WELCOME TO "NEWS CLIPPINGS" (R N D)
OF THE GREAT WAR.............
AND THE ODD POEM OR 2,
AS THE TITLE INFERS THIS PAGE WILL SHOW HOW THEY WERE SEEN BY THE HOME POPULATION PHOTOS WILL BE INCLUDED WHERE POSSIBLE..............
THE ORIGINAL NEWSPAPER CUTTING ABOVE AND BELOW
WAS 12.6 CM BY 6.5 CM THATS ROUGHLY, 5 INCHES BY 2
AND A HALF INCHES IN OLD MONEY
ON THE LEFT IS A NEWSPAPER ARTICLE FROM A LONDON ,
NEWSPAPER FROM 1917,
ITS BEEN ENLARGED TO MAKE IT CLEARER,
IT DOES SHOW SOMETHING THAT PEOPLE WERNT AWARE OF BACK THEN, UN LIKE I AM TODAY, THE FACT IS THAT THE R N D INTERNEES SUFFERED THE SAME PRIVATIONS AS THE DUTCH POPULATION THEY CAUGHT AND DIED FROM THE SAME DISEASES,
SUFFERED THE SAME HARDSHIPS AS THE DUTCH, IT WASNT A NORMAL TYPE OF INCARSERATION.
THE PHOTO ABOVE SHOWS ,
ADELPHI TERRACE .W.C.2 IN LONDON,
IN,THE EARLY 1930S ,
THAT IS THE SAME STREET ADDRESS ,
AS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE NEWS CLIPPING,
THE IMAGE DIRECTLY BELOW, SHOWS THAT PUBLIC FEELING TO DEMOLISHING ,
OLD HEIGHBOUR HOODS IS NOTHING NEW,
AS IN 1936 THE STREET WAS STILL DEMOLSHED,
WHEN YOU READ SOME NEWSPAPER ARTICLES , IN FACT ALL,
NEWSPAPER ARTICLES , YOU ARE REALLY ONLY GETTING ONE PERSONS,
VIEW AS THEY SEE IT, OR AN EDITORS VIEW OF THE FACTS,
AND CENSORSHIP, CAN ALSO PLAY A PART IN THE WAY AN ARTICLE IS WRITTEN,
TAKE 2 REPORTS FROM A 1917 PAPER,
SEEN ABOVE
ONE ON DR BARNARDOS HOMES,
AND THE SECOND ON,
" A REPORT ON THE" BREAD FUND FOR ,PRISIONERS OF WAR,"
TRYING TO EXPLAIN, ABOUT THE RND INTERNMENT OF A NUMBER OF THE R N D IN HOLLAND MIGHT HAVE BEEN DIFFICULT , AS TO THE HOMEFRONT READERS " INTERNMENT"
WOULD SEEM THE SAME AS BEING A POW.
ANOTHER INTERESTING THING ABOUT OLD NEWS CLIPPINGS IS WHAT IS ON,
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PAGE,
AND IN THIS CASE ITS QUITE VARIED,
FROM CENSORSHIP OF PAMPHLETS
AND A REPORT ON PALESTINE (NOWADAYS ISRAEL),
TO A REPORT ON A TANK STATIONED IN TRAFALGAR SQUARE AS PART OF A FUNDRAISING DRIVE..............................
Today the 27-04-2021 i received in the post
incontravertible proof that the Remaining,
/reformed Battalions were activly involved
in collecting the said funds, this proof comes in the form of a RPPC showing members of the 4th Battalion Based at Crystal palace,
with a totals board in front of them ,also of note is they still are following the naval traddition of having a ships cat ,
to keep the rats etc down
ALTHOUGH NOT A NEWSPAPER CLIPPING ,
THIS LITTLE DITTY BELOW WAS WRITTEN AT THE TIME AND ,
THROUGH THEIR RATHER BLUNT AND TO THE POINT SENSE HUMOUR,
IT SHOWS THEIR UTTER CONTEMPT FOR Major General
Shute IN SO MUCH AS THEY WERE STILL NAVY WITH ALL THAT THAT INVOLVES , HE TRIED UNSUCCESSFULLY TO MAKE THEM MORE ARMY I.E RANKS ORDERS ETC , BUT THEY STOICLY REFUSED ALL ATTEMPTS
Just prior to the fighting on the Ancre, in OCTOBER 1916,
the division received a new commanding officer after Major General Archibald Paris was wounded, Major General Cameron Shute, appointed on 17 October 1916. General Shute had an intense dislike for the unconventional "nautical" traditions of the division and made numerous unpopular attempts to stamp them out. Following a particularly critical inspection of the trenches by General Shute, an officer of the division, Sub-Lieutenant A. P. Herbert, later to become a famous humorous writer, legal satirist and Member of Parliament, penned a popular poem that summed up the feelings of the men of the RND
The General inspecting the trenches
Exclaimed with a horrified shout
'I refuse to command a division
Which leaves its excreta about.'
But nobody took any notice
No one was prepared to refute,
That the presence of shit was congenial
Compared to the presence of Shute.
And certain responsible critics
Made haste to reply to his words
Observing that his staff advisors
Consisted entirely of turds.
For shit may be shot at odd corners
And paper supplied there to suit,
But a shit would be shot without mourners
If somebody shot that shit Shute.
