Historic Records Men of 1914

Arrived overseas: 17 August 1914. Connection: Interviewed in 1981. I met William Pink on 1st October 1981 when I was 19-years-old and he was 86. At that time, he was one of a dwindling band of Chelmsford Old Contemptibles, although he was originally from Hampshire and had been born in Southampton on the 10th December 1895. Prior to enlisting on 10th May 1912, he had worked as a groom. I took out my note pad and jotted down what he told me. "When war was declared we were immediately shipped over to Boulogne and went straight to Mons from there. There was a lot of troop movement all sorting themselves out because the Germans were heading straight for the Belgian Front. I fought at First Ypres and then la Bassee and there was no sign of an armistice although everyone expected the war to be over within a few weeks. "All of a sudden we were retreating and the might of the German Army was just behind us. We were impeded by the Belgian refugees fleeing in front of us; famili...

Arrived overseas: 26 August 1914. Connection: PoW postcards. 3/10006 Sergeant John Thomas Lee of the 2nd Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment), could never have imagined, in all probability, that he would end up in a German prisoner of war camp. Born on the 29th October 1876 he had already served for 12 years with the West Riding Regiment, joining the regiment on the 20th November 1895 and seeing service with it in Malta and India. Completing his 12 years' service in 1907, he then re-engaged for a further four years as a Section D reservist. This took him up to the 24th June 1912 at which point he decided that he would join the Special Reserve. Nine days later he duly did so, signing up for six years' home service, albeit with the obligation to serve with the regular battalions if called upon to do so. That call up in 1914 must have been almost immediate because by the 26th August, John Lee was in France as part of a draft for the 2nd Battalion, serving with it until ...

Arrived overseas: 15 August 1914. Connection: PoW postcard 7683 Drummer Asher John Grey Hurrell of the 2nd Suffolk Regiment sent this card from Dyrotz camp in 1917, noting on the front that is was from "Friend Asher" lest the lady he sent it to, Miss Ivy Naylor, should think otherwise. A career soldier, he had been in France for precisely 12 days before he was captured at Le Cateau on the 26th August 1914, one of over 700 casualties sustained by the battalion that day, with many of those men taken prisoner. News about his capture was obviously slow to filter back to the UK, because on the 29th October, his worried mother asked for a letter to be published in the Stowmarket Post, asking for news of him. Eliza Hurrell wrote, "I have been informed by the War Office that my son, Drummer Asher Hurrell, No 7683, has been missing since the action at Le Cateau on the 26th August. I should be greatly obliged if you would give publicity to this in your columns as it might possibly...