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Friday 27 July 2018

Holiday spirit

As the schools have broken up for summer and we are enjoying/enduring/suffering the heatwave in the UK and beyond at the moment, we are probably all thinking of holidays. A hundred years ago, so too was the Shields Daily News. Looking at the historical data for the Durham weather station at the observatory on Potters Bank (available on the Met Office website), their mean temperatures were somewhat lower than we are seeing this year. July 1918 saw a mean high of 19.7C and a mean low of 9.7C.
Whitley Bay c.1920 (D/CL 27/277/370)
D/CL 27/277/370 Whitley Bay c.1920 
The Shields Daily News
27 July 1918

Holidays 

July breathes the holiday spirit into one’s being. We thought four years ago we could do without holidays “for the period”, but prolonged experience proved that impossible. On the contrary, the war has made them more absolutely necessary to keep the human instrument in tune. The people who do not take them get enforced rests in the shape of nervous and physical breakdown.

July and August are the ideal months, for then the year is at its ripest. There are September partisans and winter faddists, and they get their share of enjoyment, but they miss the full tide of the year. July is said to be a raining month, but it is not raining all the time, and without its reviving showers it would not be what it is. In August both land and sea are steeped in the sunshine of the advanced summer. It is the wisest arrangement possible that the authorities of the Tynemouth schools give the children holiday in a part of July and a good bit of August. 

In spite of the example of philosopher Kant, who never went away from home, it is better to seek out new scenes and change of air in holiday time. A new scene each year if possible. There is less choice in these days, for the sea as an avenue of enjoyment is closed to holiday makers. But in former days what a fund of pleasure was to be derived from a voyage from the Tyne to London, opening out scenes of interest which made one live pages and chapters of English history ever again. How romantic one’s first impression of Edinburgh, in sailing up the noble estuary of the Forth at dawn.

Most of us prefer the country for a holiday, but there is great enjoyment to be had from a holiday visit to a town. This is subject to two conditions – the first, that the town is sufficiently far away; the second, that one is in the society of friends, for to be alone in a town is to experience the full force of solitude.

We are fortunate that we have not far to go from the industrial banks of the Tyne to reach beautiful holiday places. Northumberland abounds in them. The old town of Hexham stands in a country smiling and beautiful with a wealth of historical interest that is inexhaustible. A visit to the North Tyne carries us into a world where the passing of the centuries hardly seems to be counted. The border country up Wooler “gate” imparts to visitors enough of its own vigorous life to keep them going for half a year at least. 

The charm of the old “shire” country round about Tynemouth lies in its well-cultivated farms. It has no hills but the little eminence of Earsdon, but it is not hills alone that make landscape.

On breaking up for their holidays this week, the boys in at least one school, in Shields were advised to offer their services to farmers and market gardeners. A great many will do this, for the school boy is a true patriot, and never happier than when doing work which he knows to be useful to the country. Those who do so will reap great benefit to their health and gain at the same time an education almost equal to that which they get at school. They will remember the holiday of 1918 as not the least pleasant of theirs lives. 

Friday 20 July 2018

Am Impossible Position

A hundred years ago today, the 9th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry (9 DLI) were preparing for action in the Second Battle of the Marne.

On 19 July, they marched to St Imoges, then moved into a reserve position in Courtagnon Wood. According to Harry Moses' book 'The Gateshead Gurkhas', 9 DLI remained in the wood throughout 20 July, under shellfire. The next day, they were ordered to capture the Bois de Petit Champ and Bouilly Ridge. At 8:30am on 21 July, the battalion moved forward ready to commence the attack at 10:30am. B Company was on the right, C Company on the left, with A Company in the centre. 

In a scrapbook belonging to Colonel William Douglas Baird Thompson, is his field message book from this battle, when he was captain commanding C Company of 9 DLI. The message below is dated as 20/7/18 12:30am, which does not seem to fit with the timeline of 9 DLI’s action in 'The Gateshead Gurkhas'. It may be that it was written on 22 July. Captain Thompson uses an interesting method to provide is location.


The company went over the corn field without casualties.

On entering the wood, heavy MG [machine gun] fire was encountered causing many casualties, and owing to the closeness of the young trees it is impossible to attack the MGs. Observation was very difficult.

I now hold a position approximately 1/2 inch above the second T in du PETIT CHAMP and continuing for 3/8 inch, bending back again and forming the point of a right angle where I join up with A Company. 

Diagram illustrating the C Company position, July 1918 (D/DLI 7/701/2(194))
D/DLI 7/701/2(194) Diagram illustrating the C Company position, July 1918
WDB Thompson, Captain
Officer Commanding C Company


Also in the field notebook is the commendation Captain Thompson wrote for Lieutenant William Ewart Meikle. This formed the basis of the citation for Meikle’s Military Cross award:


“For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. When an attack was held up by the density of the forest, he organised sections and led them forward under heavy machine gun fire and established a position on which the battalion was able to form a line. Throughout the whole operations his conduct was distinguished by a complete disregard for his own safety and an energetic spirit of initiative that impressed all who were with him”.


You can read more about 9 DLI at the Second Battle of the Marne in Harry Moses' book The Gateshead Gurkhas.

Friday 13 July 2018

An Early Coincidence

After an unforeseen hiatus last week, we are back with a post from volunteer, Jean.

Rilla of Ingleside https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rilla_of_Ingleside
Rilla of Ingleside
At the 2017 Durham at War Conference, mention was made by a couple of speakers about coincidences. I have just come across what must have been the very first coincidence that linked me to Canada and the First World War, thanks to a film on TV.

As a young girl I was an avid reader and I remember reading my way through the Anne of Green Gables books by LM Montgomery. Did I pay any attention to the fact that they were set in Canada? Probably not, but I would have been aware that it was rather a different background than Enid Blyton’s England.

What I certainly wasn’t aware of at the time, was that the eighth book in the series, Rilla of Ingleside, about Anne’s daughter, is the only Canadian novel written from a woman's perspective about the First World War by someone who had lived through that period. It is about boys who go off to fight in Europe with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. (A phrase I will not easily forget).

Maybe it was the reminder of that book that made me jump at the chance of working on the Durham born Canadians rather than Australians, when Jo offered me a choice. I never did enjoy Picnic at Hanging Rock!