All posts by Elizabeth Hibbett Webb

My aim is to publish, in date order, the letters my father, Private Bertie Hibbett, wrote home to Walsall, almost twice a week, from 1914 – 1918. His self-styled ‘humble scribblings’ give a vivid picture of what it was like to be a Private in Kitchener’s Army but, with their original drawings, sketches and photographs, they provide an important collection of primary source material for social historians in this centenary year of the outbreak of the Great War. As a child I was more aware of the 1st World War than of the 2nd, through which I grew up. My father was Vicar of St Vedast’s Church, Tathwell, Lincolnshire and I was never allowed to forget that my birthday was also St Vedast’s Day, for this was an ever present reminder to him of his dawn sentry duty on Easter Day 1915, at Neuville St. Vaast, Messines. * Like my grandfather, Arthur Hibbett, Chief Inspector of Schools for the Borough of Walsall, my career has been in education; mainly in higher and further education, where I taught courses in historical and literary interpretation & methodology. I have a BA Hons.degree in Theology and History from the University of Nottingham and a Master’s degree in Hermeneutics from the University of Bristol. My first teaching post was at Luton High School, then I became Lecturer & Senior Lecturer in Theology and Religious Studies at the College of St Matthias, Fishponds, teaching the University of Bristol, B.Ed. degree. After my marriage, in 1971, to David Kester Webb (painter, photographer and teacher), I became the first Open University Tutor Counsellor and Associate Lecturer in North Devon, from 1974 until 2000. During that time I also taught Religious Studies ‘A’ level at North Devon College. Kester and I published our book, The Hidden Edge of Exmoor,in 2011 (www.thematic-trails.org). This is the story of our life-time’s climbing exploration of the Exmoor Coast at Sea-level; literally hands on geology. We have two offspring: Rebekah (Consultant in International Development: Gender/HIV/Aids) and Martin Vedast, (Project Manager in Ceramics for Disabled Adults). * NB The name Vedast or Vaast means Foster in English. St Vedast was a 4th C. saint, patron of numerous churches in N. Europe, chiefly of Arras Cathedral. Apart from St Vedast Tathwell, the only other church in the Uk with this patronage is St Vedast, Foster Lane London.

21ST MAY 1916: ‘AREN’T THESE LARGE BUTTERCUPS FROM THE TRENCHES?’

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South Staffordshire Badgee1/5th SOUTH STAFFORDS WAR DIARY

FONQUEVILLERS. 

18th May Thur. 12.45 am to 1.30 am: Enemy fired 18 canister bombs (1) which fell between ‘A’   Company’s advanced posts and company Headquarters. All communication trenches damaged. 1.45-2.15 am 12 canister bombs fell between No 4 and 5 posts. No damage. 10.15 pm – 10.45 pm 12 canister bombs fell between No 4 and 2 Posts. LIVERY STREET damaged (2).

Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derby) Regt. badge.
Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derby) Regt. Badge. <http://www.northeastmedals.co.uk&gt;

19th May Fri. 8.30 pm: 6 canister bombs fell between No.1 and No 2 posts. No damage. Our Artillery retaliated on GOMMECOURT PARK.  Enemy whizz-banged (3) in vicinity of Headquarters.  Relieved by 1/5th SHERWOOD FORESTERS (4). Marched to billets at SOUASTRE (5).

20th May Sat: SOUASTRE. Marched to new billets at LUCHEUX (6). Arrived at 2.0 am. 

21st May Sun: LUCHEUX. In Rest Billets. Battalion Training.

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Bertie in UniformPte BERTIE HIBBETT: A Little Book of Words & Doings.  New draft of officers. Saw Lieut. Sanger* with whom I had a nice chat; he was  later over No 2 Platoon. Illustrated Sniper Atkins and substituted a verse about the Kaiser in place of ‘Atkins loves his pal the rifle’ (7).

Sniper Atkins Indides pages
Sniper Atkins: Top right verse: ‘Tommy has a lucky ‘go’ His sharp eye spots the Kaiser. Tommy says: “Just arf a mo” Take this to make you wiser’. 1 shot. 2 shots. 3 shots.’  NB Three camouflaged German snipers with rifles in the tree.

LETTER to MARIE NEAL HIBBETT, 95 Foden Rd Walsall.

‘. . . among the sundry and manifold changes of the world. . .’ (8). ‘I have yet many things to say unto you’ (9).

Collect and Gospel for:– 4th Sunday after Easter. May 21/ 16

My Very Dear Mother,

How very, very sorry indeed I felt, when I read your letter (in with Ida’s) dealing with the manner Sydney behaved.  Yes Sydney is often thoughtless & I think it is rotten to have divided affection.  I say ‘Mother the Queen of the Home – Ist A1. Then if you like —someone else A2,  but to me Dad & Mum are equally A1.  ‘Ah wee’, as the French say, the first few lines of Chapter XXII are disappointing. Yet a Mother can forgive & that will turn the story beautiful.

The weather is excellent, fine & sunny & of course I am wondering what sort of Sunday you are having.  Oh No! Jones* left the letter untouched, I arrived in time. I did not understand the matter about the photo, I overlooked that & was more interested in the other news in the letter. Jones* is going to give me Sydney’s watch today. I shall try & get it before tea-time just for curiosity in case you think of it in conversation during tea hour.  I told you before that I have written to the 3rd Field Ambulance.  I have received very nice letters during the week from Miss Foster* (one of hers was returned to her).

<http://www.en-wiki.org.uk&gt;

Miss Bore* sent a PC & letter & Pearson’s Magazine (10) to the Hospital on the 5th May.  I got it yesterday. [Ed. i.e. 17th May].

Pearson's Magazine Oct 1915.
Oct. 1915.
Sir Arthur Pearson
Sir Arthur Pearson. 

 

 

 

 

 

Jolly old Vernon wrote a nice long letter from Ripon, No 6 Coy. No 1 Hut, No 3 Camp, Northern Command Depot (11).  Perhaps you would like to write to him.  You told me in one of your letters he was not any better & that he had been sent to Ripon.  His brother Norman* is Editor of the Junior School Magazine. I am patronising his office by sending him my doggerel  ‘Sniper Atkins’ – Illustrated.  You may think I am vain to send it, but my idea of giving them pleasure exceeds the former idea of vanity & I thought if the C.O. commended it (& every Tommy I have shown it to has been highly amused & many have suggested that I should send the poem to some paper) that I should.  I conclude that I humbly  beg the Editor, Mr. N. Evans* to give me his opinion as to whether my doggerel is worthy of being published in his respected School paper. 

Sydney once told me not to be so ‘gushing’ in my letters to him, & about him at Home. But Vernon is worse to me than I was with regard to Sydney.  He apparently has changed right round.  In spite of the old saying  that we love one another more when parted.  I think Vernon will remain true now (this is between you & me Mum). 

Going back to ‘Sniper Atkins’ again.  I may say that I have made an Illustrated Copy for you Mum first, but should you discover that someone else has a copy before you, it will be because I wrote it on paper to fit an envelope.  This size notepaper will not go into a ‘green’ envelope without folding.

Doesn’t Arthur Brown* look old in the Observer? & I didn’t know he was Sergt.  On leaving the Batt. he only had 2 stripes showing. Of course he was once Acting Orderly Sergeant. Well, I looked over & over again at the photos but could not recognise Brown until I began to read the names underneath.

Tommy's Cooker.
Tommy’s Cooker.

This morning I received the Refill for the Boots Cooker. I have noticed that the labels always come & do not get torn off.  This reminds me that I made a delicious mess tin of coffee for supper with that you sent me; Cliff Hackett* was only too willing to give me ‘du lieu’ (12). Cyril Hinde* returned from Leave a day or so ago. Yesterday I went & talked with him in the field by the huts.  He wishes me to say that he was sorry he could not find time to see you.

I am afraid my Sunday letter is not altogether a success. I cannot write properly today somehow, this being a ‘green’. I may enquire of you if that Refill was rather expensive, & if I have asked you for anything that taxes your pocket?  But the advantage of the Refill comes when you send anything to be made into hot drinks & there are no fires to be had; also when our tea & bacon go cold or if we wish to make Welsh Rare Bit. 

Oh I won’t arf make ye larf (at least I’ll try my best) in my next letter, but my sketches would not be Sundayfied if I enclosed them with this.  I am getting quite a Rival of Bairnsfather and what two tasks have appeared at first  incapable of accomplishment have both come out successful to the commendation of all.  I have sent Field PCs to all those who wrote last week.  I must not forget to tell you I had a letter from Mrs Hurst* today & she told me of her meeting with you & Ida on Monday. Her letter, curious enough, was dated  May 17th.

I hope poor Sydney had a Happy Birthday and got your parcels safely.  I well remember last year how I smoked his health from a pipe for the 1st time and how the Overends sent him a cake & toffees etc.

Talking about a pipe, you need not send me another – certainly of course not.  I am so sorry Ida’s cigarettes have also gone astray.  But there seems to be hope after having Miss Bore’s letter & Harold’s parcels from there (13).

searchGoing to hear Mr Darling* preach at Streetly this evening ? (14).

Aren’t these large buttercups (from the trenches)?

Best love to all,  Bertie.

********************

ELIZABETH HIBBETT WEBB
ELIZABETH HIBBETT WEBB

According to 8th Sherwood Foresters this part of the Line at Fonquevillers was reported to be ‘about the quietest on the whole of the Western Front’.  For the 1/5th South Staffords, it must have been a very welcome relief after the traumas of Vimy Ridge. Apart from the bombardment of 18th & 19th May, many ‘A Quiet Day’ enabled Pte Bertie Hibbett to lose himself in  his ‘two tasks’  – writing his Sniper Atkins doggerel and illustrating it in a way that he hoped would make people laugh. He recognised that it was not ‘Sundayfied’ – not really in keeping with Christian values even when read ironically.  It makes me recall my question as a child of how many people my father had killed in the War –  & his reply that he thought he ‘might have killed one’!

My father’s growing maturity is seen in his attempt to resolve misunderstandings between his brother Sydney & his Mother – and his happiness in resolving those between himself & his best pal Vernon, through their experience of war. 

Minenwerfer.
Minenwerfer (mine launcher’/ short range mortar.

(1) Canister bombs: fired from German trench mortars or minewerfers, exploded ‘with devastating effect causing almost visible shock-waves through the earth. . . very slow moving through  the air. . . possible to watch bomb as it approached, turning end over end’ as it fell – but its ‘unnerving tendency to swerve at end of flight’ made direction of escape a matter of guess work. Alan MacDonald: A Lack of Offensive Spirit?

Whizz bangs Concert Poster Dec. 1916.
Whizz Bangs’ Concert Poster. Dec. 1916.

2) Livery Street: communication trench leading to Front Line at Fonquevillers. Other names: Stafford Avenue, Lincoln Lane, Leicester Street, Derby Dyke, Roberts Avenue, Rotten Row, Regence Street, Raymond Avenue, Crawlboys Lane. All needed extensive repair before the ‘Big Push‘ to come.

(3) Whizz-bang: Tommy’s slang for light shells/ named for sound made when fired from smaller calibre field guns.

(4) Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derby) Regt. 1881: Pte Bertie Hibbett was attached when 1/5th Staffords went to Egypt, Dec 1915/ Jan 1916.

(5) Souastre: small village, Pas-en Artois, over exposed ridge, 2 miles west of Fonquevillers/ damaged. (6) Lucheux: medieval town in Picardie, 18 miles SW of Arras. 12th cent Church & 15th cent Chateaux with moat. Relatively undamaged. See Map: Hibbett Letters 10th May,1916.

(7) Sniper Atkins: (not yet established whether Express & Star or QMS School Magazine published it). Text:  Sniper Atkins. Composed by a Sniper.

Sniping Allemands All day long To the tune of British guns. Cooly sniping with A song, Sending greetings to the Huns. I shot 2 shots 3 shots.  Sniper Tommy spots a Bosche And gains a ripping goal And he sees him dive – splosh! Down his muddy hole. I shot etc.

Placing five rounds in tin can Then another up the spout Tommy spies another man So gives the Bosche an awful clout. Tommy has a lucky ‘go’ His sharp eye spots the Kaiser. Tommy say Just ‘arf a Mo’ Take this to make you wiser. I shot 2 shots 3 shots etc.

Atkins with his glasses spies A Jerry working party. Keenly marks it with his eyes Just ‘Wait & See’ me hearty. I shot etc. Opponent snipers in some trees Little knowing of their fate, When Tommy snipes at what he sees They’ll sing no more their hymn of hate. 1 Shot 2 shots 3 shots etc.

Atkins aims at a machine gun & hits the Hun behind it. Oh! my word what jolly fun It fairly makes his sides split. I shot 2 shots 3 shots.

(8) Collect for 4th Sunday after Easter. Book of Common Prayer 1662: ‘O Almighty God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful man; Grant unto thy people that they may love the things which thou commandest & desire that which thou dost promise; that so amongst the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys may be found. Through Christ our Lord. (9) Gospel of St John 16.12-13: quotation continues: ‘When the Spirit of truth is come, the Spirit will guide you into all truth’. 

(10) Pearson’s Magazine: founded 1896 by Sir Cyril Arthur Pearson, blind newspaper magnate, 1866-1921. Founded Daily Express. Founded St Dunstan’s for soldiers blinded in WW1 (now Blind Veterans UK). Published short stories/articles on literature, arts/ politics of ‘socialist bent/ advertisements for patent medicines & ‘get rich quick’ schemes/ first to publish a cross-word.

(11) Northern Command Depot Ripon: for Service/ Labour  Units. Also for re-habilitation of soldiers too fit for Convalescent Camp but not yet fit enough to return to their Unit/ the Front.

(12) ‘du lieu’ ‘in the place of’: Cliff Hackett* had given him hot water earlier in week.(13) No 3 Field Ambulance/ Hospital where Pte Bertie went to rest his trench foot and shattered nerves after Vimy Ridge.

All Saints Streetly Staffordshire.
Church of All Saints Streetly.

(14) Church of All Saints, Streetly: built 1908. 6 miles north of Birmingham near Aldridge & Sutton Coldfield. Named from Icknield Street /Roman Road.

 

NEXT POST: 24th May 1916.

17TH MAY 1916: HAPPY 22ND BIRTHDAY SERJEANT – UN TRES MAGNIFIQUE SOLDAT!

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South Staffordshire Badgee1/5th SOUTH STAFFORDS WAR DIARY.

FONQUEVILLERS.      

11th May Thur:  Very Quiet day. Casualty: No. 8434 L/ Corporal S. Goode wounded.

12th May Fri: Very Quiet day. Casualty: No. 957 Pte J. Bird (attached 182 Tunnelling Company R.E. ) found drowned (1).

13th – 15th May. Very Quiet day.

Gommecourt Village, Park & Wood today from the air, with Fonquevillers beyond upper left.
Gommecourt Village, Park & Wood today from the air, with Fonquevillers beyond, upper left. <http://www.mikemccormac.com&gt;

16th May Tue: Enemy bombarded our left at 12.30 am to 1.20 am.  300 shells of all descriptions dropped on or in the vicinity of GOOCH STREET (2) communication trench from K.3b 6.9. No.6 post to battalion Headquarters K3a 8half.9hals. No. 4.5. and 6 posts were trench mortared but no direct hits were obtained on these posts.  Our field guns retaliated with about 150 shells on GOMMECOURT PARK. CASUALTIES: No. 8373 Pte R. Harris and 9724 Pte G. Bradford wounded. MAP REF. SHEET 57 D.N.E. 1 and 2 (parts of).

17th May Wed: V. Quiet day.                                                                                   

British & German front Lines at Fonquevillers/ Gommecourt.
British & German Front Lines at Fonquevillers/ Gommecourt.  <http://www.derbyshireterritorials.wordpress.com> 

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 Bertie HibbettPte BERTIE HIBBETT: LETTER to HIBBETT FAMILY, 95 Foden Rd Walsall. Censor W.E. Wright.

‘My hand shall hold him fast: and my arm shall strengthen him.’  Psalm 89. (3)

‘I shall thank thee O Lord My God, with all my heart & will praise Thy name for evermore.  Psalm 86 for:-

Wednesday May 17th/ 16.    ‘Mafeking relieved’ (4).

My Dear People,

What an interesting, thrilling, exciting and most dramatic book, so full of romance.  Chapter XXI ‘Finis’ last night and now for:-  

Chapter XXII. 

Within the paragraphs of Chapter XXI we read  the Climax of an exceedingly eventful story.  Like some exciting tales, that end abruptly and leave the rest to the reader’s imagination, so Chapter XXI of Sydney’s Life Story concluded with an instance leaving me to imagine what he was doing. 

Now we begin to read with deepest interest the 22nd Chapter.  We feel as though we very much wish to turn over some pages to see what is coming.  But ah! that cannot be with this marvellous Book. It would be wrong if we did not control our wish to foresee what events will happen. Let us be content to read line by line as each day comes and goes & then we shall find we can enjoy the story to the full.

Well Chapter XXII looks very promising at any rate.  A lovely, exquisitely beautiful, bright morning.  Everyone I met on my way to my Sniping Post greeted me with joviality.  The cuckoo would not be left out of it, to just tell me again & again that today is Sydney’s Birthday.  Cuckoo, cuckoo – cuckoo.  I heard the cuckoo (first for the year) on Thursday, May 11th, when Miss Brookes* wrote a PC & told me I could keep Sydney’s cigs & not to blame me sen.

Since I wrote to you last Sunday and addressed the green to Ida, our Champion Adviser, Counsellor, Comforter and Sooth-sayer, I had just sent it in when on that morning I received a delightfully written letter from Mr Darling* (5). He, like Ida, calls a cold the ‘flue’ and he was laid in bed about Easter; of course he went to the services. I should guess it would be ‘horrid’ for him to preach with the ‘flue’.  He appears to be having a very pleasant & bright time of it, yet I have always had the idea, since the War started, that a clergyman’s life is equally as & even more (& most likely the latter than the 1st) hard than Tommy’s in the trenches (& most likely the latter than the first).  I mentioned what Basil said about Psalm 77 – ‘The earth was moved & shook withal’  in my letter in answer to his. Oh! it is just lovely in the trenches & reminds me of last year at this time.

2nd Lieutenant's uniform.
A 2nd Lieutenant’s uniform. <http://www.pinterest.com&gt;

Jolly old Sanger*. On hearing of him being in the vicinity I became jolly keen to see him & have a talk together.  Two days or more passed without my expectation being fulfilled; at larst I caught sight of the man.  I could see he looked well & as strapping as he was wont to be & in spite of his new togs (6) I could tell the beaming big face of his.

But alas! if my first wish was fulfilled my wish to have a talk with him failed for he was leading his men to the trenches. But as he was about to pass me altogether I said ‘Morning SIR!’  just to inform him I was still plodding on – existing like.  ‘Morning Bertie’ he replied as he turned his head back & looked at me.

In the afternoon I had my wish gratified & satisfied.  He came up to me, shook hands & we talked over old affairs & new affairs.  Will you forgive him for not visiting you?  He told me to especially convey his kindest Remembrances & Regards to you both, Father & Mother.  He remarked upon Sydney being away, saying how unlucky he was to be away and how he wished he could make Sydney his Platoon Sergeant; he would be delighted beyond measure.

Yesterday, (Tues) morning, I received the Tail end of your parcels & sent you a Field PC saying I got that  alright enough. The candles came in ‘just on the right’ for we have a dark dugout.  Many thanks too for the socks which are always welcome. I have rarely tried my hand at darning, if not at all. I shall have to buck up.

After reading the short letter from Mother (last night) .saying the first parcel was posted 11th I became a little agitated, not for my own gourmand lusts, but for dear generous Father & Mother, & all of you, who have expended on things I may never see.  I wrote to the Field Ambulance about the missing parcels & hope to hear of some reason of delay.  I got Harold’s safely eventually.

What a happy morning I’ve  had so far with the first parcel, the Head this time, seeing there was some chocolate enclosed.  I rarely have found chocolate in parcels of late. The handkerchiefs also gratified my wish & I shall enjoy the eggs when breakfast comes.  More especially I thank you for the currant bread & pat of butter. The Magazine will again come in useful & interesting as we have hours off duty as well as two hours on (6). The off duty hours have been the cause of many distinguished occurrences as well as those on.  Thank you too for the Yorkshire paper (7).  As for the coffee, milk and sugar I will squeeze round Cliff Hackett* who, as I told you before, is in the Mess & he will, in all probability, let me have some hot water.

The stationery in the other parcel I liked immensely, especially the hand cut; these I shall use for special occasions. I may write out my final result of the poem ‘Sniper Atkins’ on one as it was given to the CO and with drawings.

Sniper Atkins.
Sniper Atkins. Title page with sketch of his sniper pal in dark observation post.  A.H.Hibbett 1916.

Ida, I have composed another verse & revised other verses to make the number altogether up to 10 & therefore Tommy would fire 30 rounds.  I have also drawn one of my comrade snipers at his post.

I am sending a copy of the poem to the Express & Star & the poem went into the Orderly Room for ‘inspection’ the other day.  Lieut Sanger* was greatly amused.  I have not seen Machin* but saw ‘Allen’ * the first of the batch. He looks a real gentlemanly soldier in his new rig out (6).

And now for the bonny letters.  I will begin in chronological order –  ahem!  So glad you got my letters of 14th & 16th of April.  If you will call to mind, you also wrote on those dates & Mr W.H. Cozens* also wrote on Palm Sunday.

Yes God’s will be done & dearest Mother it is sweet to think so, for  although at times, when God’s will is fulfilled we feel inclined to be disagreeable, there are times when we feel most grateful & full of joy; those are the times when we submit willingly to God’s will.  Of course you told me that you got my Easter letter in the green.  I can just imagine your surprise on having your letter returned, good of the post wasn’t it? yet I sympathise with you that it is not altogether pleasant to have a letter returned. 

I have not yet heard from my Godmother* (8) since I went into Hospital. I had very little time to talk matters over with Sydney before he left for his course.  Ida wrote a most delightful letter too.

Yes dears Leave is sure to come and I again  say the ‘Dark Cloud’ has drifted farther away & more bright sunshine is coming through.  Glad to hear you went to hear Stainer’s Crucifixion (9) & I hope you enjoyed it.  Very interested to hear of you working in the ‘old’ garden (10).  I love to read of sowing seed.  See how poetical I am getting, & I say without any self bravado that N. Smith* told me our present CO (11) (Mum knows him as a relation of Mrs Drew) commented upon ‘Sniper Atkins’ saying it was quite good. 

Two soldiers stuck in a trench, during a battle in World War One. This famous illustration for The Bystander was by Captain Bruce Bairnsfather (1888-1959) whose bittersweet cartoons in the magazine depicting the ordinary Tommy in the trenches during World War I. 1915
‘Well, if you knows of a better ‘ole, go to it’. Cartoon depicting the ordinary Tommy in the trenches during World War I.
Captain Bruce Bairnsfather. 
wiki 200px--Old_Bill-,_by_Bruce_Bairnsfather
‘Old Bill’ the typical Tommy. Bairnsfather.

Now Ida see if you can rival me & out-wit me.  I think I have already been outwitted, for this afternoon I saw The Bystander’s (12) ‘Fragments from France’, 1/- net and how I larfed at the drawings, and at the same time being envious that I could not think of anything original, for they seemed to deal with everything in Tommy’s Ways and Manners.

I must not forget to thank you for the pretty Bookmark Cross. I have grown rather vulgar being out here with men, men, men, & yet I loved the sight of that little Cross & immediately thought of you all. Yes ‘Jesus ever lives’ (13) and ‘He is the same yesterday, today & forever’ (14).  Just think of some time past when you have felt God’s love especially.  Well He has that same love for you today & He will have that same love for you in the future.

The Vicar’s letter was very satisfactory, but of course there must be no extra unnecessary taxes upon the congregation & then there will be no occurrence of debt (15).

A.O. Jones* is writing to Sydney himself, he told me last night, & so he went farther than letting me just remember him to Sydney in my letter to him.  I saved two boxes of cigs – that Miss Brookes* sent him – for fear he would return before today.  As he has not, I am giving them to some of the old boys in his Platoon who have been out since the Batt came out (16).

Church of Our Lady, Fonquevillers. Water colour. Adrian Hill. Imperial War Museum.
Church of Our Lady, Fonquevillers. Water colour. Adrian Hill. Imperial War Museum.

The country looks beautiful & I even overlook the sight of ruins as being awful.

Again I had the little blue birds to come to greet me; they were the martins and their white tipped tails & blue wings struck me with their beauty.

I particularly thought of Basil’s Birthday [Ed.1st May]  I could see Ida ‘compris’d’ my meaning of Basil joining.

I wonder if Sydney has got any parcel today.  How lucky I am to get your parcels so that I too can share in with Sydney’s festivity. When I have my tea of currant bread & brown bread with the biscuits I shall feel more in keeping with the occasion.  We are all thinking of the broad shouldered, tall, officer-like Sergeant  who has been favoured by more than one superior.  Lieut  Robinson*, Moore*, Lister* etc – ‘I’l tres bien magnifique soldat’. Mother heads the list, Dad is bracketed with her, then Ida, Harold, Dodger, Miss Bore, Miss Foster*, Auntie Patty – and Leeena has, I guess, also got him in mind, as also has May O & the other Overends.

What a pretty poem that is in the Magazine:– I guess Mum has read it:-

Mother’s Meadow:-

‘Boys be like the meadow grass, Constant firm & strong, Spreading good with quiet force To help the World along’.

Just appropriate & in keeping with Spring as I gaze on the open fields full of buttercups & daisies.  Even ‘burly’ Sanger* has sent home a buttercup. Yes, a Tommy might be rough, but, as I heard aptly from the Chaplain at Christmas, some have hearts ‘snow white’ (not at all insinuating that I am classed with them).

Kindest Remembrances to Miss K. E. Brookes*, Mr & Mrs Overend*, Mrs M.A. Jones* and Mrs Evans* etc & Miss Bore*. The watch is safe for Sydney.  Sorry to hear of A. Brown* & Vernon* [Ed. both ill in UK?]. I am writing to Vernon’s people.  I cannot very well write to Vernon as I do not know his present address.  I wrote to him in Hospital when I was with Cliff Hackett. Hackett often used to tease Vernon in joke.

I have not had the parcels from Mrs Evans* and the Machins*.  Mr Machin likes my ‘doggerel ‘so if you wish you can show him a copy.  I am expecting a letter from the Vicar as I wrote an Easter Letter to him that would, I think, solve his query about Tommy’s Easter time.

Now I will write to dear Sydney. ‘Beaucoup correspondence’.

By Bye.  Your affec. Bertie.

**********************

ELIZABETH HIBBETT WEBB
ELIZABETH HIBBETT WEBB

The length of Pte Bertie Hibbett’s Letters Home in May 1916, together with the creation of Sniper Atkins & its detailed illustrations, indicates how much time he had to himself at this time. The enemy was comparatively quiet and my father’s sniper observation post meant 2 hours off in every 4. The fact that he drew his sniper pal in action indicates he did not retreat from the post, despite its dangerous position beyond the British Front Line in No Man’s Land.  

It is interesting to compare this letter with that of 17th May 1915, Sydney Hibbett’s 21st Birthday.  His brother was still away training for the coming ‘Big Push’.  Whilst anxious about missing Birthday parcels Pte Bertie was careful not to dwell too much on the future & what might happen when they both ‘went over the top’.

(1) Pte J. Bird: missing since April 2nd was found drowned in a mineshaft, possibly when constructing subways in Zouave Valley, Vimy Ridge. 182 Tunnelling Company Royal Engineers: one of 8 Coys formed by Brigadier George Fowke Feb 1915 for offensive/defensive mining under enemy lines/ also construction of deep dugouts/ subways/ saps & underground chambers for signals & medical services. Involved in 2nd Battle of Ypres and by March 1916 182 were at Vimy Ridge.  (Strangely no record of Pte J. Bird’s death in CWGC data base).

(2) Gooch Street: ‘300 shells fell on South Staffords lines from Gooch Street towards southern edge of the shallow depression south of Fonquevillers that gave Valley Avenue its name’. Alan MacDonald 2008: ‘A Lack of Offensive Spirit?  <http://www.gommecourt.co.uk/lack&gt; day by day account of 46th Midland Division preparation for Battle of Somme. 

(3) Psalms for 17th day of the month. Book of Common Prayer. 1662.

Robert Baden Poweel
Robert Baden Powell & Officers who outwitted the Boers.

(4) Mafeking /Mahikeng Relieved: Sir Robert Baden Powell with 800 men held out for 7 months in 2nd Boer War against 7000 Boers led by Piet Conje. See Hibbett Letter, 17th May 1915 for more details.

(5) Revd E. More Darling: Vicar of St Paul’s Walsall. (6) Officer Uniforms: Sanger*, Machin* & ‘Allen’* had recently received commissions/promotion.

(7) Yorkshire Evening Post 1819-1954 or Yorkshire Post & Leeds Intelligencer 1866-1955. (8) Godmother Mary Foster*, of Nottingham (Bertie & Sydney Hibbett’s birthplace). (9) Stainer’s Crucifixion: a Meditation on the Passion of Christ. Oratorio for Parish Church choirs with 5 congregational hymns. John Stainer Feb 14th 1887. 

(10) ‘Old’ garden:106, Rowley Street ? (first Hibbett Home in Walsall opposite 95 Foden Rd. (11) Major H.Lord Commanding Officer 1/5th S Staffs during May 1916.

ebay The Bystander.
Copies of The Bystander’s Fragments of France. <http://www.ebay.com&gt;

(12) Fragments from France. Humorous Cartoons by Captain Bruce Bairnsfather published by The Bystander 1916. Sold 200,000 copies of 1st & 2nd edition by end of March 1916 <http://www.brucebairnsfather.org.uk&gt;

(13) ‘Jesus ever lives’ to ‘make intercession for those who draw near to God through him.’ Hebrews 7.25. (13) ‘Jesus is the same yesterday, today & for ever’ – an eternal divine presence in the midst of a changing world. Heb. 13.8.

(14) Church fund raising: a constant anxiety for the clergy/ especially in time of War. (15) March 2nd 1915, 6.19 pm: 1/5th S Staffords sailed from Southampton & arrived in Havre, March 3rd 1.0 am.

NEXT POST: 21st May 1916.

 

10TH MAY 1916: SNIPER ATKINS OBSERVING & SKETCHING GOMMECOURT WOOD.

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Staffordshire Regt. Brooch.A Short History of South Staffordshire Regiment: ‘After a month’s hard earned rest S. Staffs began to prepare for the Battle of the Somme.’

South Staffordshire Badgee1/5th SOUTH STAFFORDS WAR DIARY:

CHELERS.

2nd May Tue: Battalion Training. 3rd May: Wed. 9.45 am: Marched to new billets at CONETTEMONT and HONVAL. 4th May Thur 7.0 am: Marched to new billets at ST. AMAND (1).

Royal Warwickshire Regt. www.en.wiki.org
Royal Warwickshire Regt. <http://www.en-wiki.org.uk&gt;

5th May Fri: 1.30 pm: Marched to FONQUEVILLERS (2) and relieved 1/6th Bn ROYAL WARWICKSHIRE REGT in L SECTOR Trenches.

6th- 7th May: FONQUEVILLERS. Enemy abnormally quiet.  8th May Mon: Enemy fired 10 Trench mortar bombs between No.1 and 2 posts. Our artillery retaliated on enemy front line.

9th May Tue.:  Enemy shelled No. 4 post. 1 Lewis Gun damaged and portion of parapet damaged. 10th May Wed:  Very quiet day.

From Chelers to Fonquevillers/Gommecourt via Canettemont/Honval snd St Amand.
March from Chelers to Front Line at Fonquevillers/Gommecourt via Canettemont/Honval and St Amand: 40 miles (65 km) approx. with  full pack in 2 days.  Rough Map efw.

***********************

Bertie in UniformPte BERTIE HIBBETT’s Own War Diary: A Little Book of Words & Doings’. May 3rd – May 31st.  ‘Sydney went to 6 Syndicate for School of Instruction at 3 Army Corp & returned. Very instructive lesson. Spends his 22nd Birthday there & received parcels from Home on Sunday.  He sent two large photos of Abbeville Cathedral.  Bomb courses, amo courses, attack runs etc.’

‘On Friday, (5th May) at Stand To & Stand Down, I heard  our friend the cuckoo calling as if to say Come to England:- ‘Blighty co-om’.  It was heard in our Reserve of the village of Fonquevillers in the wood. How transporting to the good old days in England.’

Preface Title Page: 'Sniper Atkins composed by a Sniper during a tour in the Trenches and Illustrated with original drawings from the pen of the same'. Signed 'Sniper Hibbett'.
Preface Title Page: ‘Sniper Atkins composed by a Sniper during a tour in the Trenches and Illustrated with original drawings from the pencil of the same’. Signed ‘Sniper Hibbett’.

‘While in trenches I drew sketch of Gommecourt Wood (3) in Fonquevillers and composed ‘Sniper Atkins’ (4). More observing and taking notes than firing from Sunday May 6th.

‘Sketched position. Man, wearing no equipment & carrying no rifle, seen to come down enfilade trench towards first line trenches, disappear in shrubbery & appear again walking apparently on top of parados of first line trenches, seen then to carry a white can similar to gallon can by hand, tall trees in front, making towards silver birch tree.  Later he returned without the can & went up trench towards enfilade trench.

Quarter of an hour later two men appeared in front trenches, running below in front, crossing each other one went to right & disappeared & one went left.  From S.B. (5), when walking about below, the whole of the figures of the men from the knee could be seen.  [Ed. NB. enfilade trench is where weapons can be fired along its longest axis. Parados – the back of a trench & lined with sandbags.]

LETTER to HIBBETT FAMILY, 95 Foden Rd Walsall. 

Wednesday, May 10th/ 16.

There’s a silver lining through the dark cloud shining, Turn the dark cloud inside out, till the boys come home (6).

My Dear People,

On Monday (8th) morning Sydney’s parcel, with the watch in, had been opened by A.O. Jones* who is in Sydney’s Platoon & was with him & slept by him.  Sydney must have left word to Jones to forward on the parcels etc, if he found his address, but someone told Jones that he had not received a certain parcel which had been forwarded to him (it had been mislaid I suppose) so Jones is keeping the watch for Sydney.  I took the cake & tin (a nice tin for a parcel).

This morning the Railway Magazine (7) with the washing square came & was handed to me.  I am keeping them in my haversack until Sydney returns, which I think will not be more than 3 weeks now.

There are only about 6 men in No 2 Platoon who have been on Active Service since the Division came out in March/ 15. So if I should get leave before Sydney returns I will leave his things with Jones. I had Harold’s parcel of candles, Horlick’s Milk Tablets & ointment which was addressed to 3rd Field Ambulance am yesterday.  Did you post the parcel you sent on Saturday April 2th to 3rd Field Ambulance? – the one you said had eggs in?  That makes the second which will have gone astray if it does not arrive soon.

I read Dodger’s letters to Sydney (you don’t mind do you Dodger?) & was greatly interested in them, but I think you beat me in scribbling.  The first thing I noticed was the ‘Censoring’ & was amused to read you had the same idea. 

Inns of Court Badge.
Inns of Court Badge. The Devil’s Own. <http://dacorumheritage.org.uk&gt;

I have had another swanky letter with seals on the envelope & paper – the latter came from Mr Bates*, who was in the Inns of Court OTC (8) – Vernon* told me that rotten officers were being turned out by its training – at any rate Mr Bates was gazetted last November to the Durham Light Infantry & he is now at Rugeley Camp, Cannock Chase (9).

I have not written to Nightingale* (10) since last December, as you said his letter had been returned when it did not reach me, owing to me being in Hospital.

I think the ‘Dark Cloud’ is drifting by and the sunshine of Home Leave is showing itself.  ‘They’ say the number has increased to 12 men a day on leave.  I hope I shall not bhoy (sic) you up on false hopes – ahem!

So, so very, very sorry Sydney is away for the sake of your Birthday parcels for him, but I think if you address the parcels to where he is No 6 Syndicate, 3rd Army School of Instruction (Infantry) B.E.F. it will find him.  What do you think?  I hope in any case matters will come straight & he will not miss them.

I am detached from 2 Platoon while in these trenches, for I am a Schniper (sic) as you know.  I do not do much firing – well I have not fired a shot yet as my post,  which is a ‘cushi’ one, is for observation purposes chiefly, as we can see the enemy often.  I make out reports & am on a ‘sketch’ of the enemy line.  You see the Sergeant in charge has somehow found out my natural inclinations.

Macdonald's Export Cigarettes.
Macdonald’s Export Cigarettes.<http://thecanadiansoldier.com&gt;

Mrs Brookes*’ parcel of cigs from London has not yet come, but I suppose, as Jones* told me Parcels do ‘drawback’ for sometimes a month before they arrive. (Jones frequently has a wholesome lot of cigs – Export or Drawback ) (11).

6th Inniskilling Dragoons.
6th Inniskilling Dragoons.

Mr Bates*, by the by, had a brother, a Regular in the Inniskilling Dragoons & he was killed in March at the place along the line we are now occupying.  So if Dad asks Nightingale* or Bates*, should Dad see either, you can get to know.

We have had it charmingly quiet & comfortable while we’ve been here.  The country looks ‘Bon’ in the Spring atmosphere.  Am I telling you anything about me sen?  I am keeping well & happy & my sores are very nearly better. I think it was the Spring, partly, that caused them.

Talking about Spring again; you have heard the old saying that Spring brings with it ‘Budding’ in every form, not only in trees & such things but ‘Budding Authors’ & ‘Budding Poets‘. The latter class includes this humble self.  I caught the fever from copying a piece of ‘doggerel’ from one of Hacket’s* chums in his Mess. 

Title Page Sniper Atkins
Title Page Sniper Atkins. ‘Wait & See.  A few verses from my pencil written in the trenches, during the reign of Good King George V ‘.  Sketch of one of his sniper pals. Signed A. H. Hibbett. 

So, during my hours off, I began to compose a poem on Sniping, just for a joke. To see if I get any luck I am sending the result off to The Walsall Observer, (which Dad refers to as ‘not up to much in news’ & only gets it to read the Education Notes etc).  

So look out for a poem in its columns entitled ‘Sniper Atkins’.  I think I shall tell them not to put my name to it, but say that it was composed by a Sniper in the 1/5th S. Staffs T. F.  Ha! ha! ha!  Poor old Dad when he sees it!  Look out & tell me what you think on’t.  I will send you a copy in my next letter.  Of course it’s original.  What, what!

Now is there anything else to tell you,  scratch!- scratch!- scratch  my noddle — no!

Toodle oo & Best of Love,   Affectionately yours,

Bertie.

PS  My word Dodger, you  & I will stick ‘we’ mouths togedder (sic) with Turkish Delight when we go cycling round those good old places which you gave such a homely description of.

‘To CAMWELL FOR BANANAS’. (12)

‘To Tamworth (13)- had a drink of stone ginger & Turkish Delight’.   

PS  I will address my next to Ida as she takes an interest in poems – I suppose you’ll be amused at the crossing out – the Censor so to speak. My last letter was sent on Monday, dated Sun.  Hope you get it.

********************

ELIZABETH HIBBETT WEBB
ELIZABETH HIBBETT WEBB

With Pte Bertie Hibbett only just arrived back from Field Ambulance/ Hospital and his brother Serjeant Sydney on a course in (or near) Abbeville, the Hibbett family were anxious about the safe arrival of parcels, especially Sydney’s 22nd Birthday Parcel containing a watch. 

My father was officially detailed to make sketches of Gommecourt Wood. He brought a copy Home and kept it for over 50 years until, sadly, it disappeared after a Toc H. Exhibition in Skegness. I have yet to discover whether his illustrated doggerel ‘Sniper Atkins’ was ever published in the Walsall Observer.

1) A march of 40 miles (65 km) approx to Fonquevillers from Chelers, via Canettemont, Honval & St Amand (farming villages, Pas de Calais). (2) Fonquevillers: farming commune, 12 miles south of Arras. On British Front Line almost all of 1914- 1918. Village & Church of Our Lady destroyed & rebuilt with help of Derby & Nottingham. Plaque to ‘Derby Notre Marraine’ ‘Derby our Godmother‘.

(3) Gommecourt: farming village approx. 1 mile south of Fonquevillers, held by German Imperial Army (52nd Infantry Division, Baden & 2nd Guards Reserve Division, Westphalia). Diversionary attack by 1/5th S Staffords, 46th N. Midland Division, 1st July 1916. <www.ww1battlefields.co.uk>

(4) Sniper Atkins: Doggerel poem written & illustrated by Pte Bertie Hibbett. ‘Tommy Atkins‘ – name adopted by Duke of Wellington 1815 for the common soldier in British Army. Origin: Pte Thomas Atkins, Battle of Boxtel, 1794. cf Rudyard Kipling ‘Tommy’, Barrack Room Ballads. 1892. See < http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems&gt; and <http://www.historic-uk.com/history&gt;

(5) S.B. abbrev. of ‘Subject’? ie Pte Bertie?

en-wiki220px-KeepTheHomeFiresBurning1915(6) There’s a Silver Lining through the Dark Clouds shining: WW1 Song: ‘Keep the Home Fires Burning’. Ivor Novello, Words: Lena Guilbert Ford. 8th Oct. 1914.

(7) Railway Magazine: See Hibbett Letter, 10th Nov. 1915. (8) Inns of Court O.T.C.: Harold Hibbett was intending to join.

(9) Rugeley Camp, Cannock Chase: one of two large Transit Camps for Service Battalions begun March 1915 at Cannock Chase (68 acres (AONB) Staffordshire). Timber huts, a Church, Post Office, Theatre – and a Hospital at Brindley Heath (1000 beds). Known for its ‘Tackaroo Railway’.(10) Nightingale: Mining Surveyor, Lichfield Street, Walsall, Pte Bertie’s former boss.

(10) ‘Export & Drawback Cigarettes’: ref to drawback/tax relief: cf Houses of Parliament Hansard: 14th March 1916: The Secretary to the Treasury (re delay in payment of drawback on tobacco to manufacturers.  ‘The recent increase in tobacco drawback rates involving special inquiry into many claims submitted, combined with heavy & continuous increase in numbers of exportations, particularly those by parcel post to the Expeditionary Forces, has led to some unavoidable delay in the full payment of claims’.

(11) Camwell: near Sutton Coldfield. Church of St Giles, Mary & All Saints ‘an architectural gem’, Sir John Betjemin.

Tamworth castle.
Tamworth Castle. <http://www.en-wiki.org.uk&gt;

(12) Tamworth: large market town on River Tame, 14 miles from Birmingham/ renowned for Castle. See Hibbett Letter. 1st Aug. 1915.

NEXT POST: 17th May. Sydney’s 22nd Birthday Letter.  Also Sniper Atkins Page with doggerel transcript sometime before.

1ST MAY 1916: HOME LETTERS FIND ME IN BARNS, CAVES, HUTS, SCHOOLS & TUMBLE DOWN DUGOUTS WITH RATS SQEAKING!

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South Staffordshire Badgee1/5th SOUTH STAFFORDS WAR DIARY

CHELERS.  

29th April – 1st May 1916. BATTALION TRAINING.

Bertie in Uniform

Pte BERTIE HIBBETT, No 3 FIELD AMBULANCE N. MIDLANDS DIVISION: THE PICKWICKIAN LEAFLET to IDA HIBBETT, 95 Foden Rd Walsall.

Pickwickian Envelope.

Envelope: THE PICKWICKIAN LEAFLET, Active Service Supplement of The Pickwick Magazine, Organ of a Pickwick Club. (1)                                             

Basil Hibbett Age 18. 1916.
‘Dodger’ Basil Hibbett Age 18.
VAD Nurses Ida Hibbett & May Overend. 1915.
VAD Nurses Ida Hibbett & May Overend. 1915.

cont: No 1. ISSUED MONTHLY  This month’s leaflet is dedicated to ‘Our Dodger’ and ‘May’ O.  On back: ‘Oh! If you like you can send this to May Overend*’ (2).   (Censor A. S. Hoads)

Pickwickian leaflet 1
The Pickwickian Leaflet. Side 1.

Many Happy returns to Basil & May but we hope that we shall be enjoying ‘Peace’ next May Day.  I wish I had made a decent article but being on Active Service I can’t start afresh see over . . .                               

NO I.  MONDAY              MAY 1st 1916.                                     MONTHLY.   

News from the Papers. Not a reflection upon De Coverley (3). I could not help thinking that this name of ‘Sir Roger’ has been disgraced.  Goldsmith’s ‘Sir Roger’ was a good man, but the one who was put in the Tower of London ought instead to be shut up in a case of cement, then the noble knight would not even have a chance to ‘Wait & See’ what his Case meant, and repent.

W.A.A.C Poster. Pressure began in 1914 butNot till Dec 1916.
Pressure for WAAC began in 1914 but not officially established until Dec 1916.

Women War Workers (4). What does Tommy on Home Leave think of ‘her’ who salutes and exclaims ‘Sir’ in the street, whenever they meet to greet him?  Although I heartily agree with Women War Workers & congratulate their good work at the same time I should not like to see ‘Pickwick’ in masculine dress salute me at the door and address me as ‘Sir’ when I go on Leave. Pickwick you remember, when the Club was in being, was the name given to Ida.

On the Recruiting Crisis (5). Rise fellow men! Our country yet remains. By that dread name We wave the sword on high, And swear for Her to live, For Her to die (6). This Easter tide ought to give us, along with its bright weather, a stimulus. This Spring we hope is the Herald of Victory before the Autumn.  In any case `Victory’ will, in the end, be for the ‘Allies’.

Pickwickian leaflet 2.
Pickwickian Leaflet.  Side 2.  NB See Welcome page Smiling Letter Home.

Members Birthdays. Today the weather is beautiful, just the ideal May Day weather, & I hope the members of the Pickwick Club are enjoying Happy Birthdays.                                                                               

Where Home Epistles Go! ‘I wonder what my son is doing at this very minute’, sais a Mother who has just sat down to write a letter to her son at the Front. There are many who ask this to themselves & there are many at Home who wonder, not only where their friends & relatives are, but where their letters find them. I have  received letters in places  you would not dream of. The number of  letters I have  had while in the trenches are many, so also those received while encamping for the four or five days before going into the trenches again. 

I have had letters while in barns of old farms, in caves like those of Linley Caverns (7) besides huts, theatres, schools and dugouts.  The daughter of Flo’s’ letter (8) I read at the entrance of a cavern, a letter from Father was  read in a half  tumble down dugout dripping with  water and amidst the sound of rats squeaking.  Many letters have been read by a log fire in an old barn and by the brazier in the trench.  I shall never forget the letter I read as soon as daylight was strong enough. 

It goes without saying that all the letters are welcome to Tommy,  he is so eager & keen to open them that he takes first opportunity no matter what is preventing.  I once read a letter on the side of the road when I went for rations & had one handed to me from the QMS.

A detailed account of one or two letters ‘where they went to’ will be given in each monthly issue of the paper.  Look out to see where your next letter reached me.

More Articles. The Pickwickian Leaflet, as its name implies, consists of literature on one page only.  I have only been able to give a few articles this time. but I shall try to put more articles in next month; but it will be a case of Multum in Parvo (9).

Yours sincerely,  Winkle (10).

**********************

ELIZABETH HIBBETT WEBB
ELIZABETH HIBBETT WEBB
The PICKWICK CLUB of 1905.
The PICKWICK CLUB of 1905.

(1) The Pickwick Club: See Hibbett Letters 23rd April 1915; also 7th, & 13th Sept and 26th Dec. 1915. 

Transcription left: October 1905. The Pickwick Magazine. Editor: Sam Weller MPC (May Overend*). Motto: NIL DESPERANDO (Never Despair).

Sam Pickwick President: I Hibbett.  Augustus Snodgrass Member: Sydney Hibbett (8 yrs). Sam Weller Member: May Overend. Tracy Tupman Member: Bertie Hibbett (7 yrs). Sam Wardle Member: I. Cozens*. Nath(anual) Winkle Member: D Cozens* (10 yrs). NB The Cozens were sons of W.H. Cozens*, Superintendant of St Paul’s Sunday School Walsall, lived at Furzedown, Streetly Lane, Sutton Coldfield, mentored Bertie Hibbett’s Sunday School work from 1913.

(3) Sir Roger de Coverley: character in The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers, The Spectator 1711 (daily publication byJoseph Addison (1st May 1672- 1719) & Richard Steele ). An English Squire with values of old country gentleman, ‘lovable but ridiculous’, politics ‘silly but harmless’.  <http://http://www.enwiki.com&gt; and http://www.enotes.com/topic/sir-roger-de-coverley/critical essays> ‘a gentleman of Worcester, of ancient descent, a baronet/ ‘quaint & lovable representation of Tory landowning class an aimiable but rather inneffectual anachronism’. Also a English/Scottish country dance, published c 1695.

Oliver Goldsmith 1728-1774: Anglo-Irish novelist, poet, dramatist. (NB I am unable to discover connection with Sir Roger or with 1916 newspaper). 

29th-April-1916.-Cartoon-Sister.(4) Women War Workers/women in uniform. See Hibbett Letter Cartoon 28th April 1916. 

(5) The Recruitment Crisis 1916. Military Service Act (27th Jan. 1916): compulsory conscription of 19- 41 yr old men/ no choice given re service, regiment or unit. Age lowered to 18 yrs on 25th May 1916. Tribunal Appeals (re illness, disability, ‘starred occupation’ – essential work on Home Front) meant Military Act failed to deliver numbers required. <http://www.1914-1918.com&gt; Long Long Trail.

(6) Rise fellow men! –Sir Thomas Lawrence Campbell, 1777-1844, Scottish Poet – re Battle of Maciejowice, Poland 10th Oct. 1794 (Russians defeated the Poles).

(7) Linley Caverns, Aldridge, Staffordshire. Extensive 19th cent. limestone workings now flooded: ‘an incredibly dangerous place’. Used for storing bombs in WW2. See <https:brownhillsbog.com> Urban Exploration at Linley Caverns. 1957 (Walsall Observer:16th Aug.1957).

(8) i.e. Flo’s daughter’s letter: Flo?  (9) Multum in Parvo: Latin ‘Much in a small space‘. (10) Winkle: a Pickwick Club name for Bertie. NB the Pickwick Club note above, gives him as Tracy Tupman.

NEXT POST: 10th May 1916.

 

29TH APRIL 1916: ‘WOMEN AS DRESS HUP LOIKE TOMMIES’.

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South Staffordshire Badgee1/5TH SOUTH STAFFORDS WAR DIARY

CHELERS.

29th April. DIVISIONAL TRAINING.

 Bertie in UniformPte BERTIE HIBBETT, No 3 FIELD AMBULANCE NORTH MIDLAND DIVISION: LETTER TO IDA NEAL HIBBETT, 95 Foden Rd Walsall.

Friday April 29/ 16

29th-April-1916.-Cartoon-Sister.
Original Cartoon. A.H. Hibbett. 1916.

 

Liza:  ‘It’s Marster Bayzil’s Burthday on the furst of next month, what shall us give ‘im?’ Mary:  ‘I can’t think of nothink.  I know! let’s tell Marster Bertie Esquire to send ‘im a zeppelin an’ a n’elmit full o’ chocluts’. (1)

My Dear Sis-Ida,

Pronounce ‘it’ as Sis eee-eedah, but mind that, after emphasising the ‘I’ like the French do be aysy how you venture the ‘da(h)’. I should not like Mum to write & tell me, in her next long letter, that you are now suffering from a sprained jaw. You had enough I guess with that sprained ankle.

 Honi soit qui mal y pense. (2)

Eliza:  ‘Ow these women as dress hup loike Tommies, an soi ‘Sair’ win thoi parss each tother in th’stroit loike.  ha! ha! ahem! hee!  Mary Ann quietly:  ‘An’ Liza, ’av ya seed ’em sal(yoo)te t(y)oa?’ (3)

Also, before you make any attempt at looking at my ridiculous sketches, just inform you intention of doing so (that is if you wish to laugh) to the Dominant Dodger of May Day – on whom I count considerable confidence for approval.  I trust you will make him a nice cake, like the one you sent me for Simnel Sunday (3), as a means of enticing him to use a little more discretion about attesting. 

We are having another lovely sunny day, this making the sixth since Easter Sunday and I go back from the ‘abode of love’- I mean ‘perfumes of medicine’ – to the Batt. where I hope to again be within the brotherly atmosphere of Sydney.

I have had Cliff Hackett* with me since Easter Monday who has made the would-be quiet time into one of jollytude.  He also knows the Overends*.  – Who says those comic figures (on the back of this page) are like the Overends?  My word if I catch him bending!  Cliff used to tease Vernon enough to make them have frequent ‘scraps’. Oh yes I have kept up correspondence with Vernon, – & Cliff wrote too on the other page of my last letter.

Now do you want to know more aboot me sen?  Well if ya ’av  eyes to see can’t ya perceive I’ve tried to keep happy & so I am  and I’m ‘tres bien mercie’.

Love to you all, your very affec.  Bertie.

PS.  My next letter is to Mother. I wrote to Basil yesterday.

***************

ELIZABETH HIBBETT WEBB
ELIZABETH HIBBETT WEBB

Pte Bertie Hibbett was happy and very grateful for his quiet time with No 3 Field Ambulance, his ‘abode of love’, but was now on his way back to the Battalion. He salutes the idea of women soldiers & once again he warns Basil about attesting on his 18th Birthday (i.e. before he was conscripted).

(1) Cartoon: ‘Liza, It’s Master Basil’s Birthday on the first of next month, what shall we get him?’  Mary: ‘I can’t think of anything. I know! Let’s tell Master Bertie Esquire to send him a zeppelin and a helmet full of chocolates.‘

wikiRoyal_Coat_of_Arms_of_the_United_Kingdom.svg
Order of the Garter.

(2) Honi soit qui mal y pense: literal translation of Old French: ‘Shame be to him who thinks evil of it‘- in this case of Women Soldiers. Origin: Edward III Battle of Crecy 1346 (Order of his Garter).

(3) Simnel Cake: fruit & marzipan cake taken by daughters home to their Mothers on Mothering Sunday (middle of Lent) & kept until Easter. Pre-17th cent. tradition for ‘daughter Churches’ to worship at the ‘Mother Church’.  (From Latin ‘simila‘, ‘fine wheaten flour’).

(4) Eliza – ‘How these women dress up like Tommies, and say ‘Sir‘ when they pass each other in the street. ha! ha! ahem hee!  Mary Ann quietly – ‘And Liza, Have you seen them salute you?

NEXT POST: 1st May 1916. 

28TH APRIL 1916: BALMY BALLAD MORAL: ‘CONSIDER MOTHER BEFORE EITHER BROTHER’.

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South Staffordshire Badgee1/5TH SOUTH STAFFORDS WAR DIARY

CHELERS.

22nd – 30th Apr: Battalion Training.

APRIL CASUALTIES:  OFFICERS KILLED.1.  WOUNDED 3.  OTHER RANKS KILLED. 9. MISSING BELIEVED KILLED. 6. WOUNDED 28. Slightly wounded remained at duty 2. Self Inflicted Wound.1.

Signed: W.A. WISTANCE, Major Cmdg 1/5th South Staffordshire Regt.

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Bertie HibbettPte BERTIE HIBBETT, No 3 FIELD AMBULANCE NORTH MIDLAND DIVISION: LETTER to BASIL HIBBETT, 95 Foden Rd Walsall.

Friday April 28th/ 16.

P.S. Trusting this reaches you none too late, if not ‘on the right’. (1)

Oh! Restless Child Wait & See Do not dare be wild – ‘They’ have need of thee. (2)

Mye Jollye Olde Dodger,

I can’t say in this what I mean by ‘they’, perhaps the censor would blush and perhaps do more than that if I ‘let out’, but you know that word covers a lot of reasons.  Of course I don’t believe you were all that serious when you spoke of ‘attesting’. (3)

Now:- Dearest, Dutiful, Dodger. Don’t die! Balmy Bertie blubbers badly, Boo bye! Sergeant Sydney swanks splendidly, Shoo shy! (4)

GoathlandEd290912
Goathland,  North York Moors.

What think you on that? Of course  do not dare to show Dad, ’cause as you said we know what Dad is? (perhaps?) but I remember, when I lost my walking stick on the Moors at Goatland sic (5) & had a poetic fit, how Dad behaved when I began to recite my ‘balmy ballad’. 

Still these little bits of doggerel have their moral – for instance, although Bertie blubbers (which is a lie) and Sydney swanks (which is true)?  Basil must learn from that:- to ‘Consider Mother before either brother’ – and that I think puts the cap on’t.

Yes the Queen of Seasons, bright (6), she finds me still in the War Zone, but bless her, she has cheered us downhearted ones all up, by her gorgeous appearance since Easter began.

Ah! my dear Loidies & Jellyfish (7) who write such pathetic & stinging epistles to the humble self!  We have a vast lot to be grateful for although the War will be all over soon (America) (8). Just let your minds run (but take care you catch ’em again) across to Aye joipt (Egypt) & think of those who have been besieged since Dec. 1915 & perhaps have never seen Home for two years or more (9).

The best thing I can tell you to do (the thought is not mine originally) is to do what Mum said to me in a past letter:-  ‘When I feel ‘like that’ I go out for a walk, whether it is snowing, raining or what.’ (Now methinks dat’s goot adtvice an’ it don’t cost yer even a ‘penning’ sic (10).  Go, bathe thyself in the flood of Spring Sunshine and charm away thy dross feelings with the song of the lark’ – ahem!

My word! the Easter parcel was a ripper, everything that we could desire –  an’ above all sent with your combined love.  I did larf at the article in the QMS (11) & tried to read as much as I could, those you marked, before I left for the Field Ambulance, where I am still.  ‘The hooters that hooted for their own mischievous lust!’

Sydney told me how you’d growed, that explains the meaning of you writing :  ‘the expansion due to several causes’ eh? –  an’ I doubt not you’ve expanded both in height & width. My word, I can’t allow this!  Sydney alarmed me by adding that you were taller than me.  I expect you will stand up on your bed on May 1st morning to see if you have gained another inch since you digested your Christmas pudding.

Well I will close now with my best love to Mother & Father & Sister – & Harold I guess: –

Vous avez Bon Native Jour, Je espère.

Votre beloved Bertie.

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ELIZABETH HIBBETT WEBB
ELIZABETH HIBBETT WEBB

This Letter shows Pte Bertie Hibbett’s love of dialect, rhyming words and alliteration in his banter with his brother. It had a serious purpose – to persuade Basil not to attest on his 18th birthday – for the sake of their parents. He loved him for wanting to be with his brothers but raw experience had changed Bertie’s attitude to War since he volunteered in Aug.1914. The ‘Big Push’ Battle of the Somme was in preparation and the War might be over before Basil was conscripted.

(1) ‘On the right’ /‘on the right day’ i.e. Basil’s Birthday, 1st May. (2) ‘They‘ – their parents, not the Army.

(3) ‘Attesting‘ – signing up as volunteer in the Army on /after 18th Birthday. cf Hibbett Letters 2nd Mar.1916; 27th Oct 1915. Also http://www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/derbyscheme.htm.

(4) Doggerel with nonsense rhyme, nevertheless with a serious note/ Bertie was very anxious that Basil did not join up until it was compulsory so as not to add to his parents’ anxiety.

(5) Goathland: North York Moors /near Whitby where Hibbett family went on holiday alternate years. Bertie’s ‘Goatland’ links with ‘giddy goat’. See definition, Hibbett Letter 18th Aug. 1915. (6) ‘Queen of Seasons’ i.e. Easter, from the Hymn ‘Come ye faithful raise the strain’ See Hibbett Letter 23rd April 1916.

(7) ‘Loidies & Jellyfish’: Ladies & Gentlemen. (8) America: hopes appear to have been high for American intervention but it took two years (after the sinking of the Lusitania by German submarine, 7th May 1915, when 128 Americans went down with the ship) before the USA entered the War, 6th April 1917.

Long Long Trail.Railway_construction_across_the_Sinai_during_World_War_I_Aust_OH_Photo_597
Railway in Sinai Desert. 1916.

9) B.E.F. Campaign in Egypt: April 1916 saw the building of a railway across the Sinai Desert to serve Allied advance on Ottoman/German forces at Battle of Romani 3-5th August 1916. See Long Long Trail.

(10) Walk to lift one’s spirits when restless/ down hearted/troubled. ‘That’s good advice and it doesn’t cost you a penny’. (11) Queen Mary’s School Magazine , April 1916 Number?

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NEXT POST:  1st May 1916.

 

25TH APRIL 1916: ARMY & POST OFFICE DILIGENCE.

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Staffordshire Regt. Brooch.VERNON EVANS, 3/5th SOUTH STAFFS: LETTER (post marked Derby 6.30 pm 25th April) to Pte A.H. HIBBETT No 2 Platoon A Coy. 5th South Staffs, British Expeditionary Force.  (1)

Envelope

25th-April-1916--

Dear Bertie,

This is not going to be a letter as there is no news at all.  The Bat. (2) left here on Wednesday & went to Yorkshire, a place called Richmond (3), & I hear it is a very rotten place, but good huts.

Richmond Yorkshire Dales. <http://www.yorkshiredales.co.uk
Richmond, River Swale, Yorkshire Dales. <http://www.yorkshiredales.co.uk

I was lucky enough to be left behind with a wiring party (4), our time is up on Thursday, but I think we are going to stop on longer as there is no one else to do the work.  I hope we do.

Wiring Party 1915
Wiring Party in Training. 1916. The soldiers are wearing helmets & carrying cheveaux de frises /barbed wire contraptions to protect front line trenches..

We did not have any Easter holiday – 7 til 7 every day, Sundays as well, but I do not mind it, it is worth it to stop in a town like this, & have a good time a night.  We are allowed out till twelve every night.  Vic. went with the Bat.

I enclose you a photograph which may interest you, we had it taken the other day, most of the men on it are B.E.F. men, Price*, Bussey* (Bursey?) Machine Gun Sgt. (who is very decent), most are old ‘A’ Coy chaps.

Remember me kindly to Sid, & all the others.  Wishing you both the very best of Luck.

Vernon Evans sign.

I remain Your sincere friend.    Vernon. (5)

Back of enveliope 25th Apr. 1916.

 

 

 

 

 

* * * * * 

 

ELIZABETH HIBBETT WEBB
ELIZABETH HIBBETT WEBB

Vernon Evans, Bertie Hibbett’s best pal, had been sent Home with trench fever and, like Serjeant Sydney Hibbett with his catarrhal jaundice, was attached to 3/5th South Staffords (Territorial).  Sydney returned to the Front in April, whilst Vernon remained in the UK, possibly for the rest of the War. The Hibbett family was anxious for Bertie to apply for a Commission in the 3/5th S Staffs and also for ‘Sick Leave’, whichever would bring him Home. But it was not to be. The ‘Big Push’, the Battle of the Somme, was in preparation and too many men had his complaint. 

(1) The number of Addresses & Postmarks on the envelope bear witness to the diligence of the Army & the Post Office in delivering Letters to its Soldiers.

Vernon’s Letter, posted in DERBY 6.30 PM 25 AP 16, did not reach Pte Bertie until December 1916, 8 months later. It arrived at the Front within 5 days, missing him by 10 days. He & the 1/5th S Staffs had left the Front on 21st April & were at Chelers, Battalion Training.  It appears the Letter was then marked ‘Hospital’ (in pencil), stamped ‘Field Post Office 137 30 AP 16’ and sent to the RETURNED LETTER SECTION LONDON POSTAL SERVICE, where it was opened, ‘officially sealed’ and sent on to ‘Territorial Force Records LICHFIELD 14 DEC 1916’.  

At Lichfield the  B.E.F. address was crossed out with red ink and the Letter sent on, Post Mark WALLASEY 8-PM 15 DEC 16, to 8832 Pte A.H. Hibbett, The Cenacle. British Red Cross Hospital, New Brighton. From there it was forwarded to Ward D. 1st Western General Hospital, Fazakerley, Liverpool. 

Swale Falls Richmond
Swale Falls Richmond <http://www.geograph.org.uk&gt;

(2) 3/5th Battalion South Staffordshire Regt (Territorial). (3) Richmond on River Swale, Yorkshire Dales. Not a ‘rotten place’ at all Vernon but no match on Derby for night life!

(4) Wiring Party/ barbed wire contraptions/cheveaux des frises, to protect Front Line Trenches. See Top Menu: My Memories. A.H.H. & Hibbett Letters.

NEXT POST: 28th April 1916.

 

23RD APRIL 1916: EASTER FINDS ME ‘UNABLE TO KEEP THE FEAST’.

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Bertie HibbettPte BERTIE HIBBETT, No 3 FIELD AMBULANCE, NORTH MIDLAND DIVISION B.E.F. (1): LETTER to ALL at 95, Foden Rd Walsall.

Easter Sunday. Ap 23rd 1916

‘Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the  Feast’. (2)

‘Now the Queen of Seasons bright With the Day of Splendour, With the Royal Feast of Feasts Comes the Joy to render’. (3)

My Very Dear People,

Bright, sunny weather greeted us all as we got up this Easter morning.  I do so hope you too are having the same. But, queer enough, between the two great days it has rained somewhat heavily.

What a capital, ideal Easter parcel you sent dears – Mum, Dad & all.  I went down to Sydney & we opened it, with another parcel from Miss Foster* to us both in front of us .  How striking the beautiful Easter picture looked, the first thing that proclaimed itself as we took off the lid.  The parcels came just in time for Easter & before I left the Coy. for this place, No 3 Field Ambulance, North Midland Division, B.E.F.

This Easter morning, the parcels arriving yesterday, Saturday, I took them down myself to Sydney.  What a delightful brotherly feeling pervaded the air while I was with him, but now it has come my turn once again to leave him, for how long I can’t say. My case is not bad, it is prevalent among the majority of the men, my usual skin disease (4).

So eventually Easter Sunday finds me here, unable to ‘keep the Feast’ (2) as I should have liked, attending Parade Service, & Holy Communion which generally follows.  But I have reaped a little consolation from Miss Foster’s little book ‘Wayside Memories’ (5 which I will send as soon as I get a green envelope. There is a quotation which says: ‘a little lifting of the Heart suffices –  – – one act of inward worship, though upon a march & sword in hand, are nevertheless acceptable to God.’ (6).

Easter Dawn. Postcard sent to soldiers from St peter's Church Paddington. 'At our Easter Communion we are Praying for You.
Easter Dawn. ‘Lo I am with you alway’. 

I was so sorry on reading that you thought of not going to St Paul’s today, if I was not with you. But, dear Mum, what does the title for the Easter picture for the soldiers say; ‘Lo, I am with you alway’ (7). Does Ida remember the Happy Easter morning when we all went to Communion (Choral) & sang ‘Jesus Christ is risen today, Allelluia’ (8) and does dear Mum remember scooting off to Sunday School on the cycle?

Many thanks for the Hot Cross buns, cake, cigarettes & the Easter Egg.  I left the sardines for Sydney, also the cocoa, milk & sugar.  I have enjoyed a lovely day & ate the chocolate egg when Basil & his two brothers used to eat them –  ie after Easter dinner.  I enjoyed a ‘nice’ tea with the cake today & pictured you all with Harold &  Miss Bore at tea.

I let Sydney have the pencil as it is of more use to him, being one who has to make notes etc.  After reading & digesting in little time to enjoy it as well, the Q.M.S. Magazine, those articles that Dodger earmarked, I left the magazine for Sydney while I brought the Parish (Church) Mag. with me.  While squatting by his side I heard him give acclamations of sad surprise on seeing the photos of the OTC casualties, but the smiling face of Sergeant Fenton* reminds me of Sydney’s quick answer to Mother’s question which was his favourite hymn.  ‘Rejoice again I say Rejoice’ (9) – ‘being sorrowful yet alway rejoicing’ (10). I shall put in for sick leave when possible, so be not anxious dearies.

I see that you are having the Hallelujah Chorus tonight, which I loved Dad to play.  I hope Dad will have a good rest this holiday & Mum will get well soon.  Perhaps you will think this letter not such a nice one as my usual, but I have such a great thoughts of you I can’t express or know what – or how much to say.

Silk Cigarette Cards: belgium & Serbia.
Silk Cigarette Cards: Belgium & Serbia.

I enclose some more silk cards (11), tell me if you get them, which I send for you Mum  – & Ida if she would like one, & Basil, with my heart’s love to you all.  I am writing to Harold, Ida & Basil soon. 

With our combined love & wishes from

Your loving Bertie.

PS Am sending little book later – tell me if you get it, it will be in a Stationary Envelope (6).

**********************

ELIZABETH HIBBETT WEBB
ELIZABETH HIBBETT WEBB

Pte Bertie Hibbett may have felt that he could not ‘keep the Feast’ in the traditional sense of attending Church services and family gatherings but to me these Letters Home show how deeply my father understood the true meaning of Good Friday & Easter. Like Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, he practised the Presence of God in the midst of suffering & sacrifice,   ‘As sorrowful yet alway rejoicing’.  

The Hibbett family sent a picture in their Easter Parcel with the message ‘Lo, I am with you alway’.  The sight of it gave great comfort and strength to him & his brother, and I am almost certain it was the same picture sent to Bandsman Thomas William Stubley, Killed in Action, 16th May 1916 – see Derby Church House website <http://www.derby.anglican.org&gt;. Grateful thanks to Wendy Pockson & Dave Feltham.

(1) Field Ambulance: a Mobile Front Line Medical Unit (not to be mistaken for a vehicle), organised by the RAMC. Each Infantry Division had 3 F.As, each divided into 3 sections, each with 10 officers, a stretcher bearer & tented subsections. See The Long Long Trail <http://www.1914-1918.net/fieldambulances> 

John of Damascus.
John of Damascus.

(2) ‘Christ our Passover . . .’: 2 Corinthians 5.7. St Paul Approx AD 57. cf Exodus 12/ Angel of Death passes over the houses marked with the Blood of the Lamb. (3) ‘Now the Queen of Seasons bright. . .’ verse in Easter Hymn: ‘Come ye faithful raise the strain of triumphant gladness ‘: John of Damascus c 675 -749. Syrian Monk & Christian Priest/lived in Jerusalem Orthodox Monastery. English Transl. 1853. John Mason Neale 1818- 1866. Anglican Priest & hymn writer/ Oxford Movement.

(4) ‘Skin Disease’: blood disorder/ boils that put Pte Bertie in Hospital, Aug -Oct 1915 & Dec. 1915-Jan 1916. cf Hibbett Letter 2nd Nov. 1915. (5) Godmother’s Little Book Wayside Memories/ which Bertie sent on to his Mother in a green envelope.

(6) ‘A little lifting of the heart: Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection. Practised the Presence of God’ cf Hibbett Letter 16th April 1916.

(7)  ‘Lo I am with you alway even to the end of the world’: Matt. 28 20. c AD 85. (8) ‘Jesus Christ is risen today’: 14th Cent Latin Hymn ‘Surrexit Christus hodie’/ author unknown. English Transl. John Baptist Walsh. Charles Wesley added a 4th verse. Music: ‘Easter Hymn'(Lyra Davidica).

9) ‘Rejoice I say . . ‘:  Philippians 4.14. St Paul approx. AD 49 -51.(10)  ‘Sorrowful yet alway rejoicing’. 2 Corinthians 6.10. KJV. St Paul AD 57 approx. 

(11) Silk Cigarette Cards: See Hibbett Letters 14th April 1916; 18th June 1915.

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NEXT POST: 25th April 1916.  (Letter, posted in Derby not received by Bertie Hibbett until April 1918). 

21ST APRIL, 1916: ‘FORGIVE THEM FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO’.

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South Staffordshire Badgee1/5th SOUTH STAFFORDS WAR DIARY

ECOIVRES.

17th Apr. Mon: In Brigade Reserve. Very quiet day. 18th Apr. Tue: Ditto. Enemy artillery active at 4.20 pm and 5.30 pm.  Otherwise quiet. 19th Apr. Wed: Ditto. Very quiet day.

20th Apr. Thur: Ditto. Battalion relieved by 11th CHESHIRES, relief complete 11.40 pm.

21st Apr. Fri: ECOIVRES  Battalion in Huts by  2.0. am.  Marched to new billets at CHELERS (1) starting 10.0 am arriving 2.15 pm.

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Bertie in UniformPte BERTIE HIBBETT:  LETTER to MARIE NEAL HIBBETT, 95 Foden Rd Walsall. 

Good Friday. Ap 21st 1916.

‘Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves’. (2)

‘Forgive them for they know not what they do’. (3)

My Very Dear Mother,

St Paul's at Crossing
The Crossing at St Paul’s Walsall. East Window, 2001.
St Paul's Interior Walsall
St Paul’s Walsall as the Hibbett Family knew it.

I do hope you too are having sunny Spring weather like we are having today: 

I think the time must be about 11 o’clock so I am picturing you all attending St. Paul’s – the light of the sun is beaming through the windows & giving the interior a bright appearance. It lights up the pew that Mum & Dad, Basil & Ida are in. 

Heleborus Niger (Christmas or lenten Rose).
Heleborus Niger:(Christmas or Lenten Rose).

As I listen to a thrush singing its lovely song in these budding trees it reminds me of you all singing together with the choirboys’ treble voices  ‘There is a green hill far away’ (4) and ‘When I survey the wondrous cross’ (5). All the bushes & trees are showing new life & the fields look beautiful in their fresh green coat.  I send you some white flowers with a tinge of purple on the back of the petals; they remind me of the Passion Flower (6).

I received your welcome letter of Friday 14th & Palm Sunday,  yesterday (Thursday 20th). How funny that I too wrote to you on the Friday following Harold’s Birthday & again on Palm Sunday & you, like me & Mr W.H. Cozens*, headed our Sunday letters by that familiar name. The Batt. came back to huts last night; I saw Sydney & gave him your letters to read as well as Harold’s, Basil’s & Miss Foster’s; he handed to me the shirt & the handsome three bladed sharp knife, for which I thank you very much dear Mum.

Sydney was inclined to be cross with me (and rightly too, I think too now) for telling you that I should be Home soon. Well I did hear I was included in the next six, but where ‘the STING’ of it all was I forgot at the moment Leave has the ‘knack’ of stopping anytime.

gpembertononline.coukLegionww1Wounded.html FieldAmbulance
Motor Ambulance: gpembertononline.co.uk

You will be thinking of Our Lord’s Heavy burden of the Cross and his long walk with it to Calvary (7).

The Batt: too are most likely on their long march in full pack of about 15 kilometres this morning.  Grateful to say I came by Motor Ambulance – lucky beggar eh?  So I am waiting here for them.

Stourport on Severn. Cast Irton Bridge 1870.
Stourport on Severn. Cast Iron Bridge. Built 1870.

I will wait till Easter Sunday and enclose this in with that.  Harold told me he, Miss Bore & a few friends were going to Stourport today (8); well I hope they will enjoy themselves, but it seems a pity Harold does not have more holiday to enable them to go on another day than Good Friday, eh Mum?

Having been behind them and away from the Batt. I have had some difficulty in getting off letters to Harold, Miss Foster etc.

I have heard that Leave starts again soon, lets hope so.  Oh! I shall see you –  so ‘bide a wee an’ dinna fret’ (9). I think of Our Lord’s saying on His Way to the Cross ‘Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves’ (2).

They said the enemy shook hands with us at Xmas (10); I think they should do so today & more so being Good Friday don’t you? & ‘Let us forgive one another’ for man doesn’t know what he is doing when he is at War.

* * * * * * *   Continued on Easter Day.

ELIZABETH HIBBETT WEBB
ELIZABETH HIBBETT WEBB

My father’s Good Friday Letter is full of the language & imagery of the Passion of Christ – seen as an ever-present reality in his experience of War & the pity of War – with Nature the only sign of Life and hope of Easter. 

(1) Chelers: village near Tincques, approx.10 miles (15 km) from Neuville St Vaast & 13 miles (22 km) from Arras. That Pte Bertie went by Motor Ambulance shows he was not fit enough to carry a full pack – 50-58 Ibs in 1914 increased to 70-90 Ibs by 1916 (included steel helmets, wire cutters, respirators & extra ammo).

(2) ‘Weep not for me. . .’ Luke 23.28. Jesus‘ words to women of Jerusalem on road to Calvary. (3) ‘Forgive them . . . ‘  Word of Jesus from the Cross/ central to the Gospel message. Luke 23.34. Both sayings (in Luke only) proclaim a universal Gospel of Good News/ show Jesus’ unprecedented concern for women, poor, sick & all outcasts of society.

(4) ‘There is a green hill’. Hymn. Mrs. Cecil F. Alexander. 1818-1895. Inspired by grassy hill outside Derry, Ireland & serious illness of her daughter. Published in Hymns for Little Children, 1848.

(5) ‘When I survey . . . ‘  Hymn. Isaac Watts 1674 -1748. Tune: Rockingham. Edward Miller. 1790. (Charles Wesley said he would give up all his other hymns to have written this one).

Passion Flower. A vine.
Passion Flower. 

(6) Passion Flower: I think he sent home a helebore, as illustrated above.

(7) Calvary. Hill outside Jerusalem city walls. Also called Golgotha ‘Place of a Skull’. (Greek transcription of Aramaic, Gol Goatha ‘Place of execution’. King James Bible translates Latin ‘Calvariae’ in Vulgate Bible as ‘Calvary‘).

(8) Stourport on Severn. Rapid industrial rise when Staffordshire & Worcester to Birmingham Canal built in 1768. Plenty of history & industrial architecture to interest Harold Hibbett & his friends.

(9) ‘Bide a wee an’ dinna fret. . .’  Leisure Hours. 1878. cf Hibbett Letter 27th March 1916.

(10) Christmas Truce 1914 & 15. See Menu Page.

NB I took a copy of  this letter to Embrace the Base at Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp/ Cruise Missile Base. October 13th 1983. Hung at the Violet Gate celebrating world-wide religious/spiritual messages of peace. e.f.w.

NEXT POST: 23rd Apr. 1916. Easter Day.

 

16TH APRIL 1916: CARTOON – ‘YOU CAN’T IMAGINE IT!’

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South Staffordshire Badgee1/5TH SOUTH STAFFORDS WAR DIARY.

NEUVILLE ST VAAST & MONT S ELOI .

15th Apr. Sat:  Relieved by 11.15pm

16th Apr. Sun:  NEUVILLE ST VAAST.  In Brigade Reserve.  Enemy artillery active at 7.15pm.

Bertie HibbettPte BERTIE HIBBETT on Guard Duty, Mont St Eloi Neuville St Vaast.

‘A Little Book of Words & Doings’: April. ‘At Mont S Eloi.  ‘Eloi Eloi lama sabachthani’ (1).

 

en-wiki towers of Mt St Eloi 350px-Steloi1
Towers of Mont St Eloi, Neuville St Vaast, over-looking Vimy Ridge. < http://www.en-wiki.com&gt;

LETTER  to MARIE NEAL HIBBETT and BASIL HIBBETT, 95, Foden Rd Walsall.  Censor H. Chorlant.   

 Palm Sunday (2). April 16/ 16

Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. Pietro Lorenzetti. 1280-1348.
Christ’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. Italian. Pietro Lorenzetti. 1280-1348.

‘Ride on Ride on in Majesty – With palms and scattered garments strowed‘. (3)

‘A little lifting of the heart suffices; a little remembrance of God, one act of inward worship, though upon a march, and sword in hand, are prayers which, however short, are nevertheless acceptable to God.  Brother Lawrence. (4)

‘Look one step onwards and secure that step’.  Wayside Ministries (5)

My Very Dear Mother,

I wrote you last Sunday & Friday. Thursday was Harold’s Birthday & I trust he had a happy one & that the next 13th April we shall spend the day together in peace.  Being Thursday I wonder if he spent sometime with you?  Although I have worried several people to do with the Post I have not yet received a letter or anything. I heard this morning that we are on this duty until Thursday 20th. 

* * * * * * * * * * * ← You know what these things are eh!  Well it means that a sudden round about turn has to be made. I began this my usual ‘Sunday Letter’ before dinner & on finishing my ‘dish’  – beef steak of my own cooking – the rations came in & they brought a shoal, a neat little pile of letters for me.  So that is the cause of me round about turning.

Just read Dodger’s most delightfully homely & brotherly Epistle after reading those from Vernon*, Harold, Miss Foster*, Mrs Hurst* and a Sunday School Scholar respectively.  I thought I would read Dodger’s last in more comfort & also it would help me to make my letter fuller. I gave dear old Sydney your letter, Basil, as I met him going to the trenches last Sunday night; most likely he has written to you since.

The photograph of the Raid (6) which I think was genuine, interested me & it was your idea of sending it I thank you for.  How queer! –  only the other day I was sketching to illustrate the incident Miss Kathy Brookes* (7) put in her letter to me of the lady who wrote to her officer ‘bhoy’ saying how dreadfully the ruins of the Raid looked –  ‘you can’t imagine it!’ & the officer was doing all he could to shelter himself from the shells amid fragments of stones!

Dodger! Dodger! Dodger! –  so have I!  an all conquering desire (my word what a swanky phrase) to be on the write – to you all at Home & the question is, now I have had the fruits of my worrying the Transport Orderlies about The Post, I wonder if you will get my letters I have written to you since I was on this quiet Post Duty. 

Ha! ha! ha! Poor jolly old Basil wants to be in touch with us every day.  I love you for such a thought, but do please think more than twice over your joining, – to serve can’t you go out to a Munition Factory?  Most probably you would never see us if you came out; you know that Vernon & Sydney said they did not like their associates in the 3/ 5th S Staffs (8); & then look at your education –  all in vain practically eh?  You needn’t think that I shall be happy for you to come out, I shall be inclined to poke my head a bit too high above the parapet!

Yes! Sydney showed me the F.P.C. (Field Post Card) he sent to Mum, saying –  ‘I have not received a letter from you lately – for a long time’.  I said to Sydney, in surprise, –  ‘are you going to send that!  – – –  I have never missed (crossing out) those two lines have I Basil?  I don’t care about informing you at Home that I have not heard from you for so long.  I think those two lines are slightly inclined to give an indignant impression, let alone make one sad – as you were naturally when Sydney sent it.  Of course he knew the circumstances, he had been moving about from place to place since he arrived.

Vernon wrote & said he was sorry he did not visit you when he had his 48 hrs Leave (9) I suppose you will have been introduced to Leenah*, Basil, by now? as this is, I guess, the Sunday they were to come.

The Hibbett Family at Tea: Mother, Bertie, Sydney and Ida.
The Hibbett Family at Tea: Mother, Bertie, Sydney and Ida. 1914.

The weather is lovely out here, sunny and bright, it is getting on for four o’clock & I shall be picturing you all at tea.

Oh! that reminds me –  I was doubly glad on reading Harold’s letter.  He said he & Hilda were going Home on Thursday (13th) so I hope they had a good time with you.  That half answers my wish in my letter on Friday & 1st part of this.

Queen mary's Sch
Queen Mary’s School Magazine.

Yes it is rotten to have the Houses changed (10).  I should second the resolution that not only should School House retain its old name but Thomas’s and Davies’ & all those whose Bosses have joined to serve their King & Country. Just  put that in the Mag for one from the Front who has not lost interest in the QMS. 

I think those lilies, Dodger, have been growing the other way & have come out up here in the guise of daisies. I will send you them back.  Spring has come out here, the grass is fresh green, the lark sings its glorious song, in spite of the sound of guns & the hawk is as keen as ever to get her prey; the buds on the trees are quickly turning into fresh leaves.

Well I never! Do you know I was only the other day thinking of sending you some cash to buy some seeds & you could set them for me as a sort of curio.  I was regretful that I had no money in pocket, but, as a sort of unique idea, could you get some seeds of a nice flower or plant & I will send you a franc or so when I get it.  I wish I could have got some seeds from last year’s flowers but I was not in the vicinity at the time. It would be nice for you to have some French flowers growing.

Tommy's Cooker.
Tommy’s Cooker and Mess Tin.

Yes I do know what Dad is like, but I do not in the slightest mean any hurtful thought.

My order for pipes is one just like those two you sent Sydney and me at first – my word and that is nearly a year ago since I started to smoke.  A cherry wood I believe you sent. Also I have a new mess tin & the need of some Monkey Brand is my next request.

Miss Foster* is ( I don’t know if she is strictly serious) almost hurt that I do not ask her for anything in my letters of late  (don’t say anything to her).

I believe I told you in my last letter that Leave  has been suspended again for an indefinite period, but we are going for a Rest in Reserve soon.  I do not at all like telling you for Mum’s sake & Dad’s, but I eventually thought it best to tell you everything that comes to hand as Mum told me to.

I will close this my ‘long’ Active Service Epistle. I hope it gets through to you, let me know if so.

With my heart’s love to you all.

Your ever affec.  Bertie.

April 1916.
‘My Dearest Archinald,  You ought to see the ruins caused by the Zeppelin Raid.  You can’t imagine the awful state!  Yours affec.  Margerine’.    ‘My Dearest Margerine,  Really! Great Scott, the ruins you speak of must be simply awful! I can hardly realise the sight of the remains of this village.  Yours affec.  Archinald.’    Original sketch by Arthur H.Hibbett.  NB ruined church through ruined doorway of house.

*************************

ELIZABETH HIBBETT WEBB
ELIZABETH HIBBETT WEBB

To be standing guard on a green Mont St Eloi during Holy Week & Easter is highly significant to Pte Bertie Hibbett, reminding him as it did of the Passion of Christ and the Words from the Cross. His cartoon indicates how difficult it was for families at home to imagine what their sons were being asked to endure.

(1) ‘Eloi Eloi…’ Mark 15.34. Christ’s words from the Cross. ‘My God, My God why have you forsaken me? King James Version retains the Aramaic/Jesus’ native language. cf Psalm 22.

www.timeanddate.comPalm Sunday search(2) Palm Sunday: Sunday before Easter/beginning of Holy Week/ commemorates Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem/waving of palms (symbol of victory). Mark 11. 1-11. (My father used willow branches in Palm Sunday processions).

Milman.
H. H. Milman.

(3) ‘Ride on Ride on.. ‘. Hymn: Henry Hart Milman. 1827. Mark 11.1-11 (AD 64) has Jesus riding on a ‘young donkey‘.  NB Pietro Lorenzetti’s painting above follows the text of Matthew (AD 85) which emphasises the fulfillment of prophecy by interpreting the poetic lines of Zechariah 9.9 literally, as if there were two animals i.e. a mother ass/donkey and her foal/colt (terms interchangeable).

(4) Brother Lawrence (born Nicolas Herman, Lorraine), 1614-1691. French lay-brother, Carmelite Monastery, Paris. Given name ‘Lawrence of the Resurrection’. Known for ‘The Practice of the Presence of God’.

(5) Wayside Ministries. Pamphlet with words of wisdom & comfort sent by Pte Bertie’s Godmother, Mary Foster/ frequently quoted in his notebook ‘A Little Book of Words & Doings’ (the first being ‘Pray to God in a storm but keep on rowing’).

(6) Zeppelin Raid on Walsall. 31st Jan -1st Feb. 1916. Observer photo? (7) Kathy Brookes: superintendent St Paul’s Sunday School/ family friend. (8) 3/5th S. Staffords: Territorial Battalion/ served in UK.

(9) Vernon Evans had returned to the UK on sick leave and (along with other sick/ returned 1/5th S Stafford soldiers) was attached to 3/5th S. Staffords, Territorial Battalion. 

(10) QMS Houses: School House; Dellow’s House; Powis’ House; Frith’s House, (the last three named after their House Master).  From a letter asking for a Magazine subscription, signed S Powis /dated July 24th 1917, I assume my father was in Powis’ House & the move to alter House names failed. NB Was there a Davies’ House & a Thomas’s House at QMS?

NEXT POST:  21st APRIL 1916. Good Friday.