Pen and Sword, 313pp
ISBN 184884234-1
Published 2011
This book is a tribute to the hard graft of Peter Liddle in establishing his eponymous archives in tribute to the men of the two World Wars. Liddle has been utterly selfless in collecting the memories and treasured possessions of these elderly veterans and arranging for their archival preservation. For this we and future generations must pay due tribute and I certainly am grateful as a regular user of the Liddle Collection now housed at the Brotherton Library of Leeds University. He began this work way back in 1968 and as such he was one of the pioneers of oral history in this country.
The book takes the form of edited transcripts of selected informants covering the period from 1900 to 1918. The choices have been well made to cover the time frame, the wealth of different experience available, to highlight particularly brilliant recordings and to give us a rare insight into the famous before they were famous. The sheer age-range of his informants is startling with some born in the early 1880s. Overall too many of the chosen may be officers - the lower ranks tend to be the 'famous' - but this is a minor quibble.
The book devotes a few pages to each person chosen. Amongst the most memorable is the interview with Trooper George Ives of the Wiltshire Imperial Yeomanry who served in the Boer War, a man who at the time of the interview in 1992 had been carrying the Queen Victoria Medal for 88 years! Blimey! But then you are on a bit of a roller coaster ride throughout: whether it be sharing an evocative picture of a working class childhood in Sunderland with Nellie Elsdon, standing with Jimmy Hooper on the deck of an old sailing ship sailing to Australia and Chile back in 1904, or alongside well known Northumberland Fusiliers veteran, Tom Easton, recounting his pre-war life as a coal miner in the Ashington area. I remember interviewing lots of old pitmen myself and the details of their profession seem more arcane and surrealistic as every year passes; trappers, putters, hewers and all the rest. Anyone with an interest in pre-war aviation will be entranced by the tales of John Fletcher who as a young officer joined the Air Battalion and participated in early experiments in man-flying kites, airships and early flights with the remarkable Samuel Cody. Smashing stuff!
When it comes to the Great War section there are many more delights. The detailed interview with Sir Victor Goddard on his naval service and conversion to an airship pilot is a treasure trove. A fascinating interview with Robin Money charts his career as a regular army officer from the opening exchanges in 1914 right through to his appointment as brigade major in 1917-1918. The interview with Sir James Marshall-Cornwall whose outstanding career as an intelligence officer included a stint at GHQ is also full of useful insights including his sharp disagreements with Charteris and generally positive assessment of Haig. Fascinating and I should have liked to see more: much more! Henry Rich is wonderful on his service with the 120th Rajputan Rifles in fighting in Mesopotamia followed, after the Siege of Kut, by captivity under the Turks. Then we have the naval career of Clare Vyner, culminating in the drama being aboard HMS Acasta at the Battle of Jutland and the tortuous journey back to sunny Aberdeen. They must have wondered why they bothered! I had not seen the recollections of James Grimshaw who was awarded the VC as a corporal with the Lancashire Fusiliers at W Beach on 25 April 1915. More familiar are the well-rehearsed, but still vigorous, memories of Reginald Savory of his service with the 14th Sikhs at Gallipoli, while the nurse Florence Farmborough is as ever fantastic value: what a life she had! Charles Phillips takes us with the King's African Rifles to East Africa - fascinating and a rare example from that front. Howard Marten is as thought-provoking on his experiences as a conscientious objector.
Most fun of all there is Philip Fullard: a charmingly immodest scout ace with some 40 claimed victories. He is interesting all right - startlingly so! He claims the body of his friend (Captain William Rooper killed 9 October 1917) was looted by Australian troops and that in vengeance he and his flight 'raked the Australian sector and killed a great many of them'. It may or not be of relevance that the records show that Fullard was injured in a football match that November 1917 and never fought again. He was, so Peter Liddle asserts, probably suffering from stress at that time! I wonder what the Australians will make of this? This could be worthy of investigation!
We also get to see great men in unfamiliar roles: most noticeably Henry Moore the sculptor serving with the Civil Service Rifles during the Battle of Cambrai in 1917. Others are almost as the older amongst us remember them: for instance Manny Shinwell, that polished old political professional, details his struggles as a trade union leader and Barnes Wallis we find designing airships, not bouncing bombs. Victor Sylvester the dance-band leader is present and makes his usual claims of having taken part in the execution of 6-8 men on the Western Front before serving in Italy. Hmmmm! Harold Macmillan we find serving as a subaltern with the 4th Grenadier Guards on the Western Front before he was badly wounded on the Somme in September 1916. A wonderful man and still full of fighting spirit even when tussling with Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
When looking at the totality of the Archive then perhaps it is true that too many of the interviews are too short. This is surely inevitable given the pressures of time and the severely limited budget available at the time. Liddle could not engage in the kind of lengthy multi-session interviews that would have given us an even greater harvest. But let us not be greedy or churlish: by his innovation and dedication over the years Peter Liddle and his volunteers have preserved a great deal of valuable material for posterity that would otherwise have been lost. I am sure he needs no more reward than this.
This book is the pure cream of the Liddle Archives and its publication provides an enjoyable anthology in its own right. Although there is no historical context or analysis here, these interviews are so good that they truly do stand on their own and I recommend Captured Memories without hesitation.
Reviewed by: Peter Hart, Western Front Association, January 2011
Buy this book from Pen & Sword
