From Ice Floes to Battlefields Read online

  Back in London, Herbert Ponting was glad to hear from his old friend and travelling companion:10

  Dear Miss Spengler

  I was glad to get your letter and hear from Meares, and I want you to read & send enclosed out to him. He is sure in the midst of it, and in some respects I really envy him, but what an awful business it all is, and how totally unnecessary, but for the real necessity of removing this menace once and for all. I only hope that Meares will come back safe and sound. Anything I can get for him I will gladly do so.

  The byline ‘B.J. Hodson’ was now appearing regularly on reports from northern France and around Ypres. Hodson was full of praise of the men who had travelled thousands of miles to fight with the Allied forces:11

  the Germans gained the briefest victory of the war last week in the neighbourhood of Lille … and then they met … the Indian troops … I hope the Censor will now permit the fact to become public that the Eastern contingent is at the front … The Sikhs and the Ghurkas gave the enemy a few rounds ‘rapid’ and then swung into them with the utmost fervour. Back past our own evacuated trenches … went the grey-coated Teutons while Sikh bayonet and Ghurkha kukri played havoc among their disordered ranks …

  At Ypres the Germans have suffered severely, an unsuccessful attack resulting in 3,000 casualties … The German artillery fire is still good, and the Belgians, before giving way on the Yser, suffered severely from shrapnel. Should the Germans pursue their advantage in force they (i.e. the enemy) are likely to have a very awkward time –

  The main part of Hodson’s report came to an abrupt end with the words ‘lengthy excision’, although the censor allowed his comments on the weather (‘continues bad’), food supply chain (‘remains good’) and troop morale (‘bearing the conditions well’) to stand.

  On 7 November, during a break from front-line duties, Meares tried to summarise the situation for Annie Spengler:12

  We have come back from the firing line for a few days rest; there are very very few left of the splendid 7th Division, the fighting has been beyond anything in the history of the world and we have had to bear the brunt of it. Lately the Germans have been pouring hundreds of shells into the town, huge shells 16 inches across which they used at Antwerp & they make holes in the ground big enough to hold a house and even during the night they drop close all round us. [I]t gets on ones nerves and we get very little sleep[;] it is fine to be out of reach if only for a day or two …

  I am glad to say we are having lovely weather, the wet days are terrible. There are crowds of soldiers everywhere French, Arabs, Indians, etc. The muffler is splendid I am keeping it till it gets cold at present it is quite warm … it would be nice to see you again in a little time but I am afraid the war will go on for a long time.

  After his letter was returned by the censor, Meares tried to provide a less graphic picture of events:13

  We have another day’s holiday today so I will write a few lines … You can have no idea what a relief it is to be away from the constant stream of shells for a little time. Some new officers arrived here yesterday to replace those who were damaged, they seem very nice fellows.

  The weather has been rather depressing lately, foggy & damp & all the leaves falling off the trees, I wonder what we were doing this time last year. I am so glad that I have this nice photograph of you. I want so badly to get back and see you again; heaps of new soldiers are coming up so I hope things will begin to move soon; today the Artists [Rifles] arrived, we saw them one day at Oxford Circus [trenches].14

  On 13 November, as the Hussars prepared to move to another sector of the front line, an important visitor arrived:15

  This afternoon General French arrived here suddenly in the rain, and congratulated the regiment on the splendid work they had done under very difficult circumstances, and made a very flattering & rousing speech.

  Please write soon. You might look round & see if you can find one of those little muff manner things; they would be useful for winter.

  On 16 November the Hussars moved to Le Mortier, about 15 miles south of Ypres, where they were billeted with Indian troops. Meares was glad of the warm scarf and peppermints Annie Spengler sent him, but, as winter set in, he was clearly not happy with his lot:16

  we are having a cold spell now there was snow this morning & the country is feet deep in mud. We have moved back to the fighting line but it seems fairly quiet especially after Ypres. I am glad we have left that spot. I am afraid you have not had all my letters as I wrote a good many lately …

  We are here in rather a dirty little farm mostly manure heaps … and one scratches as well … we are back in the fighting line but in a rather quiet place & there are lots of troops so we dont have much to do at present. Poor Lord Roberts died near here a few days ago.17 I am afraid that the war will not finish by this Xmas but perhaps I may be back by the spring time if all goes well. I have had very unpleasant work of late, turning all the French farm people out of their houses behind the trenches; it is heart breaking work but necessary as people in the pay of the Germans have been cutting our wires & shooting the soldiers, so the only thing is to clear all civilians from the fighting area. It is beginning to get cold now frost ice & snow, getting up at 5am is rather chilly work.

  … Everything for the present depends on the success of the Russians in Poland … The people in England seem to be really nervous from all accounts in the papers … we are short of coal & oil & candles but we hope to get supplies soon. We had a good spell of frost but now it has begun to thaw again and everything is covered with deep mud.

  A postscript to one letter gave Annie Spengler a clue as to why Meares was sometimes able to be more open in his letters than on other occasions: ‘I am the censor so I pass my own letters.’

  When Meares was awarded a short period of home leave in early December, he went to London so he could spend time with Annie Spengler. While there, he made enquiries regarding other opportunities for war service which might make better use of his linguistic and other skills.

  When Meares returned to the front he discovered he had missed a royal visit – and that his Colonel had his own ideas regarding Meares’ future:18

  Things here are just the same as when I left; but they had terrible storms of wind and rain and tonight is one of the worst nights I have known … The King came here and the regiment acted as guard of honour; the king went near the trenches and the Staff were very worried as he insisted on going along a road which is constantly shelled. I dont know what I will do, as the Colonel has written to the War Office saying that he wants me to stay on here.

  After spending some time in London, it was difficult to be out of contact again:

  I wrote you a long letter and sent it to you by an officer who was returning on leave … [but] havent had a line from you since I came back … The weather has been terrible since I came back, simply pouring with rain all the time and the mud is a foot deep. Today we had a game of football and it was terribly dirty work. There is nothing happening here it is very dull indeed, a little shooting goes on all the time.

  Just as Annie Spengler’s latest letter caught up with Meares, he learned he would be moving on:

  Thank you very much for your nice letter I was very glad to get it … We have had pouring rain all the time lately, this afternoon we had a football match against the Scots Grays officers, it was very hard work and we all feel very stiff. There is a rumour that we are going to advance in a few days. I am sorry as we are very comfortable here and dont want to move into country that has been desolated by the Germans.

  All in all, however, despite everything, Meares was proud of what had been achieved at Ypres and of the Hussars:

  Will you get the Evening Standard of Nov 25th and keep the article called the Immortal [7th] Division … I am glad you like the photographs. Please send one to Mrs MacDougall, 23 Park Circus, Ayr, Scotland & Mrs Meares, Acharra, Colinton Edinburgh.19 And you might send one to Ponting …

  On 18 December the Hussars moved sout
hwest to Fleurbaix, where General Lawson and his 22nd Brigade were attempting to break through a German front near ‘Well Farm’, La Boutillerie. The brigade’s pre-assault bombardment made little impact on German defences and Lawson’s men suffered heavy casualties. By late afternoon the mud of no-man’s-land was strewn with dead and badly injured British soldiers, some of whom were lying up against parapets of the front rows of German trenches. As darkness fell, Lawson called off the attack and ordered the uninjured and walking wounded to retire to their own trenches.

  During December every British soldier on the Western Front received a Christmas card from King George and, in the name of his daughter Princess Mary, a little brass box containing tobacco or a writing-set. Parcels began arriving from home, filled with favourite delicacies and warm items of clothing. Across no-man’s-land, on a clear night, British soldiers could see candles flickering on small Christmas trees which appeared to have mysteriously sprung up from the mud.

  At La Boutillerie German officers signalled that they would not fire on British soldiers who entered no-man’s-land to retrieve their dead and wounded. As the Hussars moved forward to help Lawson’s men German soldiers clambered out of their own trenches and started walking across the mud. When Harold Robson, a Hussars officer, brought out his camera men from both sides stood together, smiling. At one point Robson handed his camera to a fellow Hussar who took a photograph with Robson in it.20

  The officer responsible for maintaining the Hussars’ regimental diary took the precaution of not recording what those further up the command chain might regard as fraternisation.

  It was not long before fighting resumed, but during January, as far as the Hussars were concerned, it remained spasmodic and casualties were light. But several men were suffering from typhoid and scarlet fever and others had ‘trench foot’, of which the symptoms were very similar to those of frostbite.

  Early in 1915 Cecil Meares returned to London, where, on 6 February, he married Annie Spengler at St Andrew’s Church, Marylebone. By 30 March Meares had resigned his Hussars commission, sat and passed proficiency tests in French, German and Russian and joined the Royal Naval Air Service. He would initially be working in Dunkirk, where he would be considerably nearer to London and his new wife than he had been on the Western Front.21

  Notes

  Letters quoted are in the Cecil Meares Fonds (MS0455), British Columbia Archives, Vancouver, Canada. Information on the Northumberland Hussars is from the regimental war diary (National Archives, WO95/1542/1), ‘A Brief History of the Northumberland (Hussars) Yeomanry Cavalry, 1819–1918’ (www.bailiffgatemuseum.co.uk) and Howard Pease, A Brief History of the Northumberland (Hussars) Yeomanry Cavalry, 1819–1918.

  1. Meares to Spengler, undated letter from Lyndhurst camp.

  2. Meares to Spengler, 9 October 1914.

  3. ‘Uhlans’ were originally Polish light cavalry, armed with lances, sabres and pistols. The title became used more generically for lancer cavalry regiments in the Prussian (later German), Austrian and Russian armies.

  4. General Sydney Lawford, Commanding Officer of 22nd Brigade (nicknamed ‘Swanky Syd’) was the father of actor Peter Lawford.

  5. Huge howitzer shells which, on impact, issue clouds of yellow smoke.

  6. Meares to Spengler, undated; based on its order in the Fonds, the address (‘A Chateau’, with the rest of address scribbled through), and the reference to Major Johnston was probably written on 23 October 1914. Hooge chateau (not a castle in the British sense) was owned by Baron Gaston de Vinck, who continued living there until his home was rendered uninhabitable by Germany shelling.

  7. Additional information on Lawrence Johnston from Pearson, Hidcote.

  8. Meares to Spengler, 29 October 1914.

  9. ‘Disaster at Hooge’, Western Front Association 2012 newsletter (Commonwealth War Graves Commission www.cwgc.org).

  10. Ponting to Spengler, 2 November 1914 (also Fonds Cecil Meares).

  11. Hodson’s reports on Indian troops appeared in Manchester Courier (27 October 1914) and Liverpool Echo (10 November 1914).

  12. Meares to Spengler, 7 November 1914. The word ‘Destroy’ has been written on the letter but the fact it is in the Fonds suggests it was returned to Meares rather than destroyed.

  13. Meares to Spengler, 9 November 1914.

  14. The Artists’ Rifles included many young men who had recently left public schools or university. Oxford Circus was a trench system near Arras.

  15. Meares to Spengler, 13 November 1914.

  16. Meares to Spengler, 15, 19 and 26 November 1914.

  17. Roberts died of pneumonia at St Omer on 14 November 1914.

  18. Meares to Spengler, 7–14 December 1914 (three letters, one of which is undated).

  19. When Meares attended Ayr Academy as a boy he had stayed with Mrs Agnes MacDougall, his step-aunt (sister of his father’s late second wife); Agnes MacDougall (who by 1914 was married to Rev. James MacDougall, a writer and publisher of Scottish folk tales) had previously been married to a French-born architect Charles de Boinville. ‘Mrs Meares’ of Edinburgh is Meares’ father’s third wife.

  20. Baker, The Truce, and Brown and Seaton, Christmas Truce: the Western Front, December 1914, both refer to the Hussars’ involvement, which is also evidenced by Harold Robson’s photographs in the Imperial War Museum.

  21. London Gazette, 15 April 1915, and forces records cards (National Archives).

  10

  Your Country Needs You!

  When war was declared in August 1914, Apsley Cherry-Garrard knew immediately that he wanted to play his part. But despite being only 28 years old and strong enough to haul a laden sledge for miles across snow and ice, Cherry found it difficult to prove that he was ‘fit for service’. He was short-sighted and had, since returning from Antarctica, suffered occasional but debilitating bouts of colitis.1

  Cherry did not have any immediate entrée to the armed forces. Of the other scientists, Debenham was a voluntary trooper with King Edward’s Horse and Priestley and Wright were both members of the Wireless Section of Cambridge University’s Signal Company Officers Training Corps.2 Cecil Meares had previously served in a cavalry regiment in the Boer War. Ponting, although well above the age limit for volunteering, had not hesitated to approach the War Office about the possibility of serving as a war photographer.

  In terms of skills, Cherry had his degree in biology and his expedition experience; he spent much of his time running the Lamer estate, but, having never needed to earn his living, had no employment record. He had joined the Terra Nova expedition due to a chance meeting with Edward Wilson at the Scottish holiday home of Reginald Smith, Cherry’s cousin, whose publishing company had compiled and published Scott’s Discovery papers. Wilson had encouraged Cherry to apply to join Scott’s second expedition, but that had not been a straightforward process, even after Scott had appointed Wilson as his chief of scientific staff. Knowing competition for places on the expedition was fierce, Cherry had offered to make a £1,000 donation towards the costs of the expedition (as, it had been hinted, another comfortably off applicant had done) but Scott had still turned him down.3 It had only been when Cherry had offered to make his donation unconditional, and Wilson had told Scott that he needed more scientific staff, that Cherry had been accepted for the expedition.

  When Cherry had returned from China in May 1914 he had started working in earnest on his narrative of the expedition. He and Lyons of the publishing sub-committee had made contact with the scientists and others from whom Cherry needed information but as naval reservists were called to serve and Atkinson, Debenham and others rushed back from overseas to join ships and regiments, it was clear (and right) that Cherry’s need for information would be low amongst his friends’ priorities. Even the demands of the Suffragettes and attempts to solve the ‘Irish Question’ had now taken a back seat.

  There was, however, one thing which Cherry could do immediately. He and his mother offered Lamer, their family home, for use as
a hospital for wounded soldiers. Sir Frederick Treves, the eminent surgeon, came to Lamer with representatives of the Red Cross to discuss what adaptations might be required to make the building suitable for its new purpose. Treves had come to discuss how Lamer might serve in the war, but when he saw Kris, the sledge-dog Cherry had ‘adopted’ after the expedition, he suggested a way in which Cherry’s experience with working dogs could help the war effort.

  By 17 August Cherry was sailing across the Channel with Major Edwin Richardson and a pack of specially trained dogs. Richardson, a Scotsman, had devoted years to training dogs to track down people (alive or dead). His work was well regarded by dog experts overseas and he regularly acted as a judge at military dog trials in Russia and elsewhere. Richardson also knew that the German army had the most advanced training system and that their dog-handlers regularly visited England to purchase collies to work alongside their native breeds.

  But Richardson’s efforts to convince the British army that dogs could serve as sentries and in other roles had so far met with little success.4 As the Germans began to bombard Belgian cities Richardson saw his opportunity to demonstrate what his dogs could do. He decided to transport some bloodhounds across the Channel at his own expense and take them to Belgian cities where they could help sniff out injured soldiers or civilians who might be lying hidden under rubble.5 Richardson needed someone who knew how to handle working dogs in difficult conditions.