Chance's strange arithmetic

Two perspectives on the Great War - 1928 & 1995 - summary version.
(c) Tony Holkham 1995, 2003

The full version of this piece includes dozens of photographs taken in 1928, and many 'matching' pictures taken in 1995 for comparison. If you would like the full version (Microsoft Word, approximately 6 megabytes) on CD or DVD (at cost), then please contact me.

I have done considerable research since 1995, and if you would like to know about that, again please contact me.

If you would like to look at any individual picture, (see bottom of this page) then I will be happy to e-mail it to you. For anyone resarching ancestors in the Manchester Pals' Battalions (particularly the 19th), I will be happy to provide any information I can.

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part 1 : Tramps abroad (Ernest Briggs, 1928)
Part 2 : A French Tour (Syd Renshaw, 1928)
Part 3 : Tramps Abroad Revisited, 1995 (Tony Holkham)
Part 4 : The 19th Manchesters, 1914-18
Explanatory notes
The Great War (major events)
Biographical notes
Bibliography
Useful addresses
List of illustrations

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to express my special thanks to my Mother, now sadly no longer with us, for dredging her memory for the smallest detail about her father and his army friends; also to the Local Studies Library at Stalybridge, the Museum of Manchesters at Ashton-under-Lyne, the Industrial Heritage Centre and my wife Suzy for support and advice throughout the making of this book.

"And some cease feeling
Even themselves or for themselves.
Dullness best solves
The tease and doubt of shelling,
And Chance's strange arithmetic
Comes simpler than the reckoning of their shilling.
They keep no check on armies' decimation."
(From "Insensibility", by Wilfred Owen, 1893-1918)

Wilfred Owen fought with the Manchesters, and died just before the end of the war.

Corporal Ernest Briggs, circa 1916

INTRODUCTION

Despite my avid interest in history since I was very young, I never understood the reasons for the Great War (or First World War) until I heard A J P Taylor explain it in his unique way. But even that didn't tell me what it was like. I was to find that out some years later.

My maternal grandfather Ernest Briggs volunteered for service following Kitchener's famous call - "Your country needs you". He enlisted with the 19th Battalion, the Manchester Regiment, and by the spring of 1915 was on the Somme. In 1928, he and three companions revisited the graves of his dead comrades, and he wrote an account1 of the pilgrimage, which has survived along with many photographs.

When I read the account, I was fascinated. Much has been written about the Great War - perhaps too much - but my grandfather's contribution is significant, thoughtful, ambivalent and charmingly innocent. Not only is it a guide to many of the villages and towns in Belgium and France where some of the worst fighting took place; not only is it a delightfully descriptive observation of some of the people they met on their walks and train rides throughout the area, and of life in France in 1928 - but it is also a glimpse of my grandfather's personal feelings on revisiting the many resting places of his decimated regiment. The "Manchesters" played a significant part in this theatre of the War, and my grandfather himself was wounded by a grenade that killed the man next to him. He talked little of the War, but for many years helped to run the Old Pals Association and was proud to be presented to the Queen in 1951 for his tireless contribution.

I remember Grandad for his delightful sense of humour and fun, his love of walking, acute observation and generosity, and his perfectionism. He always seemed to have a camera in his hands, and we as a family will always be greatly indebted to him for that. I treasure some of the furniture he meticulously made with no formal training, and I recall with a tinge of regret that, because I was a "60s" teenager in the last years of his life, I did not take the trouble to get to know him better.

Another member of the party, Syd Renshaw, who was too young to have fought in the War, also wrote a briefer but no less interesting account2 of the tour, making an interesting contrast with Ernest's. Both accounts, and many of the original photographs, are reproduced in this book (Parts 1 and 2).

In the spring of 1995, my wife Suzy and I decided to spend a couple of days in France retracing some of the Boys' footsteps - sadly by car because of a lack of time and fitness. What we found is recounted in Part 3. We too took some photographs, some of the same views as my grandfather's in 1928. It hardly needs to be said that the region has changed beyond all recognition. However, it is gratifying to see we have not forgotten what took place there between 1914 and 1918, when so many people were sacrificed for such elusive reasons.

Part 4 of this perspective resulted from my attempts to track down my grandfather's war diaries. Months of searching failed to turn them up, despite the fact that his widow (my grandmother) told my mother she had passed them on to his regiment. However, the search provided so many interesting detours that they are worth a whole section on their own. Through the searching I came to understand the War better than I ever thought I should, and the unusually significant part the Manchester Regiment played in it.

We are often these days reminded of how close Europe came to a new Dark Age in the 1930s and '40s, but this should not overshadow the unimaginable loss of life which had occurred two and a half decades earlier. The Great War seems to have touched everyone - only recently I had occasion to look in Fowler's Modern English Usage to see it is dedicated to his brother who died in 1918 of tuberculosis contracted during service in 1915-16. Even my grandfather's own father was involved, along with several brothers. So I offer this largely unedited perspective in my grandfather's memory, and to the memory of all those for whom, in 1928, he trudged across Northern France once again to pay his respects.

Picture: Ernest Briggs being presented to H.M. The Queen, November 1951 (source unk.)

PART 1 : TRAMPS ABROAD (With apologies to "MARK TIME")
or THE DIARY OF A TRAMP IN FRANCE
8th to 23rd September 1928
by Ernest Briggs

At the New Year, Ernie Pilling and I decided to spend our holiday visiting the Scenes of our Army Life in France. We accordingly commenced to collect "umpteen" Maps of the Battle Zone and all the information conducive to a well-planned Holiday. The months after were spent in writing the Enquiry Bureaux of Towns we intended to visit and getting together all the material which was likely to be of use to us. Cadging maps was the great game and the persons so tapped ranged from Publican to Parson. Our old comrades who were fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to stick it over yonder longer than ourselves were cross-examined as to the ground we should cover. Then our project reached the ears of one - Syd Renshaw from Sheffield - and another - Fred Gate - they thought it rather an alluring proposition, and we were only too glad that they should roll in with us. We had thus a couple of Beds full - a nicely balanced party - just enough. I had already been over some of the ground two years ago with Percy Whitworth, but we had then all too little time to spend on the Battlefields. Passports were essential - and that was the snag. Fred and I were already in possession - but Syd, how was he going to fare? We were more than relieved when Sir Austen Chamberlain granted the Sheffielder his request - evidently the rumour of Syd's Bolshevik activities had not reached the ears of our monocled-one. Tickets were booked in advance on the L.M.S. Rly. Excursion to Dunquerke and back and we were to start at 5.55 p.m. from Manchester Central. The only place booked in advance was the Hotel at Paris. Now for the doings...!

Ernest Briggs goes on to describe, in fascinating detail (in 17,000+ words and 82 photographs), their walking journey through the battlefields of France and Belgium, and other places he had experienced during the Great War and 1928.

PART 2 : A FRENCH TOUR being the
Adventures of E. BRIGGS, F. GATES, J. E. PILLING, and a "PETIT GARCON"
by Syd Renshaw

On the Saturday evening of the 8th September 1928, an anxious figure would have been seen eagerly awaiting the Manchester express at St. Pancras. At 10-15 p.m., he quickly found the Tilbury Coach and met E.B., F.G., and J.E.P. After hearty greetings, the quartette left St. Pancras for Tilbury arriving there at 11-15 p.m. Quickly boarding S.S. PICARD and loaning blankets and deck chairs, they found a sheltered position on board. A better evening for the sail could not have been planned, the sea being calm and placid and the moon - well in its last quarter, casting dim shadows and leaving the ship's rigging &c. in a clear-cut silhouette. Only a few hours sleep were snatched by them, except J.E.P., who once he "got-down", slept like a log until some clumsy adjective walked over him. Disembarking punctually at 6 a.m., the passport formalities were quickly over, and the Tour-de-France, had officially commenced. The "Petit Garcon" caused a mild sensation by jumping quickly on the train with only half his clothes on, he previously doing a lightning quick change in a public lavatory. As the inner man wanted a little attention, the party alighted at Dunkirk Central, the "petit Garcon" being convulsed with laughter at the cries of "La Gare Centrale" and the porters with their "Little Boy Blue" horns. He was, however, convulsed with rage a few seconds later when he found that the bag containing his "spares" could not be forwarded to AMIENS, as was his intention, and so, F.G. and the "P.G." had to leave their Bags, and carry on like the others with their bundles on their shoulders. A thorough search for a Cafe suitable for breakfast, resulting in finding one with a typical English sign of Ham and Eggs and Tea. This lured them in...

Syd Renshaw goes on to describe, in 5,000+ words, their journey from the perspective of a younger man who wasn't 'there', but is nonetheless struck by the sheer scale of it all.

PART 3 : "TRAMPS ABROAD" REVISITED, 1995
by Tony Holkham

Tuesday, 30 May 1995
It was almost a spur-of-the-moment thing. One minute my mother is handing me a dog-eared typescript and a folder of sepia photographs, and the next minute we are driving to Folkestone to take the Seacat to Boulogne. I am hoping it will be calm because, unlike my father, and his father, who both served in the Royal Navy, I am not a good sailor. Something to do with my ears. But unlike my fighting forbears, I am fortunate enough to belong to a generation which has not been called to sacrifice itself for its country. If I had been, it would have been the Air Force, no question. I would not have considered the odds above my stomach. And that's the reason we are dong this, I suppose. My father and his father survived their conflicts intact, or as intact as they may do, but for my mother's father it was different. He didn't die - not then - but the odds on his surviving in the region of France to which we are headed were, in 1915, not something to dwell on. And he would have known it. That's sacrifice. But this is a diary, not an essay, so I'll try to keep my personal comments to a minimum...

I go on to describe, in 4,000+ words and 49 pictures, our journey, partly retracing the steps of the Tramps Abroad. To read the text of this part, click here.

PART 4 : THE 19th MANCHESTERS 1914-18

In June 1995, I had to go to Shropshire on family business, and I decided to take the opportunity to chase up the diaries Grandad had written, which my Grandmother told my Mother she had passed on to his regiment (to whom is not known) after his death. Beforehand, I made myself a nuisance with the regimental records officer, Major Pat Grimes, and the Manchesters' Museum (at Ashton-under-Lyne) curator, Jim Pollett, and they had already set-to trying to track down the diaries, donated in about 1967. While on the way, I found out that archives had gone to the library at Stalybridge, and that Gillian Cooke, the archivist, had been alerted that I was coming.

I arrived in Stalybridge at dawn on 28th June, and watched the sun rise over the dramatic hills to the east. As I hadn't been in the area since I was 14, I hadn't remembered what beautiful countryside this is. While I waited for the library to open at 9 am, I watched the River Tame flow under the bridge, photographed the War Memorial, and took a quick look round this quiet and friendly town.

Gillian Cooke was expecting me, and I was delighted to find that Pat Grimes (whom I didn't meet until later that day) had also mobilised Nicola Frost, who was associated with the Museum through her work in the Industrial Heritage Centre at Portland Basin.

There was a great deal of information about the Manchesters to look through, and Gill spent some time running up and down to and from the cellar trying to locate the diaries. It turned out that the Museum had only opened in the 1980s, and that material donated to the regiment before that could have gone to any of several depositories (including at Manchester Central Library - this was news to me) before ending up (hopefully) in Stalybridge. The diaries were not there, but I was given several other sources to try, and was permitted to make copies of some documents they did have.

I visited the Manchesters' Museum and received a friendly reception. They did not, however, have any information which would take me further forward. I therefore had to return home without knowing any more about the diaries, but with some work to do. On the way home, I called in at my mother's and found she had kindly gone through Parts 1 to 3 and found all my typing errors, and had also added some more information from memory.

The day after I got back, stiff from driving and I must confess a little short of temper from the heat, I wrote up these notes and then began writing letters and making phone calls. There followed a frustrating 16 month search, part-time, of course, from which I got no further forward. My efforts fizzled out.

I did, however, go through what I had photocopied at Stalybridge. I was staggered. Here were the details of what did happen to my grandfather's battalion between 1914 and 1918. Read in conjunction with Part 1, the course of this small part of the Great War comes sharply into focus. Death predominates. Glory is not quite so evident. Movement of troops seems more to confuse the enemy than to defeat him. It certainly confused the troops.

The following gives some idea of the other things the men had to do, apart from fighting. Actual fighting, in fact rarely figured. Being shelled - in or away from the front line - was a daily occurrence, as was the danger from grenades, mortars, snipers, machine guns and mines, not to mention disease, chemical warfare and permanent psychological damage, but roads still had to be mended, and training in new techniques had to be endured. But it was in ignorance of all this that Manchester's young men volunteered in their many thousands in 1914.

On 16th September 1914 the first parade of the Battalion (not yet called the 19th) took place in the City Exhibition Hall. The principle of the Pals' regiments was that friends and workmates would serve together, and this was achieved as far as was possible. After a month of drill, training continued at Belle Vue Gardens, men coming in daily from the surrounding areas. On 30th November the Battalion occupied its first permanent base at Heaton Park. On 3rd December, the Battalion became the 19th (Service) Battalion of the Manchester Regiment and was officially taken over by the War Office. My grandfather was assigned to D Company, XIV Platoon, comprising about 68 officers and men.

The life was very strenuous. They trained in all weathers, night and day, on small and large-scale manoeuvres. It seemed to go on forever. There were highlights: Christmas 1914 (when the war was supposed to be over) was a wonderful occasion, largely thanks to patronage by Manchester society who had a keen interest in the development of "their" regiment; February 1915, when khaki was issued for the first time; and 21st March, when the Battalion marched into the city centre to be inspected by Lord Kitchener. They still did not, however, have service rifles.

On 24th April 1915 Manchester turned out to see the Battalion march away from their home city en route to Belton Park, Grantham, Lincolnshire. There they continued to train. On 7th September 1915, just short of a year since they had first paraded, they moved to Larkhill Camp on Salisbury Plain. One month later, they were on a train for Southampton, where the SS Queen Alexandra was waiting to take them to France. Perhaps with some trepidation for, by this time, news of the War in all its grim detail must have been reaching them daily. They were not exactly lambs, but they would certainly know about the slaughter. However, surrounded by their friends of long-standing, and a determination to try to make a difference, they would undoubtedly have disembarked at Havre with a positive attitude and brave faces.

From 8th November 1915 to 7th January 1916, the 19th Manchesters marched, trained and formed working parties behind the lines. They could hear the shellfire. Often it could be heard in England. The train took them to Pont Remy, and then they marched to Beaumetz, Arras, Flesselles, Coisy, Canaples, Halloy, Berles au Bois, La Herliere, Halloy again, Boisbergues, Naours, Pony Noyelles, Sailly Laurette and finally Bray-sur-Somme, where they were billeted at Bronfay Farm, Battalion Headquarters. Their training consisted of bombing, sniping and the many facets of trench warfare. They worked on subsidiary lines. These two months of marching, working and training must have made them wonder if they would ever take a proactive part in the war. Even their first 4-day spell in the trenches at Carnoy from 8th January was quiet, and they were able to improve the trenches during the tour. They went back to Bray for a further 4 days.

Everything changed after that. When they went back to the trenches on 16th January it was no longer quiet. There was shelling and shrapnel to contend with. There was heavy mud, making trench maintenance almost impossible. They alternated between Bray and the trenches until 7th March, when they marched to Bois des Tailles. In the meantime, the casualties had begun, the first of D Company being killed on 4th February. Not only were the Pals comrades-in-arms, but they were often long-standing friends, and the first deaths must have come as a great shock to them.

After a week at Bois des Tailles, they went to Frechencourt via Corbie to work on railway tracks. At the end of the month they went to Breilly via Coisy for drill, and an inspection by Brigadier-General C J Sackville-West, and on 9th April held Battalion sports. Then back to Coisy and Frechencourt for fatigues at Pont Noyelle. From 2nd to 24th May they alternated between Corbie, Bray, Billon Wood and the Carnoy trenches for training and mining fatigues and spells in the front line, where there was occasionally heavy shelling by both sides. It was on 13th May that my grandfather was wounded by a grenade that killed Frank Blundell, who was standing beside him.

The 19th Manchesters went on without him for a time. On 24th May they marched to the Maricourt trenches under machine gun and rifle fire and, while digging advanced trenches, suffered more casualties.

And so it went on. In July, they were in the front line for the large-scale attack that has become known as the Battle of the Somme. It achieved very little, but at enormous cost of life and limb in every regiment involved. The 19th Manchesters were in the thick of more heavy fighting after that, including raids. In a dawn attack on Guillemont on 23rd July, the losses were particularly heavy, with hundreds missing as well as those killed or wounded. Some understanding of the overall losses can be gained by the numbers of men that had to be drafted into the battalion to replace those wounded and missing, as well as those known to be dead, to keep it up to strength: 10th July - 89, 13th - 224, 23rd - 182, 10th August - 160 - a total of 655 men in just one month out of 36 months' fighting, over an area of just a few miles out of a front hundreds of miles long. And, despite these draftings, when the battalion was disbanded in February 1918, there were only 679 soldiers left.

Disbandment was not the end for the men involved, either - far from it. It is even more indicative of the losses when you realise that battalions had to be combined to keep them up to strength. The remains of the 19th were absorbed into the 16th (A & B Companies) and 17th (C & D Companies). There was further absorption to come: by the middle of 1918 the remains of the 17th itself was redrafted, some - perhaps a turning point in this seemingly endless war - forming a training cadre to train incoming American troops, the rest being absorbed by the 13th battalion, which was in turn (August) absorbed by the 9th. At one point it seemed that half a battalion a month was being lost.

I do not propose to go through the whole war, describing the role of the Manchesters in detail. It would be many pages long; readers interested in the historical detail can find numerous publications on the conflict and, where the 19th Manchesters are concerned, there is published material available (see later on). Suffice it to say here that many of the men who survived to the disbandment of the 19th stayed in France for the remainder of the war and took part in a great deal more of the action. I will not know my grandfather's continuing part in it until I find either his diaries or his army records. It is possible that neither have survived. All I know is that I cannot give up searching, and there may be a future edition of this book which will throw more light on it. It may be that a diary survives from his company; with better luck, from someone else in his platoon.

What is so significant for me, though, is that my grandfather did survive. Had he not been wounded on 13th May 1916; had he gone on to take part in the attacks of the 1st and 23rd July, the odds are he would not have survived. So none of this would have happened. There would have been no "Tramps Abroad" in 1928. My mother's three children, nine grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren would not have existed. It all comes down to chance in the end. It all comes down to chance's strange arithmetic.

Picture: Manchester Regiment reunion, about 1950.

Picture: 19th Battalion, Manchester Regiment, D Company, XIV Platoon, about 1915 (Ernest Briggs is 2nd row from the front, 3rd from right)
From "Manchester City Battalions: Book of Honour"

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Ernest Briggs was born in Manchester in 1889; he served with the 19th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment in 1914, earning two stripes, and was wounded twice while at the Front. After the war, he married Olive Botham from Sheffield (whose younger brother Raymond is mentioned early in the story), and they had one child, Edna (my mother). He joined the administrative staff of the Manchester Guardian in 1939 (reluctantly retiring at the age of 73), and during World War II, served in the A.R.P., doing his duties in Withington in the evenings after work, and at weekends. Occasionally, he missed a whole night's sleep, but still went to work on time. Ernest was Secretary of the Pals' ex-soldiers association for many years, the numbers dwindling inevitably from hundreds to just a few as time passed. He and Olive moved to Hampshire in 1962 to be near Edna. Ernest died in 1967, ironically from cancer which stemmed from the shrapnel which he had carried in his leg ever since the War. Olive died in 1987 at the age of 93, and sadly Edna died in 1999, aged just 76. Ernest loved to take photographs, but that's another story�

Fred Gate was brought up in similar circumstances to Ernie Pilling, he and his sister Ada supporting the family and their widowed mother. He too served with the "Manchesters" for the duration.

Ernie Pilling was one of 9 children, whose mother was widowed while they were still young, and Ernie supported the whole family. After serving with the Manchester Regiment during the Great War, where he earned three stripes and was a physical education instructor, he worked hard and eventually became manager of one of the largest Co-operative Wholesale Society grocery stores in Manchester, sometimes keeping an eye on the smaller shops in the suburbs. He married just before World War II. He was described by my mother as a caring and kind man, and she remembered that, when she was five, she asked him to marry her.

Syd Renshaw married Olive Botham's younger sister Dora after the War (Syd is on the right in the family photo). Syd and Dora are both deceased, leaving two children and several grandchildren.

Tony Holkham was born in Mitcham, Surrey, in 1948, the second of three children born to Richard Holkham and Edna (Ernest Briggs's daughter). For much of his working life Tony worked in industry, but in 1990 became an independent consultant in his specialist field, product information and labelling. Writing - fiction, non-fiction and verse - has always been a passion, and published some short stories and poetry in the 1980s. Blackie Academic & Professional (later Chapman & Hall, now Aspen) published his first book "Label Writing & Planning - A Guide to Good Customer Communication " in 1995. He has since published three more books and is working on several more. He and his wife Suzy live in Hampshire.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Some of these sources have supplied me with the background to this book, which I gratefully acknowledge. I cannot comment on whether any of them are available to borrow through the lending library system.

The Manchester Regiment
Anon. The Manchester Regiment (The roll of the drum series) (Hutchinson, 192?)
Andrews, A.W. (formerly B Company, 19th Btn) "Orders are orders" (Neil Richardson, 1987 ISBN 1 85216 006 3)
Bardsley, H.C. 20th-23rd Service Battalions in France, Flanders and Italy.
Bell, A.C. History of the Manchester Regiment (1st & 2nd Bns) 1922-1948 (1954)
Bonner, R A. (ed) 12th Battalion the Manchester Regiment: 1914-1919 (1994)
Bonner, R A. (ed) 21st Battalion the Manchester Regiment: A history (1994)
Campbell, G.L. The Manchesters. A history of the regular, militia, special reserve, territorial and new army battalions since their formation (1916)
Campbell, G.L. The 24 battalions of the Manchester Regiment: history, serving officers, honours and casualties of the war 1914-1915 (1915
Hardy, C. Manchester at war - a pictorial account, 1939-1945 (1986)
Haswell, J. The British Army, a concise history (1975)
Hurst, G.B. With Manchesters in the East (1918)
Kinder, E. Lancashire's part-time soldiers 1690-1890.
Kirby, H.L. & Walsh, R.R. The four Blackburn V.C.s (1986)
Lally, M. Recollections of 3 Manchesters in the Great War (1985)
Macdonald, R.P. A short history of the King's Regiment (Manchester & Liverpool) (Gale & Polden, 1962)
Mitchison, K.W. Cotton town comrades. The story of the Oldham Pals Battalion, 1914-1919 (1993)
Morten, J.C. I remain your son Jack. Letters from the First World War (7th Btn.) (1993)
Nash, T.A.H. Diary of an unprofessional soldier (16th Btn.) (1991)
Page, M. (ed) Presenting the Manchester Regiment, 1758-1953 (1953)
Parry, W.A. History of Hurst & Neighbourhood: Chapt. 15 - The brave Manchesters
Sassoon, S. Diaries, 1915-1918 (1983)
Sheppard, A. The King's Regiment [which absorbed the Manchester Regt.] (1973)
Sherratt & Hughes (ed) 16th to 19th battalions, The Manchester Regiment: A Record 1914-1918 (1923)
Stedman, M. Manchester Pals (1994)
Wade, J. The voluntary principle: Recruitment in Manchester & Salford, Aug 1914 - Oct 1915
Westropp, H.C.E. The Manchester: a tribute (Sherratt & Hughes, 1920)
Westropp, H.C.E. (ed) Manchester City Battalions of 90th & 91st Infantry Brigades: Book of honour (1917)
Wylly, H.C. History of the Manchester Regiment. Vol.I 1758-1883 (1923), Vol.II 1883-1922 (1925)
Wylly, H.C. A short history of the Manchester Regiment (1950)

The First World War
Brown, M. The Imperial War Museum Book of The First World War (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1991)
Gilbert, M. First World War (Wiedenfeld & Nicholson, 1994)
Haythornthwaite, P. World War One Source Book (Arms & Armour Press, 1992)
Haythornthwaite, P. A Photohistory of World War One (1993)
Laffin, J. A Western Front Companion (Alan Sutton, 1994)

USEFUL ADDRESSES
I came to this project of mine through a growing interest in my family's history; it is possible that this book may provoke others to do what is fondly known as "digging up the ancestors". Anyone with forbears in the army, and in particular the Manchesters, may find the following addresses helpful -

Department of Printed Books, Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, Lambeth, London SE1 6HZ
Ministry of Defence Army Records Centre, Bourne Avenue, Hayes, Middlesex UB3 1RF
Public Record Office, Ruskin Avenue, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU (for the military, pre-1913 only)
Manchester Central Library & Archive, St Peter's Square, Manchester M2 5PD
Reference Division, British Library, Great Russell Street, London WC13 3DG
Tameside Local Studies Library, Astley Cheetham Library, Trinity Street, Stalybridge, SK15 2BN
Stalybridge Library Archive, Market Street, Stalybridge,
Museum of the Manchesters, Market Square, Ashton-under-Lyne, OL6 6DL
King's & Manchester Regiments Assn, T.A. Centre, RHQI
King's, Ardwick Green, Manchester M12 6HB
The King's Regiment HQ, Graeme House, Derby Square, Liverpool L2 7SD
The Queen's Park Museum & Art Gallery (Man. Regt. & 14th/20th King's Hussars), Queen's Park, Harpurhey, Manchester.
King's Regiment Collection, Merseyside Maritime Museum, Albert Dock, Liverpool L3 4AQ
Industrial Heritage Centre, Portland Basin Tel 0161-308-3374
Military Bookworm, PO Box 235, London SE23 1NS
Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 2 Marlow Rd, Maiden Reach, Berks SL6 7DX

I apologise if any of these addresses are no longer current. Since writing this (in 1996), there will also be numerous sources available on the Internet (including possibly some of the above). Some others to try (no current addresses available):
Western Front Association (journal: "Stand To")
National Army Museum

List of illustrations

I plan to put some of the illustrations on this site, so watch this space. For a complete list of illustrations, please click here.

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