We studied military law, which was very strict, and learnt about Field Punishment No1. We took musketry and courses in Mills Bombs and Hales Rifle Grenades, the stem of which was pushed down the barrel of a rifle and launched by the use of a blank cartridge.
We learnt everything an officer needed to know from revetting trenches to saluting. At the end of the course some of the men were returned to their regiments and sent to the Somme. I was fortunate and, with a particular friend of mine called James Henderson, was commissioned into the Seaforth Highlanders while Henderson was commissioned into the 8th Argylls.
‘C’ Coy
Cadet WN Collins
No 8 Officer Cadet Batt.
Whittington Barr, Lichfield
Monday
Dear all
I have settled down here now and rather like it. The barracks are 3 miles from the village. Reveille is at 6.0am, Parade 7.15-8.0, Breakfast 8.30, Lunch 1.0pm, Tea 4.30pm, Dinner 7.30pm. We have 3 courses for lunch and for dinner, soup, cheese and biscuits.
There are about 350 here and a lot from the universities, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oxford, Cambridge, etc. They know nothing at all and drill in civilian clothes or officer’s uniform. The instructors are very poor and make a lot of mistakes. We have had turning by numbers and saluting drill today. It is hard lines for Sergeants and Warrant Officers being on the same level as the civilians from the universities. We have half days on Wednesdays and Saturdays as we are not free until after dinner at night on other days.
Will you send me some pyjamas as soon as possible, blue ones, or any nice colours. We were medically examined on Saturday. My stripes are off but I will get the same pay.
There is no more news at present except that there must have been a tremendous storm here last week as all the telegraph poles are down for miles and many broken in two. The snow lies thickly altho’ the weather is hot.
Best love Norman.
April 17th 1916
Dear all
Thank you very much for your parcels. The first one was in bad condition. I like the pyjamas very much. The notebook is also useful. I got the soap as well.
In the parcel I got on Sunday, there was the watch, shaving brush, toffee, dates, cigarettes, cake, cheese. We have finished the eatables all but a little bit of cake! Thank you for the cigarettes Dad! And the cake, Mother. Who sent the shaving brush? Who ever it was thank them. Bolton is very kind to send me that fine watch. I will try and get a case for it on Wednesday, I am not going to wear it on parade.
We never get out of barracks here except on Wednesday night, Saturday and Sunday. It is worse than the Fort. We are always scrubbing floors, forming fours etc, doing 160 paces per minute on the square, brushing boots every hour from 5am until 7.30pm when we are free to write up notes until 9.30pm. [We] are called miscellaneous names by Sergeants etc who know nothing, it is a dog’s life and several cadets from the firing line want to go back. The NCOs here, Sergeant Majors etc seem to me to be jealous. I don’t know how we will live here 4 months. And to think that such silly asses got commissions thrown at them 4 months ago and ex-Sergeants, Warrant Officers have to go through this.
Only 5 men per 100 are allowed a late pass or weekend, and at York every one had a permanent late pass and every weekend. I had a fine weekend in Sheffield a week gone Saturday. Aunty Edie sent my cardigan jacket and a nice pair of socks, Aunty Emma, a book of stamps, Uncle George 2/6. It is very kind of them.
Everything is done on the double here. We have five minutes to change from the kilt into slacks for physical drill and five minutes after to get into Highland dress, brush our boots and be out on parade again.
On Saturday I was in Tamworth. It is 4½ miles away and has a fine castle. I believe it is mentioned in Scott’s works. James VI of Scotland and 1st King of England stayed there and Mary Queen of Scots before she was executed. I was in the Royal bedchamber where there are bloodstains in the oak floor where a murder was committed. The walls are nine feet thick. I was in the dungeons etc. It was very historic. It was raining on Saturday and I was not able to get out until after tea and then had a short walk until dinner. No more news so I will close.
With best love Norman.
PS A boy of 18 from London University has got 14 days in the cells and sent into the army as a private because he refused to sweep underneath an unpaid lance corporal’s bed this morning. He is now in the civilian prison at Lichfield. And then they talk about the German bullies. He wasn’t told twice to do it and had no warning. Hard luck for a chap who hasn’t been under military discipline before.
Monday 17th April
Dear Bolton
I wish I was coming home for good. I was never tired of the army until I became a cadet and the life here is hateful and I would much rather be a sergeant. We are bullied all day long.
Every morning we have to have our beds made up, the room dry-scrubbed, table and forms scrubbed etc before 6am. Then shaved, boots brushed, buttons etc, equipment polished etc and on parade at 6.45. If there is a speck of dirt anywhere we are shouted at, and to go on parade with a pocket button undone is asking for a Court-Martial!
We have a tartar of a Sergeant Major here. He shouts ‘Shun, as y’ were! Quick march! Halt! Double mark time! About turn, attention!!! all in one sentence. He is about six foot three inches and a tremendous corporation, and a face like a volcano. He reminds me of a gorilla…
I’m going to bed now as I’ve been working from 5am.
Your loving brother, Norman
Tues 25.4.16
I received your letter on Sunday. 50% of the cadets got leave from Thursday noon until Sunday midnight but as I was at Sheffield for a weekend a fortnight ago I could not get off.
I had a letter from Uncle George today. Ripon Camp is isolated as diphtheria is raging. No soldier is allowed into the town. We are having a better time this week. The summer sports are commencing and we have to go in for cricket, tennis, boxing, running, jumping, swimming etc. I will be sending home for my flannels perhaps in a week or two. It will be fine wearing those grey ones again after being in uniform for a year. I am pleased the weather was fine for the holidays. It would be nice at Hesleden.
Have you settled there for good?
I had a decent time in Tamworth these holidays. We went to the barrack church on Friday and Sunday. Church parade is compulsory in the army you know. I am still a Presbyterian. Whenever we go out to Tamworth we have to motor and it is rather expensive. It is ‘infra dig’ to go on the bus that passes every two hours and only stops at the barracks if the driver wishes to do so. I am still the only Seaforth here altho’ we get new arrivals every week. Every other regiment has about 30 representatives. The Tamworth and Lichfield people seem struck with the brilliant hose tops! The majority of cadets are from France and Egypt. We have a lot of the 14th London Regiment here (London Scottish) and most of them were in that famous charge in October 1914. I have met a lot of chaps who were thro’ the Gallipoli Campaign.
Notes made by Norman during officer training at Lichfield.
Our C.O. was there, and his opinion is that the war will last for at least another two years. That is why these schools were formed, to build up an army of competent officers for the summer and we will probably get the first chance of staying on after the war. If I get a chance I will stick to the army.
We have a lot of Ministers here from Scotland. There are two in my room. There is no more news, so I will close.
With best love
Norman.
Wednesday 9/5/16
Dear all
We have been on a route march this morning. On Saturday afternoon I was in a Firing Party to fire over the grave of a Gordon who died of wounds last week.
It is a very imposing ceremony. At the grave side we fired three volleys and then presented arms with fixed bayonets while the buglers played ‘Last Post’. It rained all the time and we got rather wet.
It is a fine afternoon and I have a lot of studying to do as we have an exam tomorr
ow on ‘Field Engineering’ or ‘trench digging’.
Do you think the new Military Act will affect you Bolton? Keep out of the army if possible and especially the infantry. [Ed. conscription was introduced as law in February 1916 as a response to the shortage of manpower in the British Army. For reasons unknown Bolton never did serve in the forces.]
Every one here thinks there has been a big action in France about February 29-30th [sic] on account of the unusual number of officer casualties for that date.
With love
Norman
PS Will you send me my drawing instruments. Compasses, set square etc. Not the ink compasses.
7.00pm Tuesday
Dear Bolton
Thanks for your letter. How did you spend your holidays? Any shooting or football? I may get home for a day or two at Whitsuntide. I will let you know and then you can get my civilian clothes ready.
We have a decent mess here. Easy chairs, games, piano etc. I am growing a ‘tasche’. It will be about ready when I am gazetted. I have had ten motor drives since Thursday. Outside work we live exactly the same as officers.
I have given about 3 musketry lectures to the other cadets of my platoon as we are short of instructors. That course at York was very useful.
I have learnt nothing here so far, however I am quite settled down as the longer we are here the longer we will live. I expect I will get out to France about September. I hope the trench warfare is over as it is too monotonous for my taste. All my training has been open warfare. I think Kitchener underestimated the duration when he said 3 years. It won’t be much use going back to engineering when I am 21 or more will it? If you ever join, do not join anything but the Inns of Court or Artists Rifles. Even then you would have to be a cadet here. Well I will close now as it is dinner time.
Best love Norman
Tuesday May 16/16
Dear all
Thanks for your letter. I am sending back the watch you sent me as it has never kept going for 12 hours. I had it examined by a first-class jeweller here and he can do nothing with it as it is defective. There is something wrong with the jewels. We expect to get away from here by the end of June as there was an urgent message from the W.O. [War Office] about hurrying us through.
I believe there is some heavy fighting going on in France now. The rumour amongst the Expeditionary men here is that the big advance was to begin on May 14th 1916.
The C.O.s are complaining of the lack of officers and there must be a shortage as there have been no second lieutenants gazetted since January and every 50 men enlisted must have an officer. Even the wastages at the Front have not been made up. There are 100 men here who never applied for commissions. The War Office took 1,050 men from one brigade in France to be trained as officers. 500 came from one battalion. That means that there were not a sufficient number applying.
Give my kind regards to all at Hesleden.
Best love Norman
Friday
Did you see the Seaforth casualty list yesterday and also today? I know a lot of them. Some of them have only been out 8 weeks. In one list there were 152 without including killed in officer casualties. Enclosed you will find a weekly exam paper on Topography. They are very easy, A is highest possible.
Saturday July 1st 1916
Dear Bolton
….We all wear officers’ uniform now, I believe I told you last week. We are issued with 1 tunic, 2 shirts, 1 tie, caps, breeches, puttees and boots. Highlanders can wear the kilt also. I don’t know what use the breeches are. It is a poor idea to deduct £8 from our kit allowance and supply us with badly fitting uniforms from London. My tunic had to go back to the makers 3 times, and the puttees are poor quality. They charge us £2-2s for a pair of boots.
Also men of Highland regiments who were going into English regiments were given cut away tunics and vice-versa causing a lot of dissatisfaction. Men who should have had dyed Glengarry’s got black ones. It is a regular mix up. My tunic was 4f inches small round the chest and 2 inches round the hips and had to have a new front in.
It is harder to get a commission now than in peacetime. About 20% of the cadet battalion have gone or are going back to their units. Three weeks ago we were on parade and a list of names was read out of men to go back. The funny part is that the majority of them have obtained splendid marks in the exams and have good conduct sheets, done well in practical work and yet are told that they are not the class of men wanted. The following are the only ‘reasons’ given. No personality, too much personality, would probably be too familiar with N.C.O.
The price of officerdom!
Social position has nothing to do with it, as included in the list are, ministers, graduates of the big universities, M.Sc.s, etc. A number of them are ex-sergeants, who won their chevrons at the front. [Ed. this is an intriguing dilema. As a response to officer shortages at the front the War Office urgently required an influx of new subalterns. However, those responsible for training were clearly reluctant to compromise pre-war standards.]
I hope that I have struck the happy medium re. personality. Probably I have been overlooked as I am one of the shortest in the company!
There is a very bad feeling termed ‘wind-up’ in the battalion, the nervous strain is really awful as no one knows whether he will be the next to go. No one has been gazetted yet, although ‘A’ Coy has been here four months. I wouldn’t go through it again for a dozen commissions. The man who sleeps next to me, Rev R.W.S___ from Glasgow University, two years O.T.C. experience, has been warned [that he will soon go abroad]. One has to be worth it before becoming an officer now, and we are not being trained as officers. Many of the men have never been given the chance to drill half a dozen men even. However we go out into the villages round about and are saluted by the men who do not note the absence of the star!
We were told that the recommendations of our C.O.s and Brigadiers do not count if our platoon officer (a sub) does not recommend us for a commission. Yesterday one poor chap who was recommended for a commission in his own battalion in which he had been for six years, went back. Surely if his own C.O. considered him capable after working with him six years, the opinion of a sub-lieutenant shouldn’t count especially having known him for only three months.
One of the officers asked me to make him an accurate plan of the trenches we are digging. It is to be hung in the C.O.s Orderly Room. I was congratulated on it. Instructing in musketry has also gone a long way towards helping them to form an opinion of me. Every thing counts here, even appearances, as the disreputable looking ones are being eliminated.
It seems years since I was home. I’ve never felt the time drag so since I joined the army. By the way I was asking to join the Royal Flying Corps (attached). I would have, but I didn’t relish the idea of another course of instruction and also prefer the kilt. The captain tried hard to persuade me. I would have been gazetted straight away.
If the war goes on much longer I won’t be much of an engineer when I return as I have forgotten most things I knew. If it isn’t finished within a year I will either apply for a cadetship in the Royal Military College and become a regular or go to the navy as an artificer. I could hardly start at the beginning again at the age of 20-21. Excuse this pessimistic letter but it is the general feeling here, in fact when the men are ‘oiled’ they hunt round for the officers to damage them. I still like the army life but not cadet life when we have no position at all. Best love to Father and Mother. Norman
Editor: On Friday 7 July Norman was given a weekend pass enabling him to visit his relatives in Sheffield. It was an uncomfortable few days away, as Norman noted again, for as he walked around the town ‘Every soldier was saluting me; fine 6 pace salutes! No one seems to notice the absence of the star’. As an officer cadet he was forbidden from returning salutes, leaving him in ‘a most embarrassing position’. It was a temporary inconvenience, for throughout July Norman sat his exams, taking any time he could spare to relax by riding in the country near Sutton Coldfield, where he
noted how ‘people here stare at a kiltie riding a bike’. Fed up with study, where four hour exams were typical, Norman could not wait to finish.
Tuesday 18/7/16
Dear all
….Our final examination is on Monday and we leave here on the Thursday following. I believe I am going straight to Glasgow for my uniform and then home. I will probably be 10 or 14 days at home before being gazetted. When I am gazetted I will apply to my C.O. for 14 days leave and spend half the time at home and the remainder in Sheffield. We have had a stiff day today and are going out all night leaving barracks at 10pm and returning about 6am tomorrow, so I will have the grass for a bed tonight. This is much better than in trenches where one sees nothing but walls of earth and it’s like living in a drain.
Do you think that you could get me some of my clothing as we now only get our Cadet Uniform and £42. The total cost is about £75 so I will only be able to get the essentials at first and save some of my pay to get the others. The Cadet Uniform (£8) was stopped off our government allowance and it is badly made and without collar badges, Regimental buttons or badges of rank. We have to get these on ourselves. Also they made us buy breeches and we are not allowed to wear them in a Highland Regt.
The majority of the men here have money of their own to supplement the Government. I have got my raincoat and Skean Dhu [the knife that goes down the side of the stocking] out of my pay and out of the bank. The remainder of the money (about £4-10) I will withdraw this week-end. All I would like you to get would be a few pairs of khaki socks. One pair of Seaforth Garters and one khaki shirt. I enclose a list of kit I will have to get. [Ed. see page 78]
I am looking forward to coming home for a holiday, especially in the first week of August. I hope you will get a good holiday, Dad and Bolton. We will have a good time at Hesleden and go down to Blackhalls for a picnic. I don’t want mother to do any work when I am home for the holiday week. My salary as a Sub will be about £14 a month.
Last Man Standing Page 7
