Personal Diary: September 6th 1916

Walked all round the outside of Ypres before breakfast. General Hotham and Col West (20^th Divn Art) came in to say goodbye. Fine sunny day which helped to dry things up a bit. More shelling than usual.

Personal Diary: September 5th 1916

Collected some more tiles out of Ypres before breakfast. After breakfast a pasan came in who knew something about tiles and said none of them were any good. A good deal of rain during the day. Our own artillery is coming back to us from the Somme & the 20^th divn art. Is going to take their place there.

Personal Diary: September 3rd 1916

Everything very quiet here of late. Before breakfast searched Ypres for glazed tiles.

Personal Diary Entry: August 20th 1916

Dined with Handress Lloyd at the Inniskilling hd qrs in Ypres prison. Gillan came too. A quiet day, hardly any shelling. A KOSB patrol brought in 2 dead Germans from in front of their wire.

The 4^th Divn and 4^th Canadian Divn are going to take over the Canadian Corps line to allow them to go south. This means that all our 3 divns will be in the line the whole time, and no one in Corps reserve.

Personal Diary Entry: August 19th 1916

Took over the line from the 86^th Bde after dark. They relieved the 88^th Bde in the right sub sector, & the 88^th Bde went back into reserve. Brand, Gillan & I went up to Ypres in a car about 9pm. There has been a good deal of rain the last 2 days.

Personal Diary Entry: August 18th 1916

The SWB and KOSB went up to Ypres preparatory to taking over the trenches tomorrow night. Dill came in to lunch. Rode in to Poperinghe with Cookson after tea.

War Diary Entry: August 8th 1916

More shelling during the day, particularly at a battery about 200 yards N of our hd qrs. they got direct hits on all the emplacements and dugouts but did no damage.

At 10.30pm the gas alarm was sounded, and everyone was warned. The guns opened a heavy barrage on our front. I got onto the Borders and Inniskillings and both sent in messages that though they could smell gas it was not being discharged on their front. The Inniskillings message proved to have been a mistake on the part of the signallers. On this information I stopped the guns firing on our front. Fuller & Mellor were up regulating the transport & came in to our hd qrs. After about 20 minutes we began to smell gas in Ypres so we all put our helmets on, but it never got really bad, occasionally getting thicker and then dying away. The relief of the two reserve battns went on at the prison and on the canal bank and they hardly felt its effects at all. At 12 midnight everything seemed to be over so I went to bed. The prepared blankets over all the doors and windows kept the gas out of the dugouts quite effectively.

War Dairy: August 2nd 1916

Our bde hd qrs are quite comfortable and fairly safe. They are in the Ypres ramparts. My dugout looks and smells like a cabin on board ship but is much bigger. It has 2 electric lights fitted in it. It has a light shaft which lets in a good deal of light. It only has one entrance so I trust it wont get blown in. The mess has a very fine tiled porch with hat racks and umbrella stands, and a glass door which has not been blown in yet, with quite a good mess room inside; it has not been knocked down yet though it requires a good many more feet of sandbags all round yet, to make it quite safe. We have one of the old cathedral bells stuck up on the ramparts just above us to give the gas alarm.

Editor's Note

So the 87^th Brigade, one month after being decimated with 70% casualties on July 1^st is moved to the quieter sector of Ypres… 

This blog will continue to record the reflections of Brigadier General Lucas as his troops take up position in this other area synomnous with the suffering, bravery and loss of British forces on WW1… having already been at Gallipoli in 1915 and on the Somme in 1916. 

Many thanks to the Centenary Team at the Imperial War Museum who have recognised the blog and made it one of their partnership projects.

I have some ideas for enhancing the impact of the blog, particularly with reference as to how it can be used by secondary school students in their studies in Year 9 and above. Interactive maps - Western Front and sector-specific - showing 87th Brigade activity and key events  - are one of the features I'd like to create.

War Dairy Entry: July 30th 1916

Started off in a car for Ypres at 5.30am with Fuller and Gillon, and went round the trenches of the 71^st bde which we are taking over on the night of 1^st/2^nd. The Bde Major 71^st Bde took us round. The trenches are very bad, as the line runs along the low ground and water stands 1’6” below the surface. You have to build up breastworks which the Bosch continually knocks down. In several places he looks into the back of your trenches. We got back about 9.30am Went over to the 6^th Divn hd qrs after lunch as De Lisle had a conference. Our divn hd qrs are living with the 6^th Divn at present & take over from them tomorrow or the next day. Dined with Walsh at 6^th Divn hd qrs Evans was there, he is GSO2 to the divn.

Letter to Mother: July 23rd 1916

My dear Mother

I am very sorry to hear about poor old Lance he was such a good fellow. We are being moved right back and will probably shortly go to the neighbourhood John has come away from. I shall be rather sorry to leave this place as one has only to walk 200 yds from our front door & watch the battle going on about 3 miles away, in perfect comfort and safety. At the moment we have gone to ground again as they began to shell our late hd qrs, and made things rather uncomfortable though no one was injured, so we have decided to forego the pleasures of a house. 

I have had all sorts of nice letters from people about Raymond. It really is awfully kind of the Becks, even if Raymond did not make his fortune he made many genuine friends. I am still optimistic about leave, but not probably till late on next month.

Will write again when we get settled down behind

Your loving son

Cuthbert

War Diary Entry: July 22nd 1916

The Borders & Inniskillings relieved the SWB & KOSB respectively in the trenches during the afternoon. When the relief was half through we received a message saying the whole divn was being relieved in the line tomorrow, but it was too late to stop the relief then. The 25^th Divn are taking our place. I went down to tea with the divn, and whet through our honours list, just going in, with De Lisle. Hear we are being moved to Ypres. When I got back to Englebelmer I found Armitage) Brigadier of 74^th Bde, relieving us) waiting there, he had just been round the trenches.