Memories of action on the First World War front line

It was 1914, and nobody thought the war would last long. “People said it would be over by Christmas. That was the general feeling,” Mr Seymour told historian Dr Alf Peacock in a vivid recorded interview made many years later, in about 1980.

The teenage Charles stood only 5ft 2¼ inches tall – and regulations were that and you had to be 5ft 2½ to sign up. “So I got on to my toes to give me another quarter,” he said.

Despite the awful things Charles experienced in the war, the interview he gave to Dr Peacock makes for wonderful reading. There is horror, yes, but his story is also full of anecdotes about life in the trenches, and is characterised by the humour which the Tommies used to get by.

It was an exciting time, he said. “Everybody was very pent up with patriotism for the country and most of those volunteers went to get away from their environment. After a month in France we went into our sections, some in support, some in reserve. That’s how you used to work it in the trenches. We had to walk miles and then fight, then shoot, we were half dead before we started.

“Once I stood at the back of the parados, it had been built up from the earth. And we started to shave and a bullet went by my throat. A sniper had seen me, and missed me by a 16th of an inch. I should have been killed by that, and I felt it, the heat of that bullet.

On another occasion Mr Seymour said a gas shell exploded close to his chest.

He said: “I’d got my jacket open and I got blistered. It wasn’t enough to put me out, I got over it. Those people who were in the middle of it, where there was a density of gas, they suffocated, it fetched their insides out.

“One time I picked something up, a beautiful colt revolver, put it into my haversack and kept quiet about it. When we got out of the line I thoroughly cleaned it. It had five cartridges in the barrel. I took it into the line and I was quite cocky about this revolver, it was in beautiful condition. This sergeant was half asleep in the dugout and this sapper saw the revolver in my haversack.

He said, “Does it work? Let’s see it”.

“So I pulled the trigger, but I shot the sergeant right through his leg and he went straight back to England. And our officers, after they told me off, said: “Seymour if you shoot me in the leg I’ll give you 500 francs.”

He ended up being court-martialled for that escapade.

He said: “They sentenced me to ten days. But they were very sympathetic towards me and the captain gave me a ten franc note to buy myself some coffee sometime.”

The young Charles was in the battle of Loos, and here his narrative gets much darker. “It was a fearful place,” he said.

“I’ve seen thousands of our men laid right across the land as far as you could see. All dead. Dead men on the wire where the wire hadn’t been cut. 67,000 we lost in three weeks.

There were great big pit heaps at the back of the German lines. They had dug outs there and machine guns from these pit heaps. They’d got a marvellous range. They just shot us down like cattle.”

Cowards weren’t tolerated. They would get what was known as field punishment. “This fellow was spread-eagled on a wheel, and he was fastened on one of the general service wagons. His legs and hands were fastened by ropes and he was there for so many hours each day. It got very callous.”

He recalled at one point capturing a German sergeant major.

“There’d been a terrific bombardment of shells over our front line. It was about two in the morning. We kept our heads down and we weren’t hit. Then we heard somebody scuttling about in the front. I crawled out and I saw a chap fastened up in our wire. He’d thrown his equipment and his rifle away. So I grabbed hold of him and took him down to our headquarters. They sent him further back for information.”

After the war, Charles, a blacksmith’s son from Lincolnshire, went into tailoring. He eventually came to York and started his own business in Church Street in 1950. After his death in 1983, his son Richard continued the business, which is now in Bootham.

But Charles himself lives on vividly through his interview with Dr Peacock.

It is one of hundreds of interviews with First World War veterans recorded by the historian.

Now members of the York Oral History Society are transcribing many of them, especially those featuring men from the York area, with the aim of producing a book and exhibition this summer to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War.

The names of the veterans Dr Peacock interviewed whose stories are likely to be included in the book and exhibition are listed in a panel on these pages.

The Oral History Society is keen to hear from relatives of these men. Van Wilson of the Oral History Society said: “We want to trace relatives in order to give them a copy of the recording and also to get photos.”

If any of the men listed are relatives of yours, and if you have photos you’d be prepared to share, do get in touch.

There is a deadline of March if you want to make sure your relative’s photo can be included. Van said: “It would be very disappointing all round if people come to us later and say they have photos but it’s too late to include them.”

• To contact the society, email contact@yorkhistory.org.uk or phone Van on 01904 630970.

Pictures sought of war veterans

First World War veterans interviewed by Dr Peacock whose stories are likely to be included in the York Oral History Society's forthcoming book and exhibition (all from York unless otherwise stated): Arthur Abel (Easingwold), George Barker (Pocklington), Hawksworth (known as Oxy) Barker (Pocklington), Arthur Britton, Johnny Buckle (Cawood), Arthur Bull, Miss Hilda Carr (Wheldrake), Harold Carson, George Clark, Jim Cowling (Raskelf), Herbert Cussons, Thomas Flint (Pocklington), Horace Frost, Arthur Gladwin, Bill Hairsine (Wheldrake), Gaythorn Kettlewell, Archie and Sarah Kirk, Bill Kitching, Harry Locke, Edwin Lofthouse, Len Lovell, Ned Lovely, Paddy McLoughlin, Dick Mills, Harry Mills, Angus Peake, John Pratt, Hugh Price, Charles Richardson, (Pocklington), Tom Richardson, Stan Robson (Pocklington), Norman Rogers, Robert Rose, Arthur Rosewarne, Tom Scott, William Simms, Dick Smith, Len Steele, (Helperby), Fred Syson, Clarence Ward, Colonel Innes-Ware (one time York coroner), Jim Watters, John Yates, Herbert Young.