Collecting the wounded at night

This letter was published in the Eastbourne Gazette early in October 1914. Captain Arthur Habgood conveys the terrifying circumstances of evacuating the wounded.

During the war he gained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the service of the Royal Army Medical Corps (Special Reserve).


Collecting the wounded at night

R.A.M.C . At work under shell-fire.

Dr. Arthur Habgood (son of Dr. Henry Habgood Stafford House, Upperton, Eastbourne) Captain in the R.A.M.C., Special Reserve and attached to No. 9 Field Ambulance, 3rd Division, has been on service with the British Expeditionary Force since August 18.

Writing home recently from the field of battle, Captain Habgood says: -

“My dear Father – This is a great hurry, as a Red Cross car is waiting to take it into Paris.

We are at present in billets and are very busy day and night, evacuating wounded and sick - about 1,500 in three days – so you will see we are very busy. Am quite well, but have had a pretty rough time.

A big battle is starting, and we have had a little lull in the fighting. For the past four days we have had to collect the wounded at night, in a town across a river, and have had to cross on a temporary pontoon by night, under shell fire all the time.

Have had some narrow escapes – Shrapnel shrieking by at night is very unpleasant.

This town is in ruins and dead horses etc. lying all about the roads, makes it very disagreeable.

Many thanks to you all for the letters and parcels, which I was glad to get. What we are hard up for is cigarettes. Have had none for three weeks. A pipe would also be a blessing. I am at present smoking an old cast-off one belonging to my major. Papers and magazines would be interesting, also letters. The letters coming from home are not opened. We all long for England. The officers say that South Africa was a picnic to this war. Which is day and night without intermission.

I am much thinner, but a good dinner will soon alter that. We only had two posts since I left England. There is no harm in telling you now that we sailed to Rouen. No Typhoid yet!

Good-bye for the present.

Your affectionate son,

Arthur.”



(Lt.-Col. Arthur Henry Habgood is the son of Dr. Henry Habgood.2 He married Vera Chetwynd-Stapylton, daughter of Edward Chetwynd-Stapylton and Beatrice Mary Cowie, on 27 September 1924.
He was registered as a Licentiate, Royal College of Physicians, London (L.R.C.P.). He graduated with a Diploma of Public Health (D.P.H.). He was registered as a Member, Royal College of Surgeons (M.R.C.S.). He graduated with a Master of Arts (M.A.). He graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine (M.B.). He was decorated with the award of Companion, Distinguished Service Order (D.S.O.). He gained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the service of the Royal Army Medical Corps (Special Reserve). He graduated with a Bachelor of Surgery (B.Ch.). He lived in 1976 at Mellstock, Skippetts Lane, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England.)

On a Quiet November Evening

This moving article comes from the book On the King's Service Inward Glimpses of Men at Arms by Innes Logan.

Innes Logan was Chaplin to the Forces from September 1914 to May 1916.

Here he reflects the words of a famous hymn as it drifts on a gentle wind that carried with it the noise of a heavy gun firing a round.


“One November evening I was picking my way cautiously through the mud camp near Reninghelst, and hearing the tune of a famous hymn, drew near to listen, for Jock sometimes sings to hymn tunes words that certainly never appeared in any hymn-book, and I wanted to make sure that it was the greatest hymn in the English language which was being sung. It was a quiet night. Now and again a heavy gun fired a round, and infrequently, on a gentle wind blowing from the trenches, was borne the rattle of a machine-gun. From all the camp arose the subdued confused noise of an army settling to rest for the night. Some tents were in darkness, in others a candle burned, and here and there braziers still glowed redly.

It was from one of the lighted tents that the singing came, each part being taken, and a sweet clear tenor voice leading. The tune was old 'Communion,' and they had just come to this verse:

'Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ, my God:
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.'

How often have we sung that, perhaps thoughtlessly, in comfort at home, but these lads had in truth sacrificed the 'vain things.' With a lump in my throat I waited for the last verse:

'Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my life, my soul, my all.'

If Germany Had Won The War

This excellent article was first published in The War Illustrated and is on the brilliant site A Great War in a Different Light.

Published in December 1918 it lays out for all to read the territorial ambitions of the Kaiser.

If Germany Had Won

I saw a leaflet the other day which the German Bolshevists, known as the Spartacus group, had issued. (Spartacus was the leader of a revolt of slaves against the oppression of their Roman masters.) This leaflet sketched the conditions which would be created for Germany by a German victory. The firmer fixing of the Junker yoke upon the people's neck, the intensifying of the "Imperial madness," the triumph of reaction in every form, militarism all-powerful, Germany an armed camp, "holding down conquered Europe by blood and iron," bankrupt in purse, too exhausted by military effort for industry of the wholesome kind, with no shipping, no trade — these were the consequences foretold if Germany should win. Foretold by Germans who had the sense to see through the lies with which the ruling class deluded the people. No one who has studied Pan- Germanism can doubt that the prophecy was well founded.

But while the interest of the Spartacus group was in the German conditions which would follow a victory for the Old Gang, we are more interested in the terms of peace which they would have imposed upon us and our Allies. Field-Marshal Hindenburg calls the armistice conditions "hard." The "women of the new Fatherland" have sent out an appeal to the women of all lands, urging that "the innocent victims of an infamous system" ought not to be punished. Prince Lichnowsky has protested against a "peace of violence." Have they all forgotten ?

The Kaiser's Boast

Up to a few-months ago the German leaders were boasting about the peace they would make. "Not an easy one," crowed the Kaiser in March last. "No peace until we have impressed our will upon the Entente Powers !" was Hindenburg's reply when he was asked by a correspondent at the end of 1916, "Are you willing to make peace ?"

What would "impressing their will" upon us have meant ? We have ample means of judging. The leaders of German opinion have on various occasions during the war announced what they considered to be the least that Germany could expect in the way of "compensation" and "guarantees for the future." In a statement circulated in large quantities by the " Committee for a German Peace," and sanctioned by General von Stein, War Minister, these demands were set forth :

"Belgium must remain dependent upon Germany in a military, economic, and political sense.

"We must have the French mineral districts of Briey and Longwy, and improve our frontiers, especially in the Vosges.

"We must possess the old German Baltic Provinces, rich soil for German peasant colonisation.

"Our enemies must pay the cost of the war in raw materials, ships, money, and territory,"

That was the programme of the Fatherland Party. It was against this that, in a fit of depression during the summer of 1917, the Reichstag passed its "No annexations, no indemnities" resolution. But that mood did not survive the March offensive. "War aims," the Vice-President of the Prussian Ministry avowed, "are bound to change with the political and military situations. We are the victors, and we feel ourselves the victors." So down came the "No annexations, no indemnities" placard. Up went the demands for vast sums of money, large and valuable increases of territory.

Do not imagine that the demands were advanced only by the wild men of the Fatherland Party. In January, I917, Mr. Gerard had a talk with the Imperial Chancellor, Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg, who told him frankly: "We must have Liege and Namur, and other Belgian forts and garrison towns. We must have railroad lines, ports, and other means of communications in Belgium. We must keep a large army there. And we must control the commerce of Belgium."

Exactly the Fatherland Party's programme — military, economic, and political domination. Yet this was the same Bethmann-Hollweg who confessed at the beginning of the war that Germany had done wrong to Belgium, and who promised that the wrong should be repaired. No thought of repair was in his mind in 1917.

He proposed that the wrong should be made permanent for Germany's benefit.

Further, he claimed annexations from France, Russia, and Italy, with indemnities from all Germany's opponents, and "all ships back." Thus the Imperial Chancellor accepted the claims formulated a few months after war began by the six leading German associations. In March, 1915, they sounded the key-note to which from that time all German voices were pitched. "Victims of an infamous system," the German people now call themselves. How was it not a voice was raised among the German people against their "infamous system" and greedy and domineering aims ?

The six societies, representing all classes, were : the Landlords' Union ; the Central Association of German Manufacturers ; the Middle Classes' Association (consisting chiefly of Government officials); the- German Peasants' Society; and the League of Christian Peasants. Their memorandum to the Government declared that: "As the indispensable condition of German sea-power, Belgium must be subjected to German Imperial law, in both military and in tariff matters, while the industrial undertakings and landed property in Belgium must be transferred to German hands."

Belgium, then, if the German will had been impressed upon the Entente Powers, would have ceased to exist as an independent State. That is as clear as day.

Next, the six associations explained what they would do with. France. The coastal districts must be in German possession as far as the Somme. Look at the map to see what this meant. The mines of Briey and Longwy must be taken from France, with the fortresses of Verdun and Belfort, and in this neighbourhood all "industrial establishments" of any importance must remain in German hands.

The anxiety to secure the Briey and Longwy districts was caused by the existence of very valuable iron-ore deposits, discovered since the annexation of 1871, and for at least seven years past coveted by the German iron-masters. The Germans had no possible claim to them, beyond the claim of the burglar to the silver forks and spoons which, he. steals. No more shameless admission of the objects to be attained by successful war has ever been made public. And this was not the admission of the men at the head of "the infamous system" by which Germany was governed, but that of the representatives of the German people.

They added that, as industrial Germany would thus be extended in the west, so agricultural Germany should be given the chance to extend eastward. This meant the annexation of "at least part" of the Baltic Provinces and of Poland.

German Popular Approval

These remained Germany's war-aims until the summer of this year. The German people, as a whole, approved of them until it became clear that the world would never allow them to be realised.

What would it have meant if they had been realised ? We should have had a German coast-line opposite to our coast-line, not only on the east, but on the south-east as well, as far as Hastings. Belgium would have been added to Germany. Down through Central Europe there would have been a wide belt of German territory, for what belonged to Germany's allies would soon have belonged to Germany. This would have stretched across the Dardanelles. into Asia, and thence German domination would have continued as far as the Persian Gulf.

Two well-known writers on Colonial subjects brought out a book as recently as June last in which they advocated the forming of a German Mohammedan block in Africa and Asia, and the forcible annexation of the western half of Morocco and Senegambia, the French Sudan, Dahomey, the Ivory Coast, the Portuguese Colonies, and Nigeria. And until Britain evacuated Nigeria, said the authors, "Germany will hold the Suez Canal as an armistice hostage."

Can it be said that there is anything in the allied-intentions as to peace terms which will even approach the harshness of the sacrifices which Germany would have exacted from us all if she had won ? A German peace would have left Europe bleeding and bitterly resentful, would have made another war certain. The allied peace shall, we intend, heal all. wounds and smooth away all anger, and leave the world with a League of Nations to guarantee it against further outbreaks of madness of the Imperialist type.

How Great Britain Would Have Fared

There will be no such country as Great Britain in existence at the end of the war. In its place we shall have Little Britain, a narrow strip of island territory, peopled by loutish football kickers, living on the crumbs that Germany will deign to throw to them. Certain it is that the laughable and childish military system of Britain will shortly fall to pieces. Then the once-mighty Empire, with her naval strength represented by the few old tubs which Germany will have left her, will become the laughing-stock of the nations, the scarecrow at which children will point their fingers in disdainful glee.

"Cologne Gazette," Sept., 1914.

The Llanelli Vision of July 1914

Sunday June 28th, 1914 was a turning point in European history, for on that day Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, and his wife, were assassinated in the Serbian town of Sarajevo. The repercussions of this event reverberated throughout Europe. Austria’s reply was sent to Serbia on Saturday 23rd July. It was an ultimatum, and because the response was unsatisfactory, war was declared on Thursday July 28th. Britain, along with other countries, entered the war on Thursday August 4th. The British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, spoke his famous prophetic words that same day – “The lights are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.” What Sir Winston Churchill called “this terrible half century” had begun.

Against this background, which is fully documented in all the books on European history, is a little known event which occurred on Sunday 24th July 1914 in the Glamorganshire town of Llanelli, South Wales. The following account is documented by the son of Pastor Stephen Jeffreys, in his book, “Stephen Jeffreys – the Beloved Evangelist,” pages 11-12, and an excerpt from page 110.

“The next important event in my father's life was his visit to Llanelly. The Rev. Trevor Jones, a Baptist minister, invited him to run a campaign in his church which was to last for a few weeks. However, he stayed at Llanelly for a period of seven years; for after fulfilling his engagements with the Baptist minister he opened up the remarkable mission known as ' Island Place.' , He told me repeatedly that the happiest seven years he ever spent in the ministry were at Llanelly. The doors were open each night during the whole time. One Sunday evening in July of 1914 (I waspresent at the service), a very remarkable vision appeared on the wall during my father's address, which was reported in many of the leading newspapers. A lady sitting next to my dear mother drew her attention to a Lamb's head which appeared on the wall at the back of my father. However, my mother failed to see the Lamb's head, but she was conscious of something very remarkable there; and presently the vision changed into the living face of Jesus Christ- represented as "A Man of Sorrows." During the address, which vas preached in wonderful power, my father felt that there was something taking place which was having a remarkable effect upon the audience.

“At the close of his sermon my mother beckoned father to come down from the pulpit, and she pointed to the amazing scene on the wall. It has been described as a Face beautiful beyond description, benevolent beyond words, the face of the 'Man of Sorrows'; and the eyes - kind, sad, glorious eyes – moved in the living face. It wasn't something which disappeared in a second - the vision remained on the wall for a period of six hours. The lights were turned out, but still the vision could be seen. News of this strange appearance brought a great crowd of people in who had not attended the evening service. Infidels who came along out of mere curiosity were convinced by the evidence of their eyes, and became converted. We may be a little dubious when certain people inform us that they have seen a 'Vision' , and dismiss them in our own minds by saying: "I always thought they were a bit visionary." But when hundreds of people – including infidels - all testify that they have really seen a vision on a wall which lasted for six hours, the evidence is too strong for refutation. No one who saw it was ever in any doubt. Very many from Europe and America have since visited the little hall, known as ‘Island Place’ hallowed by this Divine visitation .

“Why did God give this supernatural revelation of Jesus Christ as the "Man of Sorrows," in July, 1914 ? The only answer my father gave to all was this: He felt that it was a warning concerning the Great War I which broke out in August of that same year - only one month after the vision appeared. It made a profound impression upon father's life and ministry, and he preached Christ as the only solution of all our problems with even greater power than ever before. I have seen people sitting down the aisles, all around my father's pulpit, and even climbing on top of the window-sills. Sunday night was packed to suffocation, people standing out in the roadway joined in with the singing and tried to listen as best they could to the sermon.”

“I heard him ministering the following Sunday evening, [31st July] one of the most powerful prophetic sermons I ever heard. His text was: “This is the beginning of sorrows.” The scenes there, and his unfolding of the truth, I shall never forget. As he preached he was charged with the power of God. Soon we realised the truth he preached, as on August 4th the war was declared, with all its ensuing horrors.”

Jeffrey’s subsequent ministry in Wales was mightily blessed. He was an anointed preacher, and as the book declared, there was a mighty surge of repentance wherever he spoke. One is reminded of those lines in Oliver Goldsmith’s poem, “The Deserted Village”, (1770) where he speaks about the earnest and godly incumbent of the local church –

“Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway,

And fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray.”