Tag Archives: Royal Horse Guards

23 October 1914

Today George wrote to Kittie from Dunkirk. It was his first letter to her for six days. ‘Dearest Mrs P.,’ he began, ‘I haven’t written, because there was nothing very gay to say.’ (See my posts of 29 August, 1 … Continue reading

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Kittie

Most unusually, Kittie Calderon appears not to have gone to stay with friends at all since George embarked for Belgium on 6 October. We know this because the envelopes of George’s letters show that her housekeeper, Elizabeth Ellis, did not … Continue reading

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21 October 1914

At four o’clock this morning the hospital train arrived in Dunkirk. George could not name the town in his letter to Kittie of 23 October, but we know from his letter of 15th that this was his destination. He heads … Continue reading

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20 October 1914: Hell breaks loose

This morning the Germans began an offensive along the whole northwestern front from La Bassée in France to the Belgian coast. The German 4th Army was closing in on Ypres from the north and east, the 6th Army from the … Continue reading

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Under distinguished protection

Probably this evening, Sunday 18 October 1914, at eight o’clock, Calderon, Fitzgerald and other sick and wounded left Ypres in another juddering ‘motor lorry’. They drove for four hours. For the last two Calderon had to ‘sit outside to help … Continue reading

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‘Rich gift of anger’ is roused

Calderon awoke this morning, Saturday 17 October 1914, ‘in a large comfortable double-bedded room, looking through tall windows into a big town square.’ He had breakfast in bed and ‘stayed there till eleven’. This afternoon he wrote to Kittie from … Continue reading

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Nuns fall for the Calderonian charm

The motor lorries arrived at 3 in the morning. Sick and wounded were put in; a pleurisy case; a man from our Brigade with rheumatic fever from our so-called ‘billets’. He had been lying two days in an ambulance wagon … Continue reading

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15 October 1914

On this day George wrote his next long letter to Kittie, ‘from a low estaminet by a muddy village wayside’. During the night Captain Fitzgerald of B Squadron had ‘dropped something heavy on his foot in the dark stables and … Continue reading

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They enter Ypres

Clearly the Blues were not the vanguard of the 3rd Cavalry Division on the march (this Division, incidentally, possessed only 12 field artillery pieces). That honour seems to have fallen to the Life Guards, who had a far more ‘interesting’ … Continue reading

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Blood is spilt

Presumably B Squadron of the 7th Cavalry Brigade of the Blues also bivouacked last night near Lendelede. Reveille this morning, Tuesday 13 October 1914, was at four, and two hours later the squadron was moving south again, towards Gullegem, where … Continue reading

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12 October 1914

From the Château […] we went on to what they were pleased to call a ‘billet’ in the country, but it was only a bivouack, except for myself, who, having a cold, slept in the kitchen on straw. The others … Continue reading

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Pause and enigma

The Calderon quotations that feature in my preceding two posts come from a letter George wrote to Kittie today, 11 October 1914, which was a Sunday. This was now the pattern: every few days he would write her a long … Continue reading

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10 October 1914

Up at 3.30 to go out on a Patrol with [Sergeant] Mackintosh, to see that the country was clear of Germans for the Regiment to move.  Out (with a little cocoa inside) between misty grey fields; very keen eyed at … Continue reading

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9 October 1914

The 3rd Cavalry Division had arrived in Belgium with a crack infantry force, the 7th Division.  The latter’s orders were to go to Antwerp, sixty miles away, to assist in its defence.  Little did they know that on the night … Continue reading

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8 October 1914

The transport ship ‘Huanchaco’ arrived at Zeebrugge at 5.30 this morning.  Mid-morning George wrote to Kittie that the voyage had been ‘much like other sea voyages; meals, tobacco, chat and a little music’, But down below something between a menagerie … Continue reading

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Darkness

By yesterday night the Blues had embarked at Southampton.  But the transport ships did not move, as there was suspected U-boat activity in the English Channel.  They may not have moved next day either, or they may have steamed eastwards … Continue reading

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