Hospital and re-training in England (April - Sept 1918)
"We arrived safely in Southampton and I wired home
'All's well'. We proceeded to Newport, Monmouthshire where
I spent the best time I ever had in the army. It was now
April 1918 and I heard the news that the RGLI had been massacred
at Cambrai. Within four months my wounds were perfectly
healed. I was sent on ten days hospital leave and then to
Catterick Bridge, Yorkshire for gradual training. After
six weeks, a further ten days leave and five weeks training
in High Wycombe I was put on a draft for Salonica."
Salonica, Greece (Oct - Nov 1918)
In September 1918 British Divisions from Salonica
had sustained very heavy casualties in an offensive intended
to end the war in the Balkans.
"We left Blighty on the 14th October 1918 from Southampton
for Cherbourg then the next night entrained for the ten
day journey to Taranto, Italy. Embarked at Taranto for
Greece thence in a twelve lorry convoy through the Golden
Pass and a two day train journey to the Salonican base
called Summer Hill. I was posted to mule transport and
then shifted to D Howitzer Battery, 27th Division. It
was now November 1918 and Bulgaria and Germany had signed
the Armistice."
Post-war intervention in Russia (Dec 1918 - April 1919)
"After only two months in Greece the 27th Division
was ordered to Russia. We had two boats to carry us from
Salonica and going through the Dardanelles we saw sunken
ships and had splendid views of Constantinople. We went
through the Bosphorous to the Black Sea, arrived at Batoum,
Russia on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas Day unloading
wagons, guns, horses, ammunition, food and forage for
ninety days rations, in heavy drizzling rain. The worse
Christmas I have ever spent. We stayed in Batoum for fifteen
days chasing the Turks away then entrained for the 200
mile journey inland to Tiflis were we spent another fifteen
days doing the same thing. We then moved 300 miles up
country to Baku on the Caspian Sea. We had not tasted
bread for two months. At Baku we met up with Allenby's
army which had had a hard time marching through Persia.
Baku, as other places, was in disorder with a mixed population
of Georgians, Armenians, Kerenskys, Bolsheviks, Russians
etc. We had rather a hot time patrolling the towns, being
fired on from time to time. One of the main objects of
the British was to guard the oil wells, all along the
railway line from Baku to Batoum, some 500 miles, were
four rows of big oil pipes.
The place was swarming with diseases of all kinds. After
a month I was struck down with typhus and immediately
admitted to hospital where I was fed on milk only, for
three weeks. A great many died of this disease and I was
thankful to have pulled through. Left on a Russian hospital
train for Batoum thence on the old s/s Nile for Salonica
via Varna, Bulgaria to pick up more troops. With 1,400
troops onboard the ship anchored for two days at Constantinople.
We saw hundreds of warships there, British, French, Japanese,
American and Italian."
Return to England and demobilisation (May 1919)
On arriving at Dover Edmund and four other artillerymen
were sent to report at Woolwich. It was now May 1919.
After being kept waiting in the barracks he was eventually
sent to Fovant, Wiltshire to be demobilized, the end of
an army career which had lasted from 26 July 1914 to 3rd
June 1919.
Edmund returned to St. Peter's and died in that parish
in 1992 at the age of 96.
* information above on the 7th Division obtained from
the Long, Long Trail website at:
http://www.1914-1918.net/7div.htm
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