War Diaries Talk

2nd Bn. Wiltshire Regiment Diary

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    This is the first of 21 pages of Lt. Col. Forbes version of the battalion's diary from 4 to 24 Oct. 1914. He was one of 18 officers and 450 OR captured by the Germans on 24 Oct. and the diary was written while he was held prisoner.

    Prior to this diary's appearance, I had previously tagged the diary kept by the adjutant until his capture on 24 Oct. When this diary came along I debated a bit as to whether I should tag it as a report or a diary. I decided to tag it as a diary, and I think it was a good decision because it contains so much more detailed information than the unit's official diary. I hope I made the right decision!

    Three pages before this page, there is a letter from Lt. Col. Forbes written in 1920 to the War Secretary explaining how a copy of this diary had turned up at the Dutch Legation in Berlin. Seems it was smuggled out by a Dutch official come to the POW camp to check on conditions of the prisoners.

    The only discrepancy I noted between the two diaries is that Lt. Col. Forbes refers to a Lt. Smith as being in charge of the machine guns, but in the official diary following the German breakthrough, the new author refers to him as Sgt. Smith. And I believe he was not captured. As the diary states that NO officers remained after 24 Oct., it would seem he must have been a Sgt.

    The official diary also states that several Sergeants happened to receive news of their commissions on the 24th. One of these then took charge of what was left of the battalion.

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  • marie.eklidvirginmedia.com by marie.eklidvirginmedia.com

    Your observations regarding this diary are really interesting!

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  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    Indeed they are - thanks for giving us so much context around this. Definitely the right decision to tag it as a diary.

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  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    Well, I felt I had to share it. With half the battalion unaccounted for and Lt. Col. Forbes writing this while he was a prisoner and managing to hide it for 4 years, it was so emotional I couldn't keep it to myself.

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  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    There's actually very little in the diaries about the experience of prisoners (at least very little that I've come across), so to find one actually written by a prisoner is really quite special. Thanks again.

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  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    I think this is the first time I've ever used #prisoners in reference to British prisoners.

    Do you know if there was any official way of notifying families that an individual had been taken prisoner? The official unit diary notes on the 24th or 25th of October that a large number of the men had been captured, so they weren't just "Missing" like they had disappeared into a void. Did their families know or were they just left to worry and wonder for 4 years. Although I suppose that knowing that your son or husband was a prisoner would be cause for plenty of worry all by itself.

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  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    The army would have notified the families, but the international committee of the red cross held the most extensive records. They've digitised them now: http://grandeguerre.icrc.org/en/File/Search

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