Remember, remember

I have never served in a military unit or had direct experience of warfare. There are no war memorials that bear the names of family members from past generations, because all those who served came back to tell the tale. Remembrance Day does not therefore have a direct impact on me.

However, that is not to say that there was no family involvement in the wars of the 20^th century, because my father’s two older brothers served in World War I, and one of these uncles lived in the family home when I was growing up. Uncle Frank, who was 56 years old when I was born, was not like many veterans who refused to speak about their experiences – instead, he was more than happy to tell me about what happened to him during his early 20s on the Western Front.

Apart from that, he kept diaries for the time that he served in the Army, and those diaries have been preserved to the present day. They were written in pencil that has become smudged over the years and are therefore difficult to read, so it is fortunate that in later life he summarised them in ink and this summary is much more accessible.

When war was declared on 4^th August 1914 Frank Welford was 18 years old and living with his parents and brothers in Frome, Somerset, where his father was the Methodist Minister. The diary entry read: “Saw water polo at Baths – Frome 6, Gloucester City 2. Standard very high – match very exciting”. His later comments were: “No mention of War declaration in diary. I had no idea then that it would affect me”.

Soon afterwards he started his student life at Reading University College, his intention being to qualify as a teacher. However, during his second term (in March 1915) he volunteered to join the Army but was rejected on the grounds that he wore glasses.

The following year he volunteered again and was accepted under a scheme that allowed students to defer their service until they had finished their exams.

In July 1916, having passed his second year exams and gained a teacher’s certificate, he joined up and began his Army training at Plymouth. His medical category was B1, which was defined as “fit for Garrison duty abroad”, and he was promptly assigned to the Royal Garrison Artillery.

His first experience of Army life was on Spike Island in Queenstown Harbour, southern Ireland, during the tense period following the Easter Rising, although he stated that he “wasted a month or so as Library and Post Orderly”.  There were also gun and shell drills to be undertaken, but no shots were fired in anger at anyone.

In January 1917 he was moved back to England (Prees Heath, Shropshire), joined the 321 siege battery and trained to become a “Battery Commander’s Assistant”. After more firing practice in March at Lydd in Kent his unit was mobilised and sent to France on a troop ship that sailed from Southampton to Le Havre.

He was stationed near the Lille Gate in Ypres, a city that was largely in ruins. On 2^nd June an enemy shell landed uncomfortably close to him as he crossed the town square and he suffered three puncture wounds to his leg. He was transported back to England for treatment and recovery and in September was sent to Catterick Camp in North Yorkshire. His duties, due to his low medical status at that time, were light and consisted mostly of playing the piano in the concert party that entertained the troops and performed at dances and other musical events.

He returned to active service in March 1918 as a member of the 179 siege battery at Agny, near Arras. After serving as a gunner he became a Battery Commander’s Assistant, positioned near the officer’s mess, and described his fighting from that point on as being done “with maps, range tables and slide rules”.

As the war progressed towards its conclusion, the battery was constantly on the move as it took up fresh positions in order to provide artillery cover for the advancing troops. However, Frank had another spell of incapacity in October, this time due to a skin infection that was probably caused by lice. By the time he had recovered and rejoined his unit the war was nearly over and the battery’s last rounds were fired on 25^th October.

After the Armistice was signed on 11^th November the Army had to stay where it was for several months. Frank was lucky in that, as a student, he was in a high category for demobilisation. Even so, it was not until late January 1919 that he was able to return home, which was now in Blandford, Dorset, and his official date of discharge was 25^th February.

In October he returned to Reading to finish his degree, but was greeted with the news that he had been included on the college’s “list of the dead” – an error that he was happy to correct. He stayed at Reading until the autumn of 1921, taking his finals in November. Although he qualified to teach Geography, his interest in Music was unabated and he later recounted that rubbed shoulders at one time with the composer Edmund Rubbra and also met Gustav Holst.

In January 1922 he started his first teaching job, at Gillingham Grammar School in Dorset, and his post-war career was under way.

As we all know, another war came along in 1939, but by this time Frank was 43. He served in the Home Guard at Weymouth, where he was teaching at the time, but that was the closest he ever got to fighting an enemy.

As war stories go, Frank Welford’s was not the most enthralling. He never went “over the top” or even saw a German soldier except during his sojourn at Catterick where a number of prisoners of war were held in confinement. His actual time spent on the Western Front only amounted to a few months out of the four years of World War I. Nevertheless, he did serve his country and his story is just as valid as any other and deserves to be remembered alongside all the rest.

© John Welford