Robin Braysher

Soles of boots were tied on with rags

Although women who had served in Salonika – in whatever capacity – were eligible to join the SRA from the very start, they didn’t gain their own specific section in The Mosquito until September 1931 (issue 15), with Eileen Moore’s ‘Woman’s Page’. Later, this was expanded to ‘Women’s Pages’ and continued for the rest of The Mosquito’s long existence. So it was only right and proper that the final issue in May 1969 – a longer, glossier souvenir album, entitled Salonika Memories 1915-1919 – included it’s own ‘Women’s Pages’. By now this was edited by Miss N. M. Simcox. In her final editorial, she had this to say:

Handbags At Dawn!

“What did you do in the Great War, Daddy?”

“Well, when I wasn’t fighting Johnny Bulgar I dressed up as a lady … it was a tough job, but someone ‘ad to do it!”

Remembering Great Uncle David and 11/Welsh

It was five o’clock in the morning on the edge of hell. Captain Jimmy Eynon looked up through the goggles of his gas mask at Grande Couronne, cursed savagely, and kicked a rugby ball high into the air. Before it fell, a Welshman had been shot to pieces … and another … and another.
from ‘Now the Agony!’ by Gareth Bowen in ‘The South Wales Echo‘, 1964

William Richmond and 10/Black Watch (4)

William Richmond was demobbed in 1919; his medal index card in The National Archives shows that he entered the ‘Class Z Reserve’ on Valentine’s Day. This allowed him to return to civilian life, but there was an obligation to ‘return to the colours’ if necessary, an obligation which was not abolished until 31 March 1920. The card also shows that he was eligible for the famous trio of Great War campaign medals known as Pip, Squeak and Wilfred, named after cartoon characters: the 1914/15 Star (for his service overseas before 31 December 1915), the British War Medal and Victory Medal.

William Richmond and 10/Black Watch (3)

In January 1918 General Headquarters (GHQ) in Salonika felt the need to issue memoranda reminding commanders of formations that they were responsible for the efficiency of their units and for the training of all officers and men in them. In certain technical fields training had to be done at army schools but, generally, the purpose of these schools was to support units by training the trainers who would share, what we would now call ‘best practice’, within them. By this time GHQ Salonika had a number of schools under its control, covering subjects such as infantry training, artillery, signals, the Lewis Gun and anti-gas precautions. A School of Physical and Bayonet Training was also set up, with an Assistant Superintendent authorised by the War Office to coordinate and supervise this training, with a staff of 10 NCOs from the Army Gymnastic Staff (Official History vol. 2, chap. III). Our next sight of William Richmond is as a student at this School.

William Richmond and 10/Black Watch (2)

On Burn’s Night (25 January) I introduced William Richmond who, at the age of 20, enlisted in the 10th (Service) Battalion of the Royal Highland Regiment (Black Watch) on 11 September 1914. After finding themselves in various English camps during 1915 and spending two months in France the Battalion, with the rest of 26th Division, started heading off for Salonika – via Marseille – in November 1915.

A lost world …

Although the White Tower would have been familiar, my late grandfather would not have recognised modern Thessaloniki – the vibrant Greek city rebuilt after the great fire of 1917 and developed in the decades after that. To him and other members of the British Salonika Force who passed through it was very much an eastern city – not always remembered fondly – populated by a multiplicity of different peoples. Notable among the inhabitants was the strong Jewish community, but the fire of 1917, subsequent upheavals and the appalling events of the Holocaust changed the city forever.

William Richmond and 10/Black Watch (1)

Happy Burn’s Night to all our Scottish readers – wherever you are in the world – and all those Sassenachs who, like me, enjoy nothing more than tucking into a haggis with ‘neeps and tatties’, washed down with a ‘wee dram’!

This seems an ideal occasion to celebrate one of the Scottish units of the British Salonika Force – 10th (Service) Battalion, Royal Highlanders (Black Watch). Formed in Perth in 1914 the Battalion joined 26th Division (77th Brigade) and soon found itself far from the Highlands: on Salisbury Plain, in Bristol and Sutton Veny in Wiltshire. In September 1915 it sailed for France but, after just two months, it was off to Salonika where it remained until returning to the Western Front in June 1918.

That song!

As I suspected, the song that Andy gave us on 7 January – Salonika – has been going round and round in my head. It’s also been leading me down various rabbit holes on the internet. The lyrics are available on a range of websites, alongside some very earnest discussions about the meaning of the song, including some rather fanciful descriptions of the role of Salonika in the First World War: a supply base for the Gallipoli campaign. Really?

Salonika on the Wireless

I imagine BBC Radio Three’s long-running programme ‘Composer of the Week’ has looked at English composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams and his career, many times. I remember listening to a previous episode some time ago and being irritated as his First World War army service was glossed over and no mention made of his time with the BSF. I am pleased to say, though, that last week’s series – A Vaughan Williams Christmas – mentions Christmas 1916 which he spent beneath Mount Olympus with his 60th Division Field Ambulance unit. You can listen to the programme for a while longer online here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001t9yp

Although Vaughan Williams apparently noted down Greek tunes, none is played in the programme, but you do get performances of his lovely seasonal music and symphonies, plus a full performance of his much-loved The Lark Ascending.

I can only think of one way to finish this post and that is with this Greek Christmas tune, which has featured in previous Christmas posts and featured in Aladdin in Macedonia – the first of the 85th Field Ambulance pantomimes: