A Good Reputation Endures Forever

Members of the Chinese Labour Corps, WJ Hawkings Collection, courtesy of John de Lucy

The Oriental Museum at Durham University recently unveiled a new exhibition, 'A Good Reputation Endures Forever: The Chinese Labour Corps on the Western Front'. It comprises a series of photographs from the WJ Hawkings Collection (courtesy of John de Lucy) of the Corps in France, and tells their little-known story. 

I only came across the Chinese Labour Corps for the first time last year, whilst cataloguing the letters of Hubert Morant. In a letter to his wife, dated 8 April 1918, he mentions a friend who is in charge of a ‘Labour Group which consists of about 10 companies of 500 each, most of them Chinese and all sorts of other.’ This piqued my interest and I discovered the Chinese Labour Corps, but was unable to find a Durham connection for our project.

D/DLI 7/1230/113 Extract from a letter by Hubert Morant, 8 April 1918

I was most interested when I saw a listing for the then upcoming exhibition on durhambid.co.uk. The photographs are remarkable and are put into context by information panels in both English and Chinese. They are supported by a small selection of objects including trench art made by the Chinese men. These mostly take the form of brass shell casings with the tops hammered out and the sides beautifully etched with dragons and other traditional imagery. 

D/DLI 7/602/16(223) Lieutenant Leadbitter Smith, 4th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, at a camp at Whitley Bay, 1904

I was able to chat with Dr Craig Barclay, head of the Oriental Museum, and he told me that in their research, they had found an officer from Durham who had was involved with the Chinese Labour Corps. Supplied with the name of Nicholas Leadbitter, I got to work researching him. 

This got off to a surprisingly quick and easy start as my initial search of the Record Office catalogue came up with some photographs and basic information. Nicholas Augustine Graham Leadbitter (sometimes Leadbitter-Smith) had been an officer in 4th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry in the early 1900s, serving with them in South Africa in 1902. During the First World War, he was seconded to the general staff then transferred in 1917 to the Chinese Labour Corps. In 1920 he was awarded the Order of the Striped Tiger (4th Class). You can find out more about Nicholas Leadbitter on Durham at War:

http://www.durhamatwar.org.uk/story/889/

The information about the Chinese Labour Corps has been mostly sourced from two sites.  The first is the Ensuring We Remember campaign, who were involved in the exhibition http://ensuringweremember.org.uk/?page_id=87

The second is Pad Kumlertsakul’s blog post for The National Archives, using records held there http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/chinese-labour-corps-western-front-2/ More in depth information, including about the political repercussions for China, can be found on both those pages.

'A Good Reputation Endures Forever: The Chinese Labour Corps on the Western Front' is on at the Oriental Museum, Elvet Hill, Durham, until 24 September 1917
https://www.dur.ac.uk/oriental.museum/whatson/details/?id=33499

A video report of the exhibition appears on the Forces Network:
http://www.forces.net/news/chinese-volunteers-recognised-last