Wed 9
Packed up. Bed at 12.30.
Thurs 10.
Up at 1.0! cleared up & marched off 3.30 Train started 5.20. Had a sleep in train which stopped in cutting near Gunnersbury. Suddenly heard the family whistle and down the embankment came Father. Father, Mother, Pusey (W.H.H. was troop Sergeant) Hot coffee and fruit. He had found out that our train was to stop!
SS Ionian
Arrived Southampton 1.0. Left about 10 Blew my horn with great success & appreciation Saw the horse shed with Ralph Barnett in charge. Cant think how they got the horses on or how they will survive with hot pipe running along just above their heads
Search lights everywhere.
The ship was Allen Line “Ionian“1. Cram full
Sept 11.
Hung about near Eddestone Lighthouse while the convoy collected. 13 ships. Our guard was “The Minerva”2 and “Ocean”3 got going 6.20. Lot of men sick. Inoculation which made me feel very ill.
Sept 17.
Gibraltar. Got my horn out. Blew to find which was Ralph4 and the horses. Immediate response. Head came out of port hole and feet following. As we left I did the same [blew horn] and the capt from bridge said “Young man. Stop those war whoops” as he could not hear what was being said to him on the bridge. The O.C5 one horse boat said he would take no responsibility if his boat came into harbour & stopped. No ventilation for the horses.
Sept 18
Was learning semaphore on deck when I saw The Minerva semaphoring to our bridge. I was able to read NDRS & thinking it was code stopped taking interest. Soon after Serg Dibden our man on duty came & said he had a message for me
“All well. Viola endorses this.” Remarkable of father to have got the message and I had read the NDRS of “endorses”. All thro all the messages that must have been passing in the air! Managed to avoid a party the Col. had got up. He sang a hunting song & forgot the words.
Very hot and the various things thought up to occupy the men were not much use.
19th 20th 21st 22nd 23rd 24th
Travelling on. Dull, parade lectures. I was giving one on parts of the horse when I should have been talking about “outposts”. Got into trouble with Archie. Some of the men with terrible arms from inoculation Arnold Ward took to lying down & sleeping where the next parade was to be so as to be seen to be awake in time!
Disembarking at Alexandria
Sept 25
Arrived Alexandria. Proper scramble getting every thing off the ship on to train. Heat. One black chap alone carried W.H.H.’s horse saddle box. Coaling on so we all got filthy. Train left 9.20.
I can’t think who arranged about our food. I see we had tinned tongue rolls for dinner at midnight!
Sept 26
Abbasia Barracks 1914 – 15
Arrived Abbassia 4.30 a.m. Splendid place but 30 in rooms for 20. Some 3rd D.Gs6 still there. Rest gone to France. Food in the remains of their mess. Our horse arrived in awful state. Men’s barracks crammed with bed bugs. Horse temporarily tied in open to buried sand bags. Nobody told off to feed them. We were shown our Arabs [horses]. Mine to be all grey. Seemed very small indeed. We were taken round them and given description “Dangerous “ Dangerous in rank, stables, etc. All with manes, tails on. I was told off to take a party (65 men) down to station to fetch more horses Arrived & ordered by train midnight. Train did not arrive till 2.0. Awful sight. Legs enormously swollen. Cuts. One horse with her tail all stripped. Took them up to Abbassia. No proper arrangements for feeding or watering. Horses all over the place charging about. 4.30 a.m.
Westminster Dragoons arrived and one Sqdn D.L.O’s all to be crammed in.
Sept 28.
A day of settling in & arranging who to ride what. 22 in one stable. Splendid lofty building with natives to muck out. “Arms” for each saddle behind the stalls. Straw at night. Crushed barley and green stuff called burseem [sic berseem] a sort of clover.
Chaff made of barley straw. Ralph Barnett arrived off his home boat. Only 16 dead out of 508. Mostly pneumonia. 30 horses to one man during the journey. Attempted to exercise the horses. Very fresh and so many were about it was a proper muddle. Stallions mostly all squealing about The men extremely inadequate to cope. If you let two stallions nose each other a fight starts at once
Notes:
1 SS Ionian built by Workman, Clark & Co Ltd in Belfast. Launched 12th September 1901. She had accommodation for 131 first class, 160 second class and 800 in steerage. It was initially based in Liverpool travelling to Canada and back. It later worked out of Glasgow to Canada/USA. In 1914 it became a troop ship. On 21st October 1917 it was sunk by a mine off Milford Haven with the loss of seven lives. Cf: http://www.norwayheritage.com/p_ship.asp?sh=ionia
2 HMS Minerva A light cruiser/old 2nd class cruiser, Eclipse Class. Launched 23rd September, 1895. cf: http://www.naval-history.net/OWShips-WW1-05-HMS_Minerva.htm
3 HMS Ocean was a battleship of Canopus Class. Launched at Chathtam on 5th July 1898 and completed February 1900. It sank in Dardanelles at 22.30 on 18th March 1915 having been dmaged by gunfire and hit by a floating mine. Cf: http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/hms_ocean1.htm
4 Lieutenant Ralph Francis Barnett (1882 – ?) of A Squadron was in charge of the regiment’s horses which sailed in the S.S. Messaba. Five ships transported 3,000 horses. Barnett was appointed Lieutenant A Squadron, Hertfordshire Yeomanry, 1st February 1914. Served 1st/1st Hertfordshire Yeomanry August 1914 – August 1918 (A Squadron – Egypt, Gallipoli, Temporary Captain 28th August 1915)
5 O.C. Officer Commanding
6 3rd Dragoon Guards had been recalled to England in September 1914 and thence transferred to France at the end of October
HALS Reference: D/EYO/2/131
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