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One young man : $b The simple and true story of a clerk who enlisted in 1914, who fought on the western front for nearly two years, was severely wounded at the battle of the Somme, and is now on his way back to his desk. — John Shaqi

History

One young man : $b The simple and true story of a clerk who enlisted in 1914, who fought on the western front for nearly two years, was severely wounded at the battle of the Somme, and is now on his way back to his desk.

World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, British

"It's very funny to hear the bugle-calls. Everything is done
     by bugles. At 6.30 in the morning there is the first call
     and everyone gets up. If you don't--the sergeant comes along
     and pulls you out. To wash we have to run down to the other
     end of the camp and fill our buckets. There are only two
     buckets for sixty chaps, so you can imagine the scramble.
     For a bathroom we have a large field, and we nearly break
     our backs bending down over the basins. For about one hour
     before breakfast we do physical drill with our coats off.
     And hard work it is. For breakfast we have streaky greasy
     bacon. Funny--at home, I never ate bacon, I couldn't stick
     it, but here I walk into it and enjoy it. The tea they give
     us is not ideal, but so long as it is hot and wet it goes
     down all right. For dinner it's stew--stew--stew, but it's
     not bad. Of course, some day I get all gravy and no meat,
     another day meat and no gravy. Tea is quite all right. We
     have plenty of bread, butter, jam, and cheese. All food is
     fetched in dixeys (large boilers), and tea, stew, and bacon
     are all cooked in turn in these, so if the orderlies don't
     wash them clean at dinner time we have greasy, stewy tea.

     "I am getting a bit used to the marching, especially when
     there is anyone singing. The favourites are 'John Peel,'
     'Cock Robin,' 'Oh, who will o'er the downs so free?' 'John
     Brown's Body,' 'Hearts of Oak,' and 'Annie Laurie.' We all
     have little books of Camp Songs, and we learn them at night;
     it makes all the difference to the marching. One of the
     songs is:--

          "Oh, Mother is the leader of society, and
          You can see her name is in the papers every day.
          She was presented at the court
          For fighting Mrs. Short
          Down our way.

     "Not an exactly edifying song, but it goes with a swing. I
     can hardly keep my eyes open as I write this."

On the whole and considering everything--a wide phrase covering many
things unspoken--Sydney Baxter enjoyed his camp life, but Christmas
was certainly a hardship. He writes:


                                        _Christmas Day, 1914._

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

One young man : $b The simple and true story of a clerk who enlisted in 1914, who fought on the western front for nearly two years, was severely wounded at the battle of the Somme, and is now on his way back to his desk.

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