Diary Of A World War 1 Cavalry Officer

Includes with 21 illustrations and photos. A member of General French’s “Contemptible” little army recounts his tales of the opening two years of the First World War. Under shot and shell in the front lines with the gallant Tommies of the BEF from the first engagements until the bloody battle of Loos. “THIS little work does not profess to be a record of historical facts, but merely a series of impressions snap-shotted upon my mind as they occurred, and set down here in simple language; and if these snapshots can bring home to my readers some idea, however faint, of what war and its attendant miseries mean, then my labour will not have been in vain. “To those who may imagine that the British fighting man of to-day is not the equal of his forebears, who fought from Crécy and Agincourt to Albuera and Waterloo, I trust the story of Mons, the Aisne, Neuve Chapelle, and Ypres will set all doubts at rest.” STEWART, HERBERT ARTHUR, Major, was born 18 May, 1878, and was commissioned from the Militia 4 Jan. 1899, in the Suffolk Regt., from which he was transferred to the Army Service Corps 12 Feb. 1900. Capt. Stewart served in the South African War, 1899-1902, he received the Queen’s Medal with three clasps, and the King’s Medal with two clasps. He was Adjutant, Territorial Force, 1 Aug. 1911, to 31 July, 1914. He again saw active service in the European War from Aug. 1914, to the conclusion of hostilities, becoming Major the day war broke out. He was one of the very few British officers who entered Mons on Sunday, 23 Aug. 1914. For his services with the 3rd Division during the First Battles of Neuve Chapelle and Ypres in Oct. and Nov. 1914, he received a D.S.O. awarded "for services in connection with operations in the field.”

On mobilization the Household Cavalry Composite Regiment was formed with one squadron from each of 1st and 2nd Life Guards and Royal Horse Guards. They joined the 4th Cavalry Brigade in The Cavalry Division and landed in France on 16 August 1914. This account begins with extracts from the private diary of Lt Col E.B.Cook, CO of the regiment which begins on 14th August wqhen the regiment was put under orders for foreign service. This takes the story up to 22 Oct 1914 when Cook was wounded by a shell and was sent back to England. At this point the story is taken up with extracts from the private diary of Surgeon-major Cowie, 1st LG, which continue to 11 November 1914 when the regiment was broken up with the squadrons returning to their parent regiments in the 7th Cavalry Brigade (1st and 2nd LG) and 8th Cavalry Brigade (RHG). The 1st Life Guards, less one squadron, joined the newly formed 7th Cavalry Brigade in the UK on 1 Sep 1914; this brigade was part of the 3rd Cavalry Division then also being formed. They landed at Zeebrugge on 7 October 1914 and it is on the following day, 8th October the Regiment s War Diary begins. It goes on to 31 July 1915 and it makes a most interesting document, thanks to the officer who kept it, Capt the Hon E.H.Wyndham. Entries include all operation orders received from brigade, orders from other higher authorities, reports from squadrons in addition to the daily record of the regiment s activities. Casualties are named, officer arrivals and departures are noted. There are nominal rolls, rolls of honour which include details of PW and their place of internment, and lists of honours and awards.

In 1919 the diary of a parliamentary cavalry officer, written on an interleaved copy of William Lilly's Merlini Anglici Ephemeris, was exhibited at the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne. It was discovered to be that of Major John Sanderson for the year 1648, an officer in Colonel Robert Lilburne's regiment of horse. This was an extremely rare find, as while Civil War memoirs were common, daily accounts were not. Spanning from 11th January to 30th December, Sanderson's diary contained 270 entries that not only recalled well-known events, but also depicted the minutiae of patrol and skirmish. Major Sanderson's War is not merely a transcript of the diary, but an analysis of the role of cavalry and the northern campaign of the Second Civil War. No other book will provide the enthusiast with such a unique glimpse into the life of one of Cromwell's officers.

Henry Owens Great War diary provides a vivid and complete narrative, seen from the perspective of an army doctor, of what it was like to live and fight in the trenches of the Western Front. Owens, a member of the original British expeditionary Force, the Old Contemptibles, was among the first British soldiers to set foot in France. He spent the next four years in the front line as a doctor and a diarist, an eyewitness to some of the most bitter and violent struggles of the greatest conflict the world had ever seen. His writing, edited and with a full introduction by John Hutton, gives us an inside view of the duties and experiences of a doctor tending the fighting troops, and it paints a graphic portrait of the daily lives of the men themselves. Henry Owens was born into a doctors family in Long Stratton, Norfolk in 1889. When war was declared in 1914, he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and was sent to France with the British Expeditionary Force. He served as a front-line medical officer throughout the conflict and he kept a diary and notes. After the war he used this material to assemble this meticulous account of his experiences. After being demobilized in 1919 he returned to civilian medical practice and married, but he died after a sudden illness in 1921, aged just 31. After the death of his wife in 1980, the diary came into the possession of the Imperial War Museum.

The War Diaries for the Great War, held under WO95, represent one of the most popular record collections held at the National Archives, Kew, London. For researchers and family historians, the War Diaries contain a wealth of information of far greater interest than the army could ever have predicted. They provide unrivalled insight into daily events on the front line and are packed with fascinating detail. They contain no modern editing, opinions or poorly judged comments, just the war day by day, written by the men who fought this 'War to end all Wars. They are without question, the most important source of information available on the war on the Western Front. Full colour facsimile of each page with specially created chronological index. What is a War Diary? The headquarters of each unit and formation of the British Army in the field was ordered to maintain a record of its location, movements and activities. For the most part, these details were recorded on a standard army form headed 'War diary or intelligence summary'. What details are given? Details given vary greatly, depending on the nature of the unit, what it was doing and, to some extent, the style of the man writing it. The entries vary from very simple and repetitive statements like 'Training' up to many pages of description when a unit was in battle. Production of the diary was the responsibility of the Adjutant of the headquarters concerned. Is there any other information or documents with the diaries? Some diaries have other documentation attached, such as maps, operational orders and after-action reports.

Ypres diary 1914-15