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[MONCREIFF (Major Richard Henry Fitzherbert, TD]
Journal of an "Edinburgh Mountaineer" 1914-1919.
Unpublished memoirs: 78+4pp., 4to, dup. typescript (23,000 words approx.)
#67032
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![[HLMainPic]](booksThumbs/67032.jpg "Click on the left or right of the image for more images")
Unpublished WW1 memoirs of service with 9th (TF) Bn. Royal Scots. Monreiff was an Edinburgh accountant & pre-war TF officer, mobilised in 1914 as "G" company commander (under the eight company system then prevailing); this Coy. became "C" in due course & Moncreiff commanded it it at second Ypres & an attack at High Wood on 23rd July 1916 when he was wounded. He describes working up for overseas service then the Western Front from February 1915. A lasting impression was bathing at the first billets, at Abeele, in Flanders: "A large tub filled with greasy hot water, heated in the men's dixies & four officers using it in turn, right in the middle of the kitchen floor, as almost too much for the succession of farm hand spectators, as indeed for the bathers themselves. George & I, with our usual magnaminity, waived our seniority, & we solemnly drew lots. I was second. Poor old Don was last & his rueful face was very funny as he sat on the edge wondering if after all it was quite worth while." Not long afterwards more serious events took place: "And now we come to the famous 23rd April. For two or three days the Boche had been shelling Ypres very heavily, and on the 22nd they were coming in hot & strong all day. The town was burning fiercely, & we could see great columns of smoke going up. Late in the afternoon we got the order to stand by & packed our valises... The stream of refugees, old men, women & children, staggering under the load... half crazed with despair & terror, was one of the most pitiful & pathetic sights I have ever seen... Later came bands of 'Turcos' all more or less suffering from gas poisoning..." In the afternoon of the 23rd April the 9th Royal Scots counter-attacked near St. Jean, Moncreiff led "C" Coy. into battle: "We set off in two lines, or waves, with two platoons in each, I myself going with the first line... We advanced up a long slope & eventually came to a ridge looking across a small valley. The Boche was in force on the opposite ridge, & as soon as we came over the crest we began to come under long range rifle & machine gun for... having a lot of men hit, mostly wounded fortunately..." The writer survived this event but in July he was injured while horse riding & evacuated to England. When he returned to the Front in March 1916, now a Major, he alternated between commanding "C" Coy. & acting as second-in-command. He commanded his company in the attack at High Wood on 23rd July 1916, when he was wounded: "I was hit by shell fire in the neck, shoulder & very slightly in the face & left hand... I collapsed into a shell hole, where was another wounded warrior, & we bandaged each other up..." He returned to France for a third time in 1917 but this time his service there was fairly brief & uneventful & he was posted to the War Officer as a staff captain in the AG's Branch, where he ended the war. This account was evidently written for this wife during 1918-1919; this copy, which is numbered 3, is a carbon typescript with a number of small ink corrections to the text, in contemp. blue binder's cloth with gilt title to sp. VG. See illustrations on our website.
£465
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