![\"Mostyn](\"http:\/\/blogs-new.it.ox.ac.uk\/runcoco\/files\/2013\/09\/MostynWilliams-212x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Mostyn Williams. Added to the http:\/\/europeana1914-1918.eu collection by Sue Worringham [CC BY-SA]<\/p><\/div>98 years ago today, 3 September 1915, Mostyn Williams, a private of the A Company, 11th<\/sup> Batt., \u2018The Welsh\u2019 Regiment, picked up his pen and started recording his experiences of active service during the First World War.<\/p>\n \u00a0First entry: September 3rd<\/sup> 1915 He was shipped to France the following day, and later to the Balkans. For over two years he documented his life at the front in brief but poignant daily entries. He writes about daily routines, training and leisure among the horrors of war, offering us an insight into what life at the front could be like.<\/p>\n June 9th<\/sup> 1917 Williams records both mundane and special events with a similar degree of detachment. He rarely voices negative thoughts or feelings, other than stating that he is tired, thirsty, or wet. That makes the entries where he does allow himself to express his horror all the more affecting:<\/p>\n September 13th, 1916 Living under hard and testing conditions, Williams nevertheless manages to see and the positive, usually in a curt and unsentimental fashion, which in some ways makes these entries all the more moving:<\/p>\n January 16th<\/sup> 1916,\u00a0 Sunday In September 1917, just over three years after joining up and after two years of life at the front, Williams is seriously wounded:<\/p>\n September 23nd<\/sup> 1917 Sunday (entry re-created afterwards, as noted in his diary) He is initially treated locally, and after about a month sent by hospital ship to Malta, where he spends another two months before returning to the UK in early January 1918. After a short convalescence in hospital he can go home on leave on January 21 1918.<\/p>\n After that, the diary only contains a few short notes about the following year in Williams\u2019s life. He is back on duty, but remains in the UK. The last entry, from February 1919, simply states:<\/p>\n 8.2.19 In his diary entries, Williams often spells out the names of people and places. This means that it may now be possible for us plot his whereabouts on a map, compare his notes to those of others\u2019, or find more information about his fellow soldiers.<\/p>\n September 7th<\/sup>1915 The diary contains an appendix, where Williams lists various locations with short descriptions (presumably added after the war). Also included are a few poems written by Williams while on active service.<\/p>\n Little ole tin \u2018at<\/span><\/p>\n Blimey! \u2018ow I\u2019ve cussed \u2018im But when there\u2019s somethin\u2019 doin\u2019 M.W. 8\/7\/17<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The notebooks in which Mostyn Williams wrote his diary have been transcribed by his granddaughter Sue Worringham, who also added the material to the Europeana 1914-1918 community collection site http:\/\/europeana1914-1918.eu<\/a> . She writes about Williams: \u201cHe survived the war but was never a well man afterwards and died in 1935, leaving 3 daughters.\u201d<\/p>\n To explore the diary further, go to http:\/\/europeana1914-1918.eu\/en\/contributions\/5910<\/a>. Many more stories and objects relating to the period of First World War, shared by people across the World, can be found at http:\/\/europeana1914-1918.eu<\/a>.<\/p>\n Europeana 1914-1918 is a community collection run by Europeana, Europe\u2019s digital archive, library and museum, based on an initiative at the University of Oxford. Thousands of stories and images from across the World can be freely explored and re-used at http:\/\/europeana1914-1918.eu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 98 years ago today, 3 September 1915, Mostyn Williams, a private of the A Company, 11th Batt., \u2018The Welsh\u2019 Regiment, picked up his pen and started recording his experiences of active service during the First World War. \u00a0First entry: September … Continue reading
\nIn army 1 year. Preparing kit for departure.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nEnemy plane over at dawn, flying very low & firing machine gun into our camps, 4 killed, 10 wounded. Cold shower at R.A.M.C. bath house, getting quite clean.
\n10th<\/sup> Sunday
\nWindy & inclined to rain, bath at R.A.M.C, lazed about for remainder of day.
\n11th<\/sup>
\nCoy. drill & general parades, very warm.
\n12th<\/sup>
\nWork on communication trench past control post, much aerial activity, one anti-aircraft H.E. dropped very near us while working.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nPrussians in huge numbers counterattack, we played havoc with our shrapnel but eventually had to retire, saw many of our boys wiped out with machine guns, wounded limping back to our trenches under murderous shrapnel fire, many ghastly scenes, too horrible to record.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nThawing, first butter for 2 months, wonderful moonlight effect on snow.
\n17th<\/sup>
\nLovely day. Bob ill.
\n18th<\/sup>
\nLovely day, good louse.
\n19th<\/sup>
\nOrderly.
\n20th<\/sup>
\nBuilding trench all day.
\n21st<\/sup>
\nSame old job, cold.
\n22nd<\/sup>
\nDitto<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nEnemy send over T.M.s into our trenches. Went on right post again at night. Bulgars send down party to bomb post. They landed one bomb amongst us, wounded me in the abdomen & thigh. Had a terrible journey down to F.A., spent the night there & was taken in motor to 31st<\/sup> Clearing Station at Janis. Operated on immediately. The first 7 days were terrible, great pain & continuous injections of morphia, but after this period became much better.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nDraft of \u00a34.10 from Pay office.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nArrived at Longneau, detrained and marched 9 miles through Amiens to Bertangle, billeted in barn in yard of fine old chateau. Fine orchard, plenty fruit, water scarce, mostly unfit to drink.
\n9th<\/sup>
\n1915 Physical and inspection in morning. Short route march in afternoon. Billy Coutts accidentally killed by machine gun. Concert in barn, good. Charlie Chaplin.
\n10th<\/sup> Sunday
\nTrench digging. Billy Coutts buried, very nice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
\nWhen the batts been on the trek,
\nAn\u2019 \u2018e\u2019s \u2018anging like a millstone,
\nAround yer bleedin\u2019 neck,
\nFoe e\u2019s stickin\u2019 like a limpet
\nUnderneath yer steadying straps,
\nAnd yer says \u201cAnother bloomin\u2019 mile,
\nAnd I\u2019ll bleedin\u2019 well collapse\u201d
\nAnd now perhaps yer wondering,
\nWhy the \u2018ell I chew the fat
\nWell I\u2019m only just referrin\u2019
\nTo me little ole tin \u2018at.<\/p>\n
\nAn\u2019 yer in yer fightin\u2019 kit
\nAnd yer creeps behind the barrage
\nJust to give ole fritz a fit,
\nThen the sudden death is flyi\u2019
\nIn big \u2018andfuls through the air
\nWhen the coalboxes is bustin\u2019,
\nAn\u2019 there\u2019s shrapnel everywhere,
\nWhen ole Jim Death is stalking
\n\u2019Mongst the boys of the ole batt,
\nThere\u2019s many blokes says \u201cThank yer\u201d,
\nTo their little ole tin \u2018at.<\/p>\n
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