way on the recent occasion.’

Annie Warren Gill, Lady Superintendent of Nurses, 1907 - 1925 (LHSA photography collection).

Annie Warren Gill, Lady Superintendent of Nurses, 1907 – 1925 (LHSA photography collection).

Committee members also showed concern at the lack of warning given for the attack to Infirmary officials, beyond the regular lowering of lights. In preparation for an increase in casualties following another attack, proposals were made for emergency staffing from existing medical and surgical teams.

The main part of the meeting was signed off with approbation for the enemy’s conduct, ‘the recklessness of which while dooming it to military failure endangered the lives of the inmates of an Institution whose doors have at all times been open to the suffering sick of all nations.’

Louise Williams, Archivist, LHSA

An earlier story about the attack can be read here: I: A School student walks among the wreckage

 

I: 100th anniversary of ‘Zeppelin’ air attack on Edinburgh – A school student walks among the wreckage

A STORY FROM THE DIARY OF 15-YEAR OLD ARCHIBALD H CAMPBELL (1902-1918) WHO WOULD LATER BECOME REGIUS PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC LAW AND THE LAW OF NATURE AND THE NATIONS, EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY, 1945-1972

Over the next couple of days, and almost 100-years to the day since the first ever air assault on Leith and Edinburgh by Zeppelins of the Imperial German Naval Airship Service, our blog describes the event – on 2-3 April 1916 – as told by the diary of the young teenager Archibald Campbell, and also through interpretation of historical papers of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh curated by the Lothian Health Services Archive (LHSA).

Firstly… Archibald Campbell’s story…:

Airship - similar to Zeppelin L14 of the Imperial German Naval Airship Service which brought most of the damage to Edinburgh from the air in April 1916. In addition to Edinburgh, many other places on Great Britain suffered from Zeppelin raids including Kings Lynn, Gt. Yarmouth, Hull, Tyneside, Gravesend, the Midlands, London and the Home Counties. From January 1915 to end-May 1916 at least 550 British civilians had been killed (Creative Commons image).

Airship – similar to Zeppelin L14 of the Imperial German Naval Airship Service which brought most of the damage to Edinburgh from the air in April 1916. In addition to Edinburgh, many other places on Great Britain suffered from Zeppelin raids including Kings Lynn, Gt. Yarmouth, Hull, Tyneside, Gravesend, the Midlands, London and the Home Counties. From January 1915 to end-May 1916 at least 550 British civilians had been killed (Creative Commons image).

Archibald Hunter Campbell was born 21 May 1902 in Edinburgh. He was educated at George Watson’s College in the city, at Edinburgh University, and then at University College, Oxford.

The cover of the school-boy diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell (Coll-221).

The cover of the school-boy diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell (Coll-221).

While still at school, aged 13 years, Campbell witnessed the aftermath of this first ever air attack on the city, and on Scotland as a whole, when the airships – the Zeppelins – dropped ordnance on 2-3  April 1916.

Campbell aged 13 in April 1916 had written extensive notes about the Zeppelin attack on a separate piece of paper inserted into his diary, noting that his description was 'On paper' (Coll-221).

Campbell aged 13 in April 1916 had written extensive notes about the Zeppelin attack on a separate piece of paper inserted into his diary, noting that his description of the aftermath was ‘On paper’ (Coll-221).

The naval base at Rosyth in Fife and the Forth Bridge had been the focus of an attack composed of four Zeppelins but in the event only two craft reached the Scottish coast – L14 commanded by Kapitänleutnant der Reserve Alois Böcker, and L22 commanded by Kapitänleutnant Martin Dietrich. At 9.30pm on Sunday 2 April 1916 the military gave the order for the city to take air raid action, and road traffic ground to a halt, street lighting was lowered, and civilians were advised to take refuge.

Descriptive notes from the diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell and telling the story of the Zeppelin attack (Coll-221).

Descriptive notes from the diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell and telling the story of the Zeppelin attack (Coll-221).

Leith Docks were attacked round about 11:30pm, and then the German airship crew plotted a course along the Water of Leith towards the city of Edinburgh. Just after midnight the young Campbell was awakened by the sound of bombs. He went down to the parlour where he waited until 1.10am on the morning of Monday 3 April and from the window he ‘saw blaze over Leith’. He then went to bed before rising again at 7.30am to get ready for school – George Watson’s. However he heard that a ‘bomb had fallen in front of school & smashed it up’. When he got to school he ‘mucked about’ in the bomb hole in the playground until he was ‘turned out’ of it.

Descriptive notes from the diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell and telling the story of the Zeppelin attack (Coll-221).

Descriptive notes from the diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell and telling the story of the Zeppelin attack (Coll-221).

At noon when he got out of school he ‘went round to see bomb hole’ again. Every window in front of the school was ‘smashed’. The crater was ‘about 4′ 6” across right up against Ethel Davidson’s room which was absolutely smashed’ (the crater was just over a meter wide). He went on…:

Desks, window-frames, broken glass, stones, and piles of plaster, all smashed up, filled the room. Other front rooms about as bad.

Descriptive notes from the diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell and telling the story of the Zeppelin attack (Coll-221).

Descriptive notes from the diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell and telling the story of the Zeppelin attack (Coll-221).

After picking up a bit of bomb for himself and a bit for Main, a friend, he walked with Ashcroft – presumably another school friend – across to Grassmarket where more damage had been reported. On the way they witnessed the ‘effects’ of the ‘Lauriston bomb’…:
 All windows smashed & street carpeted with broken glass. Bomb had landed through roof of a house.
Descriptive notes from the diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell and telling the story of the Zeppelin attack (Coll-221).

Descriptive notes from the diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell and telling the story of the Zeppelin attack (Coll-221).

They continued towards the Vennel and then down ‘to Grassmarket which was awfully crowded’. There the pavement was barred against public access and there was a ‘deep hole in front of the White Hart Hotel, whose walls were all scarred’.
Descriptive notes from the diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell and telling the story of the Zeppelin attack (Coll-221).

Descriptive notes from the diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell and telling the story of the Zeppelin attack (Coll-221).

A walk along King’s Stables Road followed, and ‘smashed windows’ were seen in Castle Terrace. Walking through Princes Street Gardens they  were able to see ‘effect of bomb on Castle Rock’…:
It had missed the Castle by a few feet, hit the rock & brought down a small land slide.
Descriptive notes from the diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell and telling the story of the Zeppelin attack (Coll-221).

Descriptive notes from the diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell and telling the story of the Zeppelin attack (Coll-221).

Along Lothian Road, they passed the County Hotel where every window was ‘smashed’.
Descriptive notes from the diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell and telling the story of the Zeppelin attack (Coll-221).

Descriptive notes from the diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell and telling the story of the Zeppelin attack (Coll-221).

Later on, when his mother had gone down to Leamington Terrace to see an uncle, Campbell ‘got a car’ (a tram) down to Leith Walk where he met his father and several teachers, and…:

Showed my bit of bomb & told them that Watson’s was still standing.

Descriptive notes from the diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell and telling the story of the Zeppelin attack (Coll-221).

Descriptive notes from the diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell and telling the story of the Zeppelin attack (Coll-221).

Descriptive notes from the diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell and telling the story of the Zeppelin attack (Coll-221).

Descriptive notes from the diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell and telling the story of the Zeppelin attack (Coll-221).

Again he walked up Castle Terrace, this time with his mother and father, and…:
Saw all smashed windows & other effects of Castle bomb. Looked down into King’s Stables Road which was absolutely black with people.
Descriptive notes from the diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell and telling the story of the Zeppelin attack (Coll-221).

Descriptive notes from the diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell and telling the story of the Zeppelin attack (Coll-221).

The family took a tram home and Campbell noted how public transport – ‘cars’ or trams – and the streets were ‘awfully crowded’.
During that day, meandering across the city, looking at the destruction caused by the bombs, Campbell had his camera with him (it appears). After tea, he developed the film, but… unfortunately…:
Owing to crumpling up of wire and that beastly developing box only one […] came out decently & even it was spotted.
…and the one surviving photograph had been simply of him in the garden!
Descriptive notes from the diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell and telling the story of the Zeppelin attack (Coll-221).

Descriptive notes from the diary kept by Archibald H. Campbell and telling the story of the Zeppelin attack (Coll-221).

Although Campbell noted that ten people had been killed, modern reports tell of a total of thirteen deaths with a further twenty-four injured.The cost of the damage by the bombs, each no bigger than a sack of flour, amounted to roughly £12m in today’s money.
ccZeppelin L45 L13 P-class_v2Nearly all of the damage had been caused by devices dropped from Zeppelin L14. Zeppelin L22 ventured only briefly into the city and just caused minor damage after jettisoning most of its bombs in fields near Berwick-upon-Tweed. Later in the year, Alois Böcker was arrested by local policemen in Essex, England, in September 1916, when his Zeppelin (L33 on this occasion) was brought down by night fighters. Zeppelin L14 itself was destroyed by its crew on 23 June 1919 following the example of the naval scuttling in Scapa Flow.
ccZeppelin L45 L13 P-class_v2
 As for Archibald H. Campbell the teenager during the First World War… After his studies at Edinburgh and at Oxford, Campbell would become a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and in 1935 he was appointed Barber Professor of Jurisprudence at Birmingham University. In September 1939, and from the outbreak of the hostilities which became known as the Second World War he was summoned into service at Bletchley Park.

At Bletchley Park he was a Foreign Office Civilian (Temporary Senior Assistant Officer) and worked at the Mansion, Hut 10, Block A and Block F(A), Air Section, including advanced research in the Italian sub-section. There he decrypted non-Enigma signals from German, Italian and Japanese Air Forces and produced intelligence reports. He also worked at Hut 5 and Block F, Military Section, probably Japanese, involved in decrypting and reporting on non-Enigma enemy army ciphers. This  was also known as No 4 Intelligence School.

After the war he returned to Edinburgh and to the University’s Regius Chair of Public Law and the Law of Nature and the Nations which he held from 1945 to 1972. He was Dean of the Faculty of Law, 1958-64.

Professor Archibald Hunter Campbell died in Edinburgh 8 June 1989.

ccZeppelin L45 L13 P-class_v2

The diary with the separate page describing the damage across Edinburgh was ‘rediscovered’ in the A. H. Campbell material by one of our volunteers, Valentina Flex, Edinburgh University graduate, who had been creating a provisional listing of content.

A second blog post about the attack on Edinburgh 100-years ago – and from the curatorial staff of the LHSA – will go live in the next couple of days.

Dr. Graeme D. Eddie, Assistant Librarian Archives & Manuscripts, Centre for Research Collections

Notes…: In addition to the description of the events written by Archibald H. Campbell himself, freely accessible web-pages describing the events of 2-3 April 1916 (especially Scotland’s War ‘Midlothian’s War – Zeppelin raid over Edinburgh’) and a ‘Wikipedia’ list of Zeppelins, and also the website of the Bletchley Park Roll of Honour, were enlisted for the creation of this blog-post.

The image of the Zeppelin (here the P-class LZ45 ‘L13’) was obtained from Creative Commons.

The second story about the Zeppelin attack can be read here: II: Incendiary bombs and the Infirmary

Service of James Roland Rider – in the Army Veterinary Corps (AVC)

ILLUSTRATING SOME OF THE UNIVERSITY MEDALS OF JAMES ROLAND RIDER

Band1James Roland Rider was the son of a veterinary surgeon. He was born in Beamish, near Durham, in N.E.England, on 13 November 1894. He was educated at St. Bees, Cumbria, and at Newcastle Royal Grammar School.

Reverse of silver medal, Session 1913-1914, Royal (Dick) Veterinary College, Edinburgh, Presented by O. Charnock Bradley M.D., D.Sc., Practical Anatomy, Gained by J.R.Rider, Session 1913-14

Reverse of silver medal, Session 1913-1914, Royal (Dick) Veterinary College, Edinburgh, Presented by O. Charnock Bradley M.D., D.Sc., Practical Anatomy, Gained by J.R.Rider

In 1912 he went to Edinburgh to study at the Royal (Dick) Veterinary College but in 1914 the outbreak of war interrupted his studies. Rider enlisted in the Scots Greys and he served at Gallipoli.

Detail from obverse, silver medal, Session 1913-1914, decorated with lion with raised paw being treated by kneeling figure, framed by palm trees and cliff

Detail from obverse, silver medal, Session 1913-1914, decorated with lion with raised paw being treated by kneeling figure, framed by palm trees and cliff

Silver Medal - Practical Anatomy 1915-16 - Detail from 3

In 1916 he returned to the Dick Vet’, and the University medal-winning Rider graduated in 1917, becoming a Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. He then re-enlisted, serving as a Captain in the Army Veterinary Corps (AVC).

Obverse, silver medal, Obstetrics, Session 1917-18, Royal Dick Veterinary College, Edinburgh, decorated with armorial bearing of the City of Edinburgh and inscription NISI DOMINUS FRUSTRA

Obverse, silver medal, Obstetrics, Session 1917-18, Royal Dick Veterinary College, Edinburgh, decorated with armorial bearing of the City of Edinburgh and inscription NISI DOMINUS FRUSTRA

The AVC was responsible for the medical care of animals used by the army; predominantly horses, mules and pigeons. During the Great War, the Corps reorganised to provide a Mobile Veterinary Section as part of each Division that went overseas. A number of Base Veterinary Hospitals were established in the theatres of war. Most animals suffered from battle injuries, debility, exhaustion, mange and, for the first time, gas attacks.

Detail from silver medal, Obstetrics, Session 1917-18

Detail from silver medal, Obstetrics, Session 1917-18

By 1918 almost half of the veterinary surgeons in Great Britain were serving in the AVC. As an Army veterinary surgeon, Rider served until the end of the War and was awarded a pair of medals – the British War medal, and the Victory medal.

Reverse, bronze medal, decorated with thistle wreath surrounding the inscriptions - Pathology. J.R.Rider, Session 1916-17

Reverse, bronze medal, decorated with thistle wreath surrounding the inscriptions – Pathology. J.R.Rider, Session 1916-17

On 27 November 1918 King George V conferred the Royal prefix to the Corps in recognition of the work of the AVC… or RAVC (Royal Army Veterinary Corps).

Reverse, bronze medal, decorated with thistle wreath surrounding the inscriptions - Surgery. J.R.Rider, Session 1917-18

Reverse, bronze medal, decorated with thistle wreath surrounding the inscriptions – Surgery. J.R.Rider, Session 1917-18

From 1919 Rider was employed as a vet by Pease and Partners Ltd. owners of several mines in the coalfields of Durham and Teeside. In 1928 he declined the offer of a Lectureship at the Royal (Dick) Veterinary College, only to suffer a cut in working hours the following year due to the Depression which began in 1929. In 1930 however, Rider began his own private practice in Darlington.

Reverse, silver medal, Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, To J.R.Rider, for Senior Anatomy, 1914, Royal (Dick) Veterinary College, Edinburgh, Inst. MDCCLXXXIV

Reverse, silver medal, Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, To J.R.Rider, for Senior Anatomy, 1914, Royal (Dick) Veterinary College, Edinburgh, Inst. MDCCLXXXIV

In 1932 he published a paper on ‘Hypertrophy and diverticulae in the ileum in pit ponies’ for the Veterinary Record, British Veterinary Association.

Detail, obverse, silver medal, Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, decorated with raised seated classical figure with Scottish armorial shield honouring figures representing agriculture and industry

Detail, obverse, silver medal, Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, decorated with raised seated classical figure with Scottish armorial shield honouring figures representing agriculture and industry

James Roland Rider died of pulmonary tuberculosis in Urpeth, Durham, on 19 November 1942.

Band2

Dr. Graeme D. Eddie, Assistant Librarian Archives & Manuscripts, Centre for Research Collections

Band3

German prisoners in Britain, 1916 – at Donington Hall near Derby, in Dorchester, in Handforth, and at Eastcote

IMAGES FROM A BOOK IN OUR COLLECTIONS ENTITLED GERMAN PRISONERS IN GREAT BRITAIN (published circa 1916 by Tillotson & Son Ltd., Printers, Bolton & London)

1.BandThe photographs in the volume had been taken ‘in response to a request made by the American Ambassador in Berlin’.

Cover of the work 'German prisoners in Great Britain', c.1916. (Centre for Research Collections, RB.P.1034)

Cover of the work ‘German prisoners in Great Britain’, c.1916. (from book held at Centre for Research Collections, RB.P.1034)

Apparently they were to ‘form part of the Wurtemberg War Exhibition’ (Württembergische Kriegs-Ausstellung), held in Stuttgart, May-September 1916.

Donington Hall - German officers assembling for roll-call (Centre for Research Collections, RB.P.1034)

Donington Hall – German officers assembling for roll-call (from book held at Centre for Research Collections, RB.P.1034)

The exhibition had been organised by the Württemberg Red Cross, under the auspices of the king and queen of Württemberg and the Royal Württemberg War Ministry. Württemberg at the time retained considerable autonomy within Germany and had its own royal family, with its capital at Stuttgart.

Donington Hall - the dining-hall (Centre for Research Collections, RB.P.1034)

Donington Hall – the dining-hall (from book held at Centre for Research Collections, RB.P.1034)

This fact reflected the complex political structure of Imperial Germany – Württemberg being a kingdom (formerly a duchy) that had become part of the German Empire in 1871.

Donington Hall - one of the dormitories (Centre for Research Collections, RB.P.1034)

Donington Hall – one of the dormitories (from book held at Centre for Research Collections, RB.P.1034)

The foreword to the book claims that ‘the prisoners were left entirely free to choose whether they would be photographed or not’. The text continues:

The photographers had explicit instructions that no prisoner was to be photographed without his content, and that neither compulsion nor persuasion was to be employed to induce anyone to form part of a group

Dorchester Camp - a general view of the site (Centre for Research Collections, RB.P.1034)

Dorchester Camp – a general view of the site (from book held at Centre for Research Collections, RB.P.1034)

The photographs which appeared in the book illustrate 6 of the largest prisoners’ camps in Great Britain: Donington Hall, Alexandra Palace, Dorchester Handforth, Lofthouse Park, and Eastcote.

Dorchester Camp - group of prisoners, some of whom have come from the Somme (Centre for Research Collections, RB.P.1034)

Dorchester Camp – group of prisoners, some of whom have come from the Somme (from book held at Centre for Research Collections, RB.P.1034)

Donington Hall is an 18th century  ‘gothic’ house near Derby which had been requisitioned by the War Office of the British government during the Great War for use as a prisoner of war camp.

Dorchester Camp - prisoners and their pet rabbits (Centre for Research Collections, RB.P.1034)

Dorchester Camp – prisoners and their pet rabbits (from book held at Centre for Research Collections, RB.P.1034)

It housed German officers who were waited on and served by their lower military ranks who were billeted in huts in the grounds.

Handforth - Unter-Offiziers' gardens (Centre for Research Collections, RB.P.1034)

Handforth – Unter-Offiziers’ gardens (from book held at Centre for Research Collections, RB.P.1034)

One of Donington Hall’s celebrated in-mates was the German aviator, aerial explorer, and author, Gunther Plüschow (1886-1931) who had explored and filmed Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego from the air.

Handforth - parcels arriving from home (from book held at Centre for Research Collections, RB.P.1034)

Handforth – parcels arriving from home (from book held at Centre for Research Collections, RB.P.1034)

As an imprisoned German naval pilot (May 1915) Plüschow successfully escaped from Donington Hall during a storm (July 1915) and made for the neutral Netherlands.

Handforth - model ship built by Kaiserliche Marine prisoners (from book held at Centre for Research Collections, RB.P.1034)

Handforth – model ship built by Kaiserliche Marine prisoners (from book held at Centre for Research Collections, RB.P.1034)

Dorchester Camp, Dorset, received its first prisoners of war in August 1914. The camp was set up at the town’s empty artillery barracks at Poundbury. At its height, the camp housed 4,500 men – equivalent to almost half of the town’s resident population.

Eastcote - bakery (from book held at Centre for Research Collections, RB.P.1034)

Eastcote – bakery (from book held at Centre for Research Collections, RB.P.1034)

A print-works in Handforth, near Wilmslow, Cheshire, became a prison camp for Germans with 1,000 housed their by November 1914, and 2,000 by April 1915.

Eastcote prisoner of war camp was in Northamptonshire, and was also known as Pattishall Camp. It would eventually come to house more than 4500 German prisoners of war.

1b.BandDr. Graeme D. Eddie, Assistant Librarian Archives & Manuscripts, Centre for Research Collections

1.BandThis blog-post was created by using the volume itself, and with information found on BBC pages and those of the Imperial War Museum and the National Army Museum

Home Front – Theatrical group – ‘The Eves’, 1916-1917

AN ALBUM OF PHOTOGRAPHS AND EPHEMERA TELLS THEIR STORY

StripFor the war effort, various Home Front groups and organisations produced entertainments to raise funds for the Red Cross and other organisations. This happened all across the country. One such theatrical group – ‘The Eves’ – performed local entertainments in Perthshire. Rehearsals for ‘The Eves’ theatrical group were held at the home of Helen Wilson at Colquhalzie, or Kilcolquhalzie, in Perthshire.

Under the curation of the Centre for Research Collections, Edinburgh University Library, an album of photographs and ephemera, including concert programmes and news clippings, offers an insight into the performances of ‘The Eves’.

One of 'The Eves'

One of ‘The Eves’ – Helen Wilson, wife of Capt. James R. Wilson (Coll-1668).

Most of the cast of ‘The Eves’ were female and the name of their group was derived from the fact that their husbands, brothers, and fathers (their Adams) were serving in the forces. They offered sketches taken from London musical theatre productions, songs, recitations, choruses and dances. They were accompanied by piano or by the Auchterarder Ladies Orchestra.

Most of the performers were women

Most of ‘The Eves’ performers were women (Coll-1668).

Mrs. Helen Wilson of Colquhalzie was the daughter-in-law of Sir John Wilson (1844-1918) of Airdrie House, businessman, Unionist politician, Chairman of the Wilsons and Clyde Coal Company, and MP for Falkirk Burghs from 1895 to 1906. Her husband, Captain James R. Wilson – Sir John’s son – served with the Lanarkshire Yeomenry in Gallipoli and Egypt.

Sailor suits

Military uniforms and Sailor suits and caps – HMS ‘Victory’ (Coll-1668).

‘Eves’ performances took place at, for example, the local village hall in Muthill, August 1916, in aid of the National Work Party…

'Ehe Eves' to perform at Muthill Hall

‘The Eves’ to perform at Muthill Hall, August 1916 (Coll-1668).

…and other performances were at Porteous Hall, Crieff, September 1916, in aid of the Scottish Red Cross, and at the Pavilion Hall, Glasgow, later in 1916.

Performance at Crieff

Performance to be given at Crieff, September 1916 (Coll-1668).

In the album acquired by Edinburgh University Library, a photographic reproduction of a news clipping from The Strathearn Herald, 26 August 1916, describes the Variety Entertainment at Muthill Hall where ‘the seats were extensively booked throughout Muthill, Crieff and Auchterarder districts’. Indeed, ‘fully half-an-hour before the starting-time […] motor cars began to arrive with front-seat ticket-holders, as well as public vehicles which brought numbers more from populous centres’. The programme opened with Mrs Wilson and a Chorus offering a ‘fine rendering of Ivor Novello’s popular Keep the Homes Fires Burning.

The performance was ‘shown nicely under the special lighting arrangements regulated […] and worked from a dynamo driven by Mrs. Wilson’s private motor outside’.

Performance by 'The Eves' at the Pavilion Theatre Glasgow

Performance by ‘The Eves’ at the Pavilion Theatre Glasgow, November 1916 (Coll-1668).

A Special Matinee at the Pavilion Theatre on 7 November 1916 was held to raise funds to purchase Motor Ambulance Wagons for Glasgow and District. ‘The Eves’ Committee were indebted to the Pavilion Theatre Directors for giving the use of the Theatre, and to Mr. D. Y. Cameron A.R.A. for ‘so graciously having designed the cover’ of the Matinee Programme.

Special matinee programme cover, desinged by D. Y. Cameron A.R.A.

Special matinee programme cover, designed by D. Y. Cameron A.R.A. (Coll-1668).

David Young Cameron (1865-1945) – knighted in 1924 – had been a student of both the Glasgow School of Art and the Edinburgh School of Art.

Detail from Cameron's programme for the Special Matinee performance of 'The Eves'

Detail from Cameron’s programme for the Special Matinee performance of ‘The Eves’ in Glasgow (Coll-1668).

The Special Matinee at the Pavilion Theatre included performances by Mrs. Wilson and her son ‘little Jock Wilson’. With the Chorus she sang ‘Molly, the Marchioness’ from The Country Girl, ‘The girl with the brogue’ from The Arcadians, ‘The flower girl’, and ‘The lads who play the game’. Unaccompanied, and with Miss S. Bulloch Graham she sang ‘The girl with the brogue’ from The Arcadians, and ‘The Middy’ from ‘The Marriage Market’.

More detail from the Cameron work

More detail from the Cameron work (Coll-1668).

Again, the album describes the Pavilion Theatre performances from news clippings. A feature of the charity event was the floral display – on the stage and in the Theatre – and the distribution of 3000 buttonholes. Apparently, one of the highlights ‘was the appearance of little Jock Wilson […] the little fellow presented a bouquet and ran off the stage with as little self-consciousness as if he had been in his nursery’.

Some of 'The Eves'

Some of ‘The Eves’ at one of their performances (Coll-1668).

After their successful appearance in Glasgow, ‘The Eves’ gave a Grand Concert and Variety Entertainment at the Pavilion Theatre, Johnstone, a few weeks later on 7 February 1917.

Some of 'The Eves'

Costumes of ‘The Eves’ (Coll-1668).

This was for a special appeal by the 38th Renfrew Voluntary Aid Detachment for the County of Renfrew Red Cross Fund.

StripDr. Graeme D. Eddie, Assistant Librarian Archives & Manuscripts, Centre for Research Collections

 

 

Maritime difficulties during the First World War – Christian Salvesen & Co.

SINKINGS AND LOSS OF LIFE, SHORTAGES OF SUPPLY, AND REQUISITIONING… DIFFICULTIES FACED BY THE FIRM OF CHRISTIAN SALVESEN & CO. DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR

Diary F42 Armistice TES(2)Contemporary papers within the archive of the general shipping and whaling firm Christian Salvesen & Co. (Coll-36) – based in Leith, Scotland, until the late 20th century – tell of the company’s trials during the First World War. Indeed, diary entries of both Edward Theodore Salvesen (Lord Salvesen) (1857-1942) and a younger brother Theodore Emil Salvesen (1863-1942) record the loss of the Salvesen vessel Glitra which was the first British ship to be sunk through enemy action by a submarine in the opening months of the First World War. Glitra had been sunk by a German submarine on 20 October 1914, just off Skudenes, Rogaland, Norway.

The Salvesen vessel 'Glitra' scuttled by its German captors off Skudenes, Norway 20 October 1914. Gen. Coll-36 (2nd tranche, C1. No.41).

The Salvesen vessel ‘Glitra’ scuttled by its German captors off Skudenes, Norway 20 October 1914. Coll-36 (2nd tranche, C1. No.41).

Glitra had started life as the Saxon Prince at the Swan Hunter yard on the Tyne (Wallsend) where it was launched in 1882. It sailed with the Prince Steam Shipping Co. until 1895 when it was acquired by Christian Salvesen & Co. and renamed Glitra. During a voyage from Grangemouth to Stavanger in Norway, carrying coal, iron plate and oil, the ship was stopped and searched 26 km off Skudenes – just outside neutral Norwegian territorial waters – by the German U-boat U-17 commanded by Kapitänleutnant Johannes Feldkirchner.

Diary entry of Lord Salvesen noting the loss of 'Glitra' in October 1914. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Diaries of Lord Salvesen, F17).

Diary entry of Lord Salvesen noting the loss of ‘Glitra’ in October 1914. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Diaries of Lord Salvesen, F17).

No lives were lost during the incident however, as the crew of the Glitra had been ordered into lifeboats . The German sailors then opened the ship’s sea-valves and scuttled it. After U-17 left the scene, the torpedo boat Hai of the Royal Norwegian Navy took the lifeboats under tow to the Norwegian harbour of Skudeneshavn. The same U-boat, U-17, captured and sunk the Salvesen vessel Ailsa just north-east of Bell Rock in the North Sea on 17 June 1915.

Diary entry of Theodore Emil Salvesen noting the loss of 'Glitra' in October 1914. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Diaries of Theodore Emil Salvesen, F42).

Diary entry of Theodore Emil Salvesen noting the loss of ‘Glitra’ in October 1914. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Diaries of Theodore Emil Salvesen, F42).

The Glitra incident was recorded in the diaries of both Lord Salvesen and Theodore Emil Salvesen. About the loss, the elder Salvesen brother wrote on Wednesday 21 October 1914, ‘Sad news that Glitra captured by German submarine & sunk’. The younger Salvesen – perhaps still recovering from the bout of bronchitis which he also noted in his diary – wrote his own stark and matter-of-fact entry on Tuesday 20 October, ‘Glitra S/S sunk off Norway’, and about the loss of Ailsa in 1915 his diary entry for Friday 18 June 1915 has ‘Ailsa S/S reported sunk by submarine yesterday off Bell Rock. 40 miles’.

The Salvesen cargo ship 'Coronda' torpedoed by German submarine 'U-81' in the Atlantic Ocean 200 miles off Ireland, 13 March 1917. Coll-36 (2nd tranche, C1. No.41).

The Salvesen cargo ship ‘Coronda’ torpedoed by German submarine ‘U-81’ in the Atlantic Ocean 200 miles off Ireland, 13 March 1917. Coll-36 (2nd tranche, C1. No.41).

Although the scuttling of the Glitra was the first instance of a British merchant vessel being lost to a German submarine, Salvesen would face the loss of several other vessels from its general cargo fleet during the First World War, not least the 2733 ton cargo ship Coronda which was torpedoed by U-81 in the Atlantic Ocean 330 km west of Donegal, Ireland, on 13 March 1917, with the loss of nine lives. Again, the incident was recorded in briefest terms by Theodore Emil Salvesen in his diary, ‘Coronda S/S sunk by torpedo, 200 miles from land, 9 men lost – 6.30am’. The names of some of the lost Salvesen ships – e.g. Glitra, Ailsa and Coronda – would be preserved in newer vessels a few years later.

Diary entry of Theodore Emil Salvesen noting the loss of 'Ailsa' in June 1915. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Diaries of Theodore Emil Salvesen, F42).

Diary entry of Theodore Emil Salvesen noting the loss of ‘Ailsa’ in June 1915. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Diaries of Theodore Emil Salvesen, F42).

Diary entry of Theodore Emil Salvesen noting the loss of 'Coronda' in March 1917. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Diaries of Theodore Emil Salvesen, F42).

Diary entry of Theodore Emil Salvesen noting the loss of ‘Coronda’ in March 1917. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Diaries of Theodore Emil Salvesen, F42).

A little earlier, in February 1917, the Salvesen vessel Katherine was captured and sunk by the German merchant raider SMS Möwe . A letter from the Finance Department of the Ministry of Shipping in London to Christian Salvesen & Co. in Leith, dated 21 June 1917, reveals that the Government department was unwilling to accept the claim of £80,000 placed before them by the firm for their loss and sought ‘professional valuation in support’ of the claim. The letter stated that the vessel ‘has been valued by one of the leading men in the country at the sum of £70,000, and the valuation made in this office makes the ship worth very much less than the amount of your claim’. Later, in July 1917, the Ministry of Shipping would offer £75,000 to the firm. In March 1918 there would be further objection from the Ministry over the claim placed by Christian Salvesen & Co. for the loss of the vessel Cadmus which had been torpedoed and sunk off Flamborough Head in October 1917 by the German mine-laying submarine UC-47. The Ministry would eventually agree the sum of £83,000 in full settlement of the firm’s claim for the loss of Cadmus, and in November 1918 the Ministry agreed to pay £40,000 to Salvesen for the loss of the John O. Scott which had been torpedoed and sunk off Trevose Head, Cornwall, in September 1918 by the German mine-laying submarine U-117.

Letter from the Ministry of Shipping to Christian Salvesen & Co., dated 21 June 1917, about the firm's claim for the loss of the vessel 'Katherine' through enemy action. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Letter book, A77).

Letter from the Ministry of Shipping to Christian Salvesen & Co., dated 21 June 1917, about the firm’s claim for the loss of the vessel ‘Katherine’ through enemy action. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Letter book, A77).

Letter from the Ministry of Shipping to Christian Salvesen & Co., dated 10 May 1918, about the firm's claim for the loss of the vessel 'Cadmus' through enemy action. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Letter book, A77).

Letter from the Ministry of Shipping to Christian Salvesen & Co., dated 10 May 1918, about the firm’s claim for the loss of the vessel ‘Cadmus’ through enemy action. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Letter book, A77).

Letter from the Ministry of Shipping to Christian Salvesen & Co., dated 4 November 1918, about the firm's claim for the loss of the vessel 'John O. Scott' through enemy action. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Letter book, A77).

Letter from the Ministry of Shipping to Christian Salvesen & Co., dated 4 November 1918, about the firm’s claim for the loss of the vessel ‘John O. Scott’ through enemy action. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Letter book, A77).

In spite of the loss of cargo vessel tonnage, the other arm of the company’s business – whaling in the South Atlantic around South Georgia – expanded further to supply much needed whale oil for the home front. The oil was required to make glycerol for the manufacture of nitro-glycerine for explosives. Whale oil was also used for the production of edible fat. To all nations – whaling or non-whaling, belligerent or neutral – the commodity was a vital one. Indeed, recorded in a collection of newspaper-cuttings within the archive of Christian Salvesen & Co. is a small article reporting a protest from Norway over the impounding of Norwegian ships and whale-oil cargo in British ports… clearly breaches of the country’s neutrality by Britain. The article reports how previously the British authorities had notified Norway that they would respect the Norwegian whaling fleet, except in cases where it was believed the cargo was being supplied to Germany. Now however, the article continues, the Norwegian government had received a new message from the British government indicating that it was forced to impound all Norwegian ships with whale-oil cargoes to prevent export to Germany. Some Norwegian ships had already been impounded. The article goes on to remind the British governement of the rights of neutral states such as Norway, Denmark and Sweden to onward transport of cargoes and free navigation.

Article, 'England og hvaloljen', dated 5 January 1915, from Norwegian title (unknown) reporting change in British policy towards Norwegian ships and cargoes. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, News-cutting Album, H27).

Article, ‘England og hvaloljen’, dated 5 January 1915, from Norwegian title (unknown) reporting change in British policy towards Norwegian ships and cargoes. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, News-cutting Album, H27).

To increase whale oil production as the War continued, all regulations around the whaling-industry were relaxed including restrictions on the number of whale-catching vessels. Nevertheless, shortages at home in the northern hemisphere due to the war economy, and loss of the island nation’s valuable imports and exports through enemy action, affected the firm’s activities in the southern hemisphere, and the supply to it of the necessary resources to maintain its operations. Indeed, everything from fuel oils and coal, prefabricated buildings, machine tools, wires and cables, tanks, saws and saw blades, timber and wood products, and food provisions all had to be sourced beyond South Georgia and the Falkland Islands.

Letter from the Ministry of Food, Oils and Fats Section, to Christian Salvesen & Co., dated 9 July 1917, about the export of tanks. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Letter book, A77).

Letter from the Ministry of Food, Oils and Fats Section, to Christian Salvesen & Co., dated 9 July 1917, about the export of tanks. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Letter book, A77).

The UK was often unable to supply the resources. On 9 July 1917, the Oils and Fats Section of the Ministry of Food wrote to Christian Salvesen & Co. stating that ‘in view of the very heavy demand for Tanks for Home production’ the Director was ‘unable to see his way to make any recommendation for the export of the tanks’ required. A couple of days later, on 11 July 1917, the same Oils and Fats Section at the Ministry of Food wrote that ‘In view of Home demands for Lead for purposes of National Defence I am instructed to enquire whether it is not possible for you to purchase for your South Georgia Station in some parts of the American Continent?’

Letter from the Ministry of Food, Oils and Fats Section, to Christian Salvesen & Co., dated 11 July 1917, about lead and the possibility of obtaining the resource from the Americas. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Letter book, A77).

Letter from the Ministry of Food, Oils and Fats Section, to Christian Salvesen & Co., dated 11 July 1917, about lead and the possibility of obtaining the resource from the Americas. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Letter book, A77).

Again, on 19 July 1918, but this time from the Ministry of Munitions of War, came a letter to Christian Salvesen & Co. acknowledging receipt of an application ‘in respect of materials required for an electric lighting installation at the Whaling Station, South Georgia’. With regard to the cabling required, the Ministry wrote that ‘all copper wire of gauge 20 and finer, is required by the Admiralty’.

Letter from the Ministry of Munitions of War, to Christian Salvesen & Co., dated 19 July 1918, about Admiralty expropriation of copper wire of gauge 20 and finer. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Letter book, A77).

Letter from the Ministry of Munitions of War, to Christian Salvesen & Co., dated 19 July 1918, about Admiralty expropriation of copper wire of gauge 20 and finer. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Letter book, A77).

Although there was a demand for whale-oil throughout the War (for glycerol and the subsequent manufacture of nitro-glycerine for explosives), it is clear that shortages of equipment and government restrictions were making it extremely difficult for the firm to meet the demand. Indeed, plans to increase the number of steam-powered whale-catching vessels operating in the Southern Ocean had to be abandoned.

Extract from the Minutes of a Meeting of Directors (South Georgia Co. Ltd) held Thursday 26 July 1917 in Leith, and during which hiring of additional steam-powered whale-catchers was discussed. Coll-36 (3rd tranche, Minute Book, South Georgia Co. Ltd).

Extract from the Minutes of a Meeting of Directors (South Georgia Co. Ltd) held Thursday 26 July 1917 in Leith, and during which hiring of additional steam-powered whale-catchers was discussed. Coll-36 (3rd tranche, Minute Book, South Georgia Co. Ltd).

At a meeting of Salvesen Directors (The South Georgia Company Ltd) held at the Registered Office in Bernard Street, Leith, on 26 July 1917, it was agreed that in order ‘to do everything possible to increase the production of whale oil during the coming season’ the vessels Granat, Ole Wegger, and Sorka would be hired from Norway, and Blink and Skarphjedinn from Cape Town. In the event, Sorka had to be retained in Norway because of local losses of tonnage, and neither the vessel Blink nor Skarphjedinn could be sent south because restrictions put in place by the Ministry of Shipping meant that the station there could not be provided ‘with the requisite coal and empty barrels which would have been necessary to work up the extra catch of these whaling steamers’.

Extract from the Minutes of a Meeting of Directors (South Georgia Co. Ltd) held Friday 21 June 1918 in Leith, and during which failure to hire additional steam-powered whale-catchers was discussed. Coll-36 (3rd tranche, Minute Book, South Georgia Co. Ltd).

Extract from the Minutes of a Meeting of Directors (South Georgia Co. Ltd) held Friday 21 June 1918 in Leith, and during which failure to hire additional steam-powered whale-catchers was discussed. Coll-36 (3rd tranche, Minute Book, South Georgia Co. Ltd).

Like other shipping firms in ports around the UK, Christian Salvesen & Co. had many of its vessels requisitioned by the Government – and subsequently sunk by the Germans. This of course impacted on its South Georgia operations and its own means of supplying and maintaining these operations. A letter from the Director of Ship Requisitioning at the Transport Department of the Ministry of Shipping in London, dated 26 October 1917, records the firm’s anxieties about requisitioning. The letter in reply states that ‘regarding tonnage for South Georgia, I regret to inform you that while careful consideration has been given to your request the Department cannot see its way to release any of your steamers from requisition’.

Letter from the Ministry of Shipping, to Christian Salvesen & Co., dated 26 October 1917, about a request for the release of vessels from requisition. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Letter book, A77).

Letter from the Ministry of Shipping, to Christian Salvesen & Co., dated 26 October 1917, about a request for the release of vessels from requisition. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Letter book, A77).

At 5am on the morning of Monday 11 November 1918 – as noted in the diary entry of Theodore Emil Salvesen – Germany signed the Armistice agreement, and hostilities were to cease at 11am. The slaughter of the Great War was over.

In January 1919, some two months after the Armistice, the office of the Director of Commercial Services at the Ministry of Shipping wrote to Christian Salvesen & Co. about the firm’s ‘application for the release’ of its steamers from requisition. This matter, wrote the Ministry, ‘will in due course receive consideration’, but ‘no immediate action can be taken in so far as release is concerned’.

Letter from the Ministry of Shipping, to Christian Salvesen & Co., dated 9 January 1919, about the release of vessels from requisition. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Letter book, A77).

Letter from the Ministry of Shipping, to Christian Salvesen & Co., dated 9 January 1919, about the release of vessels from requisition. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Letter book, A77).

Following the War came Peace and the firm of Christian Salvesen & Co. took advantage of the increased demand – and of course high prices – for ships and sold off a large part of its fleet. This would help keep the company afloat during the years of economic crisis that would come in the late-1920s and into the 1930s.

Diary entry of Theodore Emil Salvesen for Monday 11 November 1918, noting the Armistice. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Diaries of Theodore Emil Salvesen, F42).

Diary entry of Theodore Emil Salvesen for Monday 11 November 1918, noting the Armistice. Salvesen Archive. Coll-36 (1st tranche, Diaries of Theodore Emil Salvesen, F42).

Dr. Graeme D. Eddie, Assistant Librarian Archives & Manuscripts, Centre for Research Collections

In addition to material in the Archive itself, and on-line maritime wreck sites, the following work was used in the construction of the blogpost: Salvesen of Leith, by Wray Vamplew (Scottish Academic Press: Edinburgh, London, 1975)

From Devon to Bombay: F.A.E. Crew’s war

F.A.E. Crew, 1918

F.A.E. Crew, 1918

Francis Albert Eley Crew (1886-1973) had a distinguished career at the University of Edinburgh as director of the Institute of Animal Genetics and Buchanan Professor of Animal Genetics, and later as Professor of Public Health and Social Medicine. But at the time of the First World War he was a newly qualified medic with a small rural practice in Devon and a young family. His war experience profoundly affected his future career, spurring him to leave medicine behind to follow his real passion: genetics. Crew provided a vivid account of his war years both in oral history form and in a written memoir, both of which are held here in EUL Special Collections.

When war broke out in August 1914, Crew was at summer camp in East Devon with the Devonshire Regiment 6th Battalion of the Territorial Army, with whom he had been enthusiastically involved in his local village. What began as a summer holiday ended in a flurry of intense activity as men rushed forward to be recruited into the army. Crew and thirteen of his fellow men from his village, became the 2nd 6th Devons, bound for India. Although Crew was medically qualified, and therefore eligible to join the Royal Army Medical Corps, he wanted to see ‘active service’ and so kept his qualifications a secret.

Crew quickly formed the opinion that the organisation and training were a ‘ragbag of inefficiency’ and ‘complete chaos’. Many of his senior officers were ‘of the Boer War vintage’ with outmoded ideas; at the age of 28, Crew found himself rapidly promoted to the rank of Major and in command of a company. His battalion sailed for Bombay on 12 December 1914, leaving his wife Helen heavily pregnant with their second child. Conditions on board were somewhat chaotic: ‘The overcrowding was such that no kind of training could be undertaken and the voyage was so long that by the time we reached the Ballard Pier, Bombay, the troops were in a sorry state and found the march to the barracks at Colaba far beyond their powers.’

Once in India, the batallion came under the orders of the 6th (Poona) Divisional Area at Bombay, and Crew was sent to Deolali, where he was made responsible for field training and for the maintenance of law and order in the area. After the elderly Commanding Officer was sent home on medical grounds, Crew duly became second-in-command of a wing of the battalion, ‘with somewhat vague duties.’ Crew had enough on his hands playing ‘mother’ and ‘father’ to the young men who had come along with him, and all of whom (except one ) had never left Devon before and were totally lost in this foreign land. He spoke of his feelings of loneliness and isolation which came with promotion: ‘if you’re in command of a couple of companies of troops or a battalion or of a field ambulance, then you are isolated from all your colleagues, I mean you’re responsible for them and they can share very little with you.’

Crew in India, 1915

Crew in India, 1915

Crew was then sent to Muttra, south of Delhi, with two companies, and then up the Khyber Pass, where they commanded a fort. By this time, Crew was growing frustrated that his duties were confined to training men to fight while not seeing active service himself. But change was on the horizon. Crew developed amoebic dystentry – ‘quite deliberately’ he later wryly remarked – and became seriously ill. He was sent to Bombay to the embarkation authorities, for return to the UK. At this point, his medically qualified status was discovered, and, after a short period of rest and recuperation, Crew was posted to France, where he took over control of the stretcher-bearers in the No. 3 Field Ambulance at Arras. It was intensely dangerous work, Crew received his first wound on his second day, at Bern-Villiers, south-east of Arras:

I was sent up into the line to take over from a Major Anderson, who was running the forward work of the ambulance doing all the clearing, and he took me round all the eight-posts in front and we came back and I was marking them on my map in a small Armstrong hut, I think they called them – little cardboard thing, struck up against the face of a hill. And he was sitting down on a table and I was bending toward him as we made the marks on the map, and all of a sudden there was a terrific flare, glare, crash, noise and everything disappeared in smoke and fume and I found myself – when I came to – jammed under the seat. I’d been blown under the seat for some reason or another. I got out with great difficulty – I was wounded rather badly – and there was poor Anderson sitting on the seat…and he’d got a sliver of shell casing that long and that wide sticking out of his chest. I got that out and tried to do something for him but it was hopeless, hopeless, hopeless. So he died there promptly in my arms, and that’s not a good introduction to a war by any means.

Crew was to receive two more wounds during his time in France. These harrowing experiences naturally affected him profoundly, and he became convinced that he would not survive: ‘I didn’t bother about tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, I didn’t think there was going to be one.’ It was not until the war was reaching its end and victory seemed likely that Crew was suddenly assailed by the realisation that he might indeed have a life to return to – what was he going to do when he returned to normality?

There was no doubt at all that we were winning, and winning fast, and consequently I began to think that possibly there was a future. And so, when once that question asked itself, the second question followed: what do I do? You see, I’d been five years away from anything. Complete waste, complete waste – from my point of view. There was hardly a book, there was hardly a thing you could get hold of. And I was sitting, I was living in a hole in the ground, hanging my accoutrements upon the skeleton hand of somebody who’d been buried there years before, and under those completely gruesome conditions, one began to wonder what one was, what one wanted, what one wanted to be and so on and so forth. And it was very interesting, the speed and the clarity with which I reached my decision. I was going to be a geneticist.

Crew, Frank (1919(B)
Crew received his demobilisation in early 1919, after a demoralising experience overseeing anti-venereal work in Cologne. The war had filled him with a sense of urgency: an awareness of wasted years, a lack of intellectual stimulation and the constant threat of annihilation. Now it was all over, he was filled with a new sense of purpose:

I had discovered much about myself under the stresses of great fear, of intense boredom, of much disillusionment. I came to know that I could find satisfaction only in the academic world and in activities connected with the genetics and reproductive physiology of animals.

Crew returned eagerly to Edinburgh with the intention of studying genetics at the University under Arthur Darbishire. Unexpectedly however, Crew discovered that Darbishire had died during the war. Even more unexpectedly, Crew was suddenly offered the post intended for Darbishire: that of director of a new Animal Breeding Research Station in Edinburgh. Despite his own concerns that he was scarcely qualified in genetics, Crew went on to develop the Station into the internationally renowned Institute of Animal Genetics.

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Second General Military Hospital, Craigleith

In this edition of Untold Stories, Louise (Archivist at Lothian Health Services Archive) looks at the history of one of the many military hospitals in our region:

During the current centenary of the First World War, LHSA has received a number of requests for records of patients in the many military hospitals in and around Edinburgh: from Red Cross auxiliary hospitals to specialist units and existing medical facilities that were requisitioned by the authorities. Due to the fact that medical records of service patients were returned to the custody of the Public Record Office in London (many of which were subsequently destroyed in a Second World War bombing raid), we are unable to help with these enquiries, even if we have custody of patient records generated by requisitioned local hospitals in peacetime. If you are researching the individual records of a forces’ patient or member of military medical staff, there are some resources that may help you at the end of the blog. However, LHSA holds a number of privately donated resources that uncover the realities of hospital life for First World War patients and medical staff alike, supplementing the ‘official’ military record.

One of Edinburgh’s military hospitals was the Second General Military Hospital, Craigleith. The hospital was run by a Territorial Unit, who requisitioned the hospital wing of the Craigleith Hospital and Poorhouse. The first patient was received as early as August 1914, and the hospital was handed back to Edinburgh Town Council in Spring 1919. When the Local Government (Scotland) Act (1929) came into force, control of poorhouses and poorlaw hospitals transferred to the municipal authorities. The poorhouse at Craigleith became an institution that is still very much alive today – the Western General Hospital (WGH).

Craigleith c1914

Exterior of the Second General Military Hospital, Craigleith (GD28)

LHSA is lucky enough to hold a number of items that bring the days of the Second General Military Hospital more sharply into focus for researchers. In addition to his specialism of gastroenterology, WGH Consultant Dr Martin Eastwood was also a hospital historian – in 1995, a book on the development of the WGH was published, written by Eastwood and his secretary, Anne Jenkinson. The sources used by Dr Eastwood were donated to us in 2009, and form a largely visual collection on the history of the hospital, starting from its opening as a poorhouse in 1867.

Among Dr Eastwood’s donation was a photograph album from the Second General Military Hospital. We do not know who gave the album to Dr Eastwood, but its images give a unique insight into hospital life.

GD28_8_1 001

The Craigleith photograph album (GD28/8/1)

For example, we can see the operating theatre that was built for the new military patients, and used by the WGH up to 1950 (though hopefully conditions had moved on a bit by then!):

GD28_8_1 004

New operating theatre in action, c. 1914 (GD28/8/1)

The hospital was headed by Colonel Sir Joseph Fayrer and its clinical staff made up of Edinburgh doctors, many of whom had (or were to have) distinguished medical careers (such as neurologist Edwin Bramwell and pioneer of modern dentistry William Guy). Nurses were for the most part untrained – local women who were members of Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs):

GD28_8_1 003GD28_8_1 002

 

 

 

Nurses and male medical staff at Craigleith in the Eastwood album (GD28/8/1)

Recuperation was not always solely medical – the hospital laid on various activities in order to make the soldier patients’ time more pleasurable. We have evidence of this in surviving copies of the hospital magazine, the Craigleith Hospital Chronicle. You can see a complete edition on the LHSA website, here. The Chronicle was a monthly publication started in 1914 by Craigleith nurse Annie Paulin. The copies that LHSA hold show images of hospital life, patients and staff, publish informational pieces on Scottish regiments, tell of social occasions at the hospital, showcase story serials and commemorate major events in the war, such as the rail disaster at Quintinshill (Gretna), which claimed the lives of 216 Royal Scots soldiers and 12 civilians:

GD28_6_5_gretnaPoem to the victims at Gretna, June 1915 edition (GD28/6/1)

The Chronicle also had a regular feature (cue plug for my last blog!) titled A Nurse’s Notes from Serbia written by ‘M.T.F’ (one of the infuriating things about trying to trace authors in this magazine is that many contributions were only signed by initials!). M.T.F wrote about life at the front as a Scottish Women’s Hospital nurse:

Page 46Craigleith Hospital Chronicle, December 1915 (GD1/82/11)

If you’d like to guess the identity of M.T.F, the excellent nursing history website Scarlet Finders lists all Scottish Women’s Hospital nurses.

However, not all Chronicle articles took such a serious note. For example, comic poems and occasionally cartoons took a turn to supplement more ‘educative’ material:

Page 41Page 45
Lighter material from the same December 1915 edition (GD1/82/11)

 

 

 

Unless patients signed articles or poems in the Chronicle, we have little idea of who they actually were from the material that we hold at LHSA. Fortunately, we do hold another piece of evidence in an autograph book created by Craigleith nurse Sister Ethel Miller from 1916 to 1919.

Rather than the celebrity signatures that fill autograph books of the modern day, these small volumes were passed from nurses to soldier patients on the wards, who contributed sketches, cartoons, anecdotes and poetry. Keeping these books appears to have been common practice for nurses, and many survive in archive collections across the United Kingdom (including this one in the National Museum of Scotland).

Born in 1888 in Edinburgh, Ethel was a professional nurse before the war, qualifying from the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh School of Nursing and from the wartime Territorial Nursing Service in 1916. Along with photographs, printed material and nursing certificates, Ethel’s scrapbook was generously bequeathed to LHSA in 2012 by her son.

Ethel Sister Ethel Miller (Acc12/025)

Sister Miller issued instructions to her potential contributors: according to a poem in the volume, she wanted ‘not just a name’, but ‘something else besides’, a more personal contribution from her charges in the form of a verse, a joke or a drawing. The result of her instructions is a fascinating insight into the often battle-scarred and weary ordinary ‘Tommy’ – we know that most contributors in the book were from the rank of private by the signatures after each drawing, poem or anecdote

Although not all of the completed pages are signed, there were at least 43 different contributors. The soldiers (for the contributors were largely from the army) wrote poems, limericks, drew original cartoons, traced published images with blotting papers and sketched regimental badges and front-line experience. Some praised the bravery of their regiment, as did Private A. Lane of the Kings Own Scottish Borderers in October 1916, which was ‘a credit to his friends and a terror to his foes’. However, the main themes of the book do not concentrate on heroism on the field of battle, but on war’s drudgery and the after effects of conflict, whether that was the domestic regimes of hospital life, reaction from civilians at home to returning war wounded (as new technologies of battle left maimed soldiers as physical reminders of the effects of war) and the misery of life in the trenches.

Christmasinquisitive

Cartoons from Ethel’s autograph book (Acc12/025)

In 2013, LHSA Research Intern Kirstin Cunningham saw the potential of Ethel Miller’s book for use in education, as an object that could bring the war directly to students through ordinary soldiers’ experiences. As a photography and film graduate, Kirstin painstakingly re-created the scrapbook page by page through digital imaging, fixing each image into a modern, similar sized book that she distressed to resemble its original. Soldiers’ stories can now be literally taken out of the archive, even if we will never know all of their names.

GD28_8_1 006Craigleith soldier patients at a concert in the recreation room (GD28/8/1)

 

 

 

Further resources on tracing military records from the First World War:

http://bit.ly/1NUdbde

http://bit.ly/1NUdrZR

http://www.scarletfinders.co.uk/125.html

http://bit.ly/1U6maz1

 

 

Hawick and Roxburghshire, February 1915: On a war footing…

THE HAWICK EXPRESS & ADVERTISER AND ROXBURGHSHIRE GAZETTE, 5 FEBRUARY 1915

Title bannerKnown by other earlier titles, the Hawick Express and Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette would later on become absorbed by the Southern Reporter.

Call for men for the 4th K.O.S.B., reported in the 'Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette' on p.2.

Call for men for the 4th K.O.S.B., reported in the ‘Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette’ on p.2. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-15).

In the wider world by Friday 5 February 1915, when this particular issue of the Hawick local paper was distributed, Turkish forces had just reached the Suez Canal after crossing the Sinai Desert and were engaging British troops, the Turkish forces had also recently attacked Aden (now in Yemen), the German government had announced that they would begin a blockade of Britain on 18 February, and the British, French and Russian governments had announced that agreement had been reached on pooling their financial resources.

The war was becoming a truly World War, with Eastern and Western Fronts, and a Middle Eastern theatre of war.

So it was then that on 5 February, the Hawick Express and Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette reported that the 4th King’s Own Scottish Borderers (K.O.S.B.) needed 200 more soldiers. ‘There are hundreds of Young Men on the Borders who have not yet answered the call’, the notice stated.

Further report about the Call for men for the 4th K.O.S.B., p.3.

Further report about the Call for men for the 4th K.O.S.B., p.3. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-15).

The newspaper also carried an advertisement for recruits to a new so-called ‘bantam’ battalion sponsored by Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, 1st Earl of Midlothian. Such battalions were for potential soldiers of below the British Army’s minimum regulation height. The advertisement asked for men aged 18-38 ‘of good physique […] willing, if accepted, to defend their Homes or to march to Berlin’. The ‘Rosebery Bantam Battalion’ was raised in Edinburgh and would move to France in December 1916 serving on the Western Front for the remainder of the war.

Advertisement for a battalion sponsored by the Earl of Rosebery, printed in the 'Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette' on p.1.

Advertisement for a battalion sponsored by the Earl of Rosebery, printed in the ‘Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette’ on p.1. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-15).

Once the men, be they the men of the ‘Rosebery Bantam Battalion’ or those of the 4th K.O.SB. were at the front – or billeted in the region, or recovering in hospitals and nursing homes across the country – they could look forward to the ‘comforts for the soldiers’ collected by private individuals as this notice in the Hawick Express and Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette shows. Readers were asked to send a postcard if they wanted sheets, pillow-cases, vests, games and music to be collected for the soldiers.

Advertisement calling for items for serving soldiers, in the 'Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette' on p.2. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-).

Advertisement calling for items for serving soldiers, in the ‘Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette’ on p.2. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-15).

The newspaper, like other local and national titles across the country carried advertisements for appropriate clothing for the Front and other theatres of war… for officers at least !

Burberry advertisement, in the 'Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette' on p.2. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-).

‘Burberry’ advertisement, in the ‘Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette’ on p.2. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-15).

The ‘Burberry’ War Kit was ‘a safeguard against rain, snow and frost, in the trenches or or on the march’. British warm ‘Burberry’ came in ‘Lined Fleece or Fur, Khaki Serge or Gabardine’.

'Burberry' advertisement, in the 'Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette' on p.2. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-).

‘Burberry’ advertisement, in the ‘Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette’ on p.2. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-15).

A short notice service Kit came with ‘Tunics, Slacks, Knickerbreeches, Great Coats and British Warms ready to try on’.

The newspaper provides us with a reflection of the Home Front too…

Readers of the Hawick Express and Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette could look forward to a weekend serial; the ‘splendid war serial’ entitled The Day or, the Passing of a throne by Fred M. White (this was Frederick Merrick White 1859-1935, pioneer of the spy story).

Serialised story, 'The Day' in the the 'Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette' on p.1. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-).

Serialised story, ‘The Day’ in the the ‘Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette’ on p.1. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-15).

The story featured, among other characters, ‘one of the chiefs of the British Secret Service’, his chief assistant who was the ‘inventor of a wonderful new aeroplane’, and ‘a native of Alsace’ who was in reality ‘in the service of the Democratic Federation of Germany enthusiastic over the formation of a German Republic’.

Notice about pubs, in the 'Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette' on p.3. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-).

Notice about pubs, and restrictions on soldiers, in the ‘Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette’ on p.3. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-15).

For soldiers billeted in Hawick and elsewhere in the Borders, pubs were ‘out of bounds’ to them except between the hours of 6 o’clock and 8 o’clock at night.

Advertisement for secretarial posts and examinations for them, in the 'Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette' on p.3. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-).

Advertisement for secretarial posts and examinations for them, in the ‘Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette’ on p.3. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-15).

The newspaper shows us how life was beginning to change for women too, with prospects looking good for employment in the commercial and industrial world in 1915. A College in Edinburgh announced examinations that were to be held for Civil Service posts ‘For Girls Ages 14-20’. The College claimed that there would be ‘an unprecedented demand for assistants’. The time was therefore right ‘for young people to secure a Government Post’.

Then as now, the newspaper also carried advertisements for remedies, not least this ‘Best Remedy Known for Coughs, Colds, Asthma, and Bronchitis’, and which ‘Effectually cuts short attacks of Spasms, Hysteria, and Palpitation’:

Advertisement for 'Chlorodyne' in the 'Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette' on p.1. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-).

Advertisement for ‘Chlorodyne’ in the ‘Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette’ on p.1. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-15).

And there were advertisements for escapes as well… often to North America… with passages from Glasgow to Quebec and Montreal, or to New Brunswick, from £10 upwards in Second Class. The Donaldson Line boasted that the steamers were ‘fitted with Marconi Wireless Telegraph’.

Advertisement for passages to North America, in the 'Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette' on p.1. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-).

Advertisement for passages to North America, in the ‘Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette’ on p.1. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-15).

The Anchor Line too though it worth mentioning that its steamers sailing from Glasgow to New York were fitted with ‘Marconi Wireless Telegraphy’.

Advertisement for passages to North America, in the 'Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette' on p.1. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-).

Advertisement for passages to North America, in the ‘Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette’ on p.1. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-15).

The Allan Line sought to get ahead of the game (maybe) by advertising that they had ‘Matrons for unaccompanied young women’.

Advertisement for passages to North America, in the 'Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette' on p.1. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-).

Advertisement for passages to North America, in the ‘Hawick Express & Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette’ on p.1. (Sarolea Collection 80, Coll-15).

News out in the wider world of the announcement by the German government that they would begin a blockade of Britain on 18 February 1915 should have warned of the fate awaiting coastal merchant and transatlantic shipping. In May 1915 the Cunard vessel R.M.S. Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine just 18 km off the Old Head of Kinsale Lighthouse (Co. Cork, Ireland) a few hours from its scheduled arrival time in Liverpool.

The Donaldson Line vessel Athenia would meet the same fate in 1917, as would the Anchor Line vessels Cameronia (sunk 1917), Tuscania (sunk 1918) and Ausonia (also sunk 1918). All of those vessels had been listed in the February newspaper ads.

Dr. Graeme D. Eddie, Assistant Librarian Archives & Manuscripts, Centre for Research Collections

(This issue of the Hawick Express and Advertiser and Roxburghshire Gazette lies in Sarolea Collection 80, ‘Belgian Relief 1914-18, Correspondence and other papers’, Coll-15.)