Recollections of how an old Bartonian survived World
War one,
by the late Frank Middleton.
Frank received his calling-up papers for war service in WWI. He
was 18 years and 4 months old on the 18th April 1917 when he
reported to
Scunthorpe for military service. At that time, the Crosby Hotel
on Crosby Road (later renamed Normanby Road) was used as a
WWI Recruiting
Office, and it is highly likely this was where Frank reported.
When he arrived, the personnel did not know anything about
him. He wished
he had stopped at home, and often wondered if he had not reported
for service, if he would ever have had to go to war. After
much sorting,
they found his details and he was sent to Lincoln with six other
men. They were billeted with many others in the barracks on
Burton Road,
where the Lincolnshire Life Museum is now located. He was there
a week, during which time he and others went daily to the barracks
on Broadgate
for medical and aptitude tests. Frank was passed as A1 (completely
fit for military service). Frank used to like a tot of Whisky,
but the army soon cured him of this, as he did not have enough
money to
buy any.
From Lincoln Frank was posted on 24th April 1917 to Rugely army
camp in Staffordshire for training. He said the camp was a very
large
one and covered an area the size of Barton. He also said there
were two
Middletons in his Company and at one point; his pay was mixed
up with the other Middleton’s pay. Frank used to have half his pay sent
home and the other half he kept to spend. Still at Rugely, he was eventually
recommended for promotion to NCO (Non Commissioned Officer) and made
up to that rank. With being an NCO, he was kept at the camp when ordinary
Private soldiers moved on after training. Eventually he and other NCOs
were posted to an Army camp at Whitley Bay on 18th December 1917, where
they all had to revert to the rank of Private and join the 3rd Battalion,
West Yorkshire Regiment. Whitley Bay was a holding camp where soldiers
were gradually sent to France as others were brought back injured.
Soldiers were not sent directly to France from the Rugely training
camp but from holding depot camps. Two soldiers had to patrol along
the Whitley Bay promenade every night, in case of German invasion;
all took it in turns. On Saturday evenings Frank and a group of others
would go up to North Shields on an open-topped tram, and when they
arrived, they would go to a café for something to eat and
then go to a theatre to see a show. They all had a Late Pass valid
until
midnight for their late return. Frank said he had a nice happy
time at Whitley Bay.
Eventually Frank was sent to France; he said they sailed from
Folkestone to Boulogne. When they disembarked, there were many
French girls
on the dockside trying to sell souvenirs and cards to the soldiers,
but
they quickly ran away when the police arrived. Frank and the
other soldiers were billeted in an army camp nearby for three
or four
days before being moved on through Northern France and up to
the Belgian
border, where they joined their battalion located at Ypres on
26th March 1918. They were taken into battle for a while then
brought
out for a rest. Frank said it was a ‘hell-hole’; everything
was in ruins. Later, on the 24th April 1918, they were marching in
a column up the Menen Road and one of Frank’s pals was told to
move up to the front of the column, so Frank also moved to the front
to be with him. Shortly afterwards a large artillery shell exploded
near to them, this killed a lot of men, and Frank said a bullet went
into his leg just above the knee (Frank’s wartime medical records
have the letters ‘SW Knee L’ against ‘Wounded in
Action’, and this could be interpreted as ‘Shrapnel Wound
Left Knee’. So Frank could have been hit with shrapnel and not
a bullet as he thought, especially with the wound happening at the
same time as the shell exploded). Frank hobbled back towards the direction
from where they had marched, it was dark, and he came across a medical
orderly who cut his trouser open and bandaged his knee. While this
was being done, a large shell dropped nearby and covered them both
in mud. Frank told the orderly there were many men further up the road
a lot worse than he was. Frank was gradually moved back from the front
line through various medical stations on 27th April 1918, and at one
of these an American doctor told him that his leg was going black;
it was bleeding internally. Frank was taken to a Field Station and
surgeons operated upon his leg. He was then brought back home to England
to convalesce on 1st May 1918 on the ship ‘Princess Elizabeth’.
Frank said the boats in which they were brought back had hammocks
in them so that wounded soldiers would not be thrown about as the
boat
moved. He remembered thinking how lovely it was as they passed
through the Kent orchards with the apple blossom flowering. He
later dropped
asleep (by then it was night time), and when he woke up, they were
just outside of Edinburgh. He was in a convalescent home at Edinburgh
for a while until he could walk again, before being sent from there
to a similar home at Blackpool. Frank was at Blackpool for several
months, before attending a Medical Board which discharged him from
the Army on 12th September 1918, as being only 20% fit and unfit
for military service. Frank said this was a month before the war
finished.
Frank returned home to Barton and continued to have treatment
and physiotherapy three times a week for six months, before returning
to normal civilian
work.
After a long and eventful life, Frank Middleton died on 16th
July 1993 aged 94 years, no doubt thankful that he had survived
the First World
War.
I have included three photographs of Frank; one showing how youthful
and young he looked when he was called up into the Army; another
showing how he seemed to have aged in only a few months; and
one taken about
six years after he had returned to civilian life.