Soldiers with gas masks in the First World War
In spite of their superiors, the soldiers of the First World War crossed enemy lines and made an informal truce on Christmas Eve 1914.
“There we were, laughing and talking to men who, just hours before, we were trying to kill.”
This surprising passage is part of a collection of stories from World War I soldiers that shed light on the famous Christmas Truce of 1914.
Maude Alice Lineham worked as a volunteer nurse in Derby and Leicester during the 1914-18 conflict, when she encouraged wounded servicemen to write about their experiences.
The album he gathered includes poems, thoughts, memories, drawings of around 90 people and a piece of the white flag.
A teacher before the war, Lineham worked at Spondon House Hospital in Derby, Derbyshire Royal Infirmary (DRI) and Leicester Royal Infirmary.
Your album includes first-hand account of Corporal John J. Ferguson, of the Second Seaforth Highlanders Regiment, who at Christmas 1914 found himself in a flooded trench at Messines, Belgium.
Upon noticing a pause in the shooting, Corporal Ferguson wrote that the soldiers started singing Christmas carolswhich provoked applause from the enemy forces.
This turned into shouting greetings and then invitations to a meeting.
“They headed towards the light and, when we got closer, we saw that he had a flashlight in his hand”, he said.
“We shook hands, we wished each other a Merry Christmas and soon we were talking like old friends, standing in front of their barbed wire fences and surrounded by Germans.
“What a sight! Small groups of Germans and British stretched almost the entire length of our front.”
“Out of the darkness came laughter and conversations, lit cigarettes and the flash of matches.
“Germans and soldiers from the Seventh Regiment lighting each other’s cigarettes and exchanging memories… there we were, laughing and talking to men who, just hours before, we were trying to kill.”
One page in the album shows a fragment of a white German surrender flag.
Sergeant Jones, of the 1/5th King’s Liverpool Regiment, wrote: “A piece of a white German flag… the flag was withdrawal to a prisoner who surrendered with another 120 in Festubert [França] on May 17, 1915 to the British.”
The album also highlights that lives were lost far from the trenches.
On November 17, 1915, the ship Anglia, carrying 390 wounded soldiers from Calais to Dover, struck a mine. It sank in 15 minutes and 134 men died.
An account by C. Gordon of the 9th King’s Royal Fusiliers describes the chaos.
“All lifeboats were full of menthe men who were down.
“No one seemed to give instructions. No one seemed to know what to do.
“The ship’s crew was nowhere. The men in the lifeboats didn’t know how to lower them,” he said.
Not all the notes are sad – JM Hockney wrote on 30 June 1917: “In memory of happy days, many choirs etc., with Miss VAD Lineham at the piano, surrounded by her noisy boys.”
Lineham died in 1965 without leaving any close family and it is believed that the album was found during professional cleaning of a house.
