A stretcher-bearer’s blood-stained armband and graphic descriptions of trench warfare have brought back the horrors of the First World War.
The century-old find of a cotton armband splashed with blood has been made by Hansons Auctioneers. Worn by Private Frank Pye, it was discovered with his wartime diaries capturing life in the 1/1 East Lancashire Field Ambulance during the 1914-18 conflict. He recorded ‘heartbreaking’ scenes in three pocket notebooks. And, though the pencil marks are fading, his first-hand observations are legible.
The harrowing diaries act as a reminder of the devastation suffered by a generation of men in the Great War, according to Hansons Auctioneers which uncovered the military collection. It includes a scarce copy of trench magazine The Pannier, wartime Christmas cards, military documents, photos and a poem by Frank for his brother-in-law, 2nd Lt Reginald Smallwood of the 5th Battalion Cheshire Regiment who was killed in action in 1917. It reads:
‘Brother of mine, I’m sad at heart,
Though proud to think you played your part
Far from your home you fought so well,
And bravely fighting, nobly fell
Here in fair France vale you lie
But souls like yours, they never die
in God’s fair mansions they go to reign
In God I trust shall meet you again’
Head of Hansons Militaria Matt Crowson said: “It’s a fascinating and poignant collection. It really brings home the brutality of war, particularly Frank’s Army Medical Service stretcher-bearer’s armband. The cotton is soiled with dirt and splashed with blood from the trenches more than 100 years ago, a grisly testament to the horrors witnessed.
“He saw death and destruction on a scale most of us find hard to comprehend, or even think about, inflicted on both sides. For example, he described seeing German soldiers hit by British shells, and that ‘again a terrible sight met my eyes, men blown clean in half’.”
Frank, who was born in 1882 in Royston, Yorkshire, enlisted as part of the Territorial Force with the 1/1 East Lancs Field Ambulance on April 7, 1913, aged 31. He entered WW1 on September 28, 1914, in Egypt, initially as a cook. Later he became a stretcher bearer for B section.
One entry reads: ‘I saw a lot of small balloons going over the German lines. I enquired what they were and was told they were containing messages and photos of Germans lying dead and starving’.
It goes on to say: ‘Each day was very quiet and everything going on alright all and all merry and bright until the 27th when two of my commanders were killed whilst bandaging another comrade up who had been hit in the head. The names of the two killed was Hastley and Rathbone and the others wounded Walton’.
An entry from 5/9/1917 states: ‘In the early hours of the morning our guns started a starvation barrage and the noise was deafening and any amount of wounded kept pouring in day and night – it was simply heartbreaking and a sight I shall never forget. We stayed in the firing line for 11 days and on the morning of the 11th at 1:15am we left the White Chateau for Ypres and directly we got on the road…..dropped mustard gas shells each side of us and heavy lyddite as well and the gas hung around us like a fog, but all went well until we strayed off the road owing to not being able to see with our masks on. I fell down a hole and an overhanging tree caught my mask and I was hanging by it and I had to slip my mask off and in doing so I got a bad dose of gas and it made me very ill for a day or two’.
Another entry reads: ‘On the morning of 17/7/18 a German plane was brought down about 200 yards from my cookhouse… It was a huge thing, it was brought down by machine gun fire. A bullet went right through his petrol tank. There were three men in it and when they dropped they set fire to it and it was burnt to bits’.
Mr Crowson said: “Though not part of the collection set for auction, Pte Pye would have been entitled to the 1915 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal and Silver War Badge, the latter on account of his discharge on February 12, 1919, when he was no longer fit for military service. It’s hardly surprising his time in the military had to end but at least he survived. His diaries provide an important first-hand account documenting what millions of men endured a century ago.”
Auction: Pte Frank Pye’s military collection will be offered in Hansons Auctioneers’ August 7 Medals and Militaria Auction. Further entries invited.
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