Walter Draycott’s Great War Chronicle
North Vancouver Museum & Archives
– fine but heavy showers in afternoon
I go to Birkenhead with Mrs. Simcock, her son, & Harry’s dau. Gertrude to see them off to Parkgate. Harry & Gert follow up on bikes & meet us at Birkenhead. We cycle to Parkgate & Weston & have tea with Mrs. Simcock. Return to L’pool via West Kirby, Hoylake etc. Arr. Home 10.30 much tired. 40 miles journey.
Harry & I go around the city buying books etc. Am home at 2 pm. I finish a chart of the [pecqui…g] family & connection to Sg. Upton at 9.30 pm. All @ home. Tom looks fine & so do all family.
I stay up & finish my genealogical charts of the [p…..], [melbane] & Draycot etc families.
Harry & Gert go to bed.
Mrs. Simcock calls & I have tea with her.
Put in pass for Liverpool till Sunday evening. Get the pass @ 5 pm instead of noon on a/c of slackness of clerks. Leave London @ 9.35 and arr L’pool 3.55 am. Bridge blown up by explosion. Suspect enemy agents.
47 men leave Base Depot for discharge to Canada. Capt. Simpson sends for me to take over the Tobacco business of the Camp. He states that I have to have “another Allocation Board” next Monday. This will make 5 boards in 1 month & nothing definite re my return to Canada. I refuse his offer and await result of Medical Authorities. I see Adjutant Green re my Sergeancy. He says put them up, but not on that authority. How much more damned fooling around?
*One of the most successful and enduring fund-raising efforts of the war were the ‘Smokes for the Troops’ funds. On 29th October 1914, The Times announced to its readers that at Lord Kitchener’s request a Smokes for Soldiers and Sailors Fund had been formed “to provide our wounded…with tobacco and cigarettes in hospitals here and at the front…and is at the moment sending regular supplies to over 200 hospitals and convalescent homes.” Those who were serving at the front were not forgotten either.
Passed my last Medical Board and result is – to be sent to Bearwood Convalescent Hospt. near Reading for observation and disposal.
Sent letter to Erlysman Pinckney Esq. of Highbury Warminister Co. Wilts. Also one from Dr. Norman McLeod Miller of Stafford. He’s classed C II. Press Representation visit & inspect dummy draft for France of CFC at the Base Depot here. (30 motor cars, use of petrol, etc.) An aeroplane alights on the parade ground & stays an hour. Off again toward London.
– rain
I go to Congregational Church @ Egham 6:30 pm. Ill in bed all morning, caught cold yesterday so had bad night. It rains heavy all day. The airman who came down on the parade ground could not restart owing to his personal tank getting the wrong kind of oil & gas!!!
Receive letter from Erlysman Pinckney Esq. of Highbury, Warminister Wilts.
To Windsor by bike. It is Eton cricket day there and many of the aristocracy are down with their boys. Town is full of cabs. What an awful ill fitting habit they wear. Time they found a new style. Tall youth with low shoes light blue socks which were exposed to view of about 6 to 8 inches. Tall hat which came over ears. Awful spectacle.
On to Egham & Staines by road along Thames.
*In its heyday, in the late 19th century and early 20th century, “the School’s day” was one of the highlights of the London “season“, alongside Henley Royal Regatta and Royal Ascot. The number of spectators necessitated the first introduction of viewing stands and a boundary rope at Lord’s in 1866. The game made national newspaper headlines, and was attended by schoolboys large and small, their elder brothers and fathers, accompanied by their ladies and other members of London society. The match in 1914 was attended by over 38,000 people during its two days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eton_v_Harrow
Writing letter for the umteenth time stating the fluctuations of this badly managed influence poluted army of Canadian wire pullers.
Long service in France does not count. Every man counts one (1) no matter whether conscientious objector or not or whether he has [for] for years in France, etc.
Tables turned again. Sent for to see Med. Officer who states “We will have to send you to Hospital in order to ascertain the cause of your disease”. This means more waste of time. Spirits are now down to zero as there seems to be nothing but bubbles and froth in this cursed army. No use trying to make assurances & arrangements.
(Major McCudden, VC, airman, killed, 52 Huns downed by him)
*James Thomas Byford McCudden VC, DSO & Bar, MC & Bar, MM (28 March 1895 – 9 July 1918) was an English flying ace of the First World War and among the most highly decorated airmen in British military history. At his death he had achieved 57 aerial victories, placing him seventh on the list of the war’s most successful aces. On 9 July 1918 McCudden was killed in a flying accident when his aircraft crashed following an engine fault. His rank at the time of his death was major, a significant achievement for a man who had begun his career in the RFC as an air mechanic.
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