The Sights of War, October 1915

The Rev. Robert J Thomson served with the Black Watch and in 1915, he was sent straight to the front. In his words, he spent 5 days and nights getting 'a warm introduction to the war'. He, like many, received letters and parcels from home. In writing to Lady Clementine Waring to thank her for her parcel of knitted socks for his men, he describes his first impressions of life in the trenches.

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Page 1

Transcript page 1

The trench was
a shambles. But what can we
expect 'after the battle'?

My first Sunday in the trenches
was memorable. No sound of
church bell, not even an Angelus
trembled across the land - nothing
but the everlasting whizz of bullets
& the shriek of shrapnel & the
hurtling roar of Coal-boxes.
The sun shone beautifully, but on
what a sight! The ugliest of Ger-
man barbed wire rusted with
the blood of heroes; two dead bodies
entangled therein, their faces
masked in hideous smoke
helmets. There were two redeeming
points in the landscape - two

(Reproduced with kind permission of Sir Ilay Campbell, National Records of Scotland reference: GD372/87/12)

Page 2

Transcript page 2

that reminded us of something
other than the brutality of war.
Two red poppies grew out of the
side of the parapet, while a
church spire was silhouetted
against a golden sky away in
the South. I felt like plucking the
poppies and planting them be-
side the corpses among the wire.
What c[oul]d have been more sym-
bolical & fitting! The 'flower of
dreams' as Francis Simpson
calls the poppy.

I have been appointed bombing
officer for the battalion, & go on a
course of instruction next week.
I smile myself when I think of
the minister of Coldstream as
bombing officer for the 42nd, than
which everyone avers there is no
better regiment in the Army.

(Reproduced with kind permission of Sir Ilay Campbell, National Records of Scotland reference: GD372/87/12)

Glossary

Page 1 Coal-boxes: a shell burst or explosion causing a cloud of black smoke
Page 2 Francis Peacock Simpson was a poet and translator of Latin texts