Tag Archives: September 1916

I should like to write a book…

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By the end of the previous day his movement orders had come through: he now knew that he was being sent to join the 9th East Surreys – and he was leaving the very next morning.

Movement Orders

He wrote to his mother during his journey – while lying in a field enjoying the beautiful weather. They had spent a couple of hours on the train that morning, alighting at midday. And, since the next part of the journey wasn’t due to begin until 7:00 that evening, there was nothing much to do but lounge around and enjoy the sunshine. He coiuldn’t tell his mum where he was, nor where he was going, but he did tell her that he had seen much on his way to interest him. ‘I should like to write a book about it one day, if I can’, he wrote.

[Next letters: 2 October]

I can hardly believe I am in France

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At 9:30 on the morning of Thursday 28 September, Sherriff and his mother sat together in the Charing Cross station buffet drinking coffee. They had travelled up together from Hampton Wick to Waterloo, and taken a taxi across the river, and now they made small talk until it was time for him to leave on the 10 o’clock boat train. A few years later he recalled that after the train left and  ‘went round the bend, we saw hundreds of little white handkerchieves fluttering on the platform.’

The station in Folkestone was close to the quay. The officers were helped with their valises and within twenty minutes everyone was on board and the ship ready to set sail for Boulogne. img_0029They arrived at 2 o’clock, after ‘a very nice, smooth journey across,’ as he wrote to his mother later that day.

After arriving, he and the other East Surrey men found their way to the British Officers’ Club, where they had dinner, prior to a stroll round the town. ‘I can hardly believe I am in France,’ he wrote. ‘It seems just like a Cinematograph picture to see the gendarmes in baggy trousers walking about  and porters in blue overalls.’ But there wasn’t much time to linger:  at 5:30 that evening (as he told his father) they were due to catch another train, for their onward journey – ‘I expect to the base.’ That would be an eye-opener for him…

[Next letter: 29 September]

Orders for France

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On Monday 25 September 1916, Sherriff, still stationed with the 3rd East Surreys at the Grand Shaft Barracks in Dover, was called into the Orderly Room along with six other officers. The Assistant Adjutant told them that they were to catch the train from Charing Cross to France on the Thursday morning, and that they could proceed on leave at once.

He was anxious, of course, but relieved to finally be going abroad. Several of his old school-friends and work colleagues had already been posted to France, and some, he knew, would not be coming back. He felt it was time for him to do his bit, but he intended to make the most of the few remaining hours at home. After receiving his travel warrant he rushed straight back to his home in Hampton Wick, and spent the next two days walking with his mother or with his father – in the country lanes near his home, along the river, or through Bushy Park in the moonlight. 

On the Wednesday he got his kit together, so that there would be no last-minute rush the next morning: he was due to catch the 10:00 o’clock train, and wanted to avoid spoiling ‘the tranquility of the final moments at home.’ With his kit packed, all that was left was to enjoy his final walks, and to try to avoid dwelling too much on what awaited him across the Channel.