Captain Briggs Memoir - Entry #4
Mar 27 - 31st, 1916
Mar 27, 1916
Stung. Thought I would get to the actual front in a few weeks but now know that it will be months before I can get there. There are more doctors here than they need; also find out that a scuttle of coal costs nine pence & our room is cold.
Mar 31, 1916
Capt Pratt & I got leave and went to London. It was a night of a Zeppelin raid & we were eleven hours getting there. At London found Hotel Cecil full, also the Savoy, so went over to the Waldorf. Had a great time in London though for three nights the Zeppelins came, they did little damage and two of them were destroyed. Capt Pratt is a greenhorn & bothered me with all sorts of dam fool questions such as why didn’t they make all the streets straight & why don’t the English play baseball. He got me quite mad. I tried to lose him but he stuck to me like a leech.
At London I met Mr. Penny, a McGill friend of mine who is in the Royal Artillery & had been over to France. Met Otto Demuth, another McGill man, RAMC & had tea with him. Also met Mr. A. (?) Hunt of Victoria at the Cecil. They were all looking fine. At the Strand Palace met Tom Lynch, another McGill man. He just came in from the front & went to bed. Tom looked fine & told me he saw some blueprints at the front signed by W.J. Connolley, a great friend of mine.
I have made up my mind that I won’t take Capt Pratt of St. John, N.B. out with me again. Wish I could get attached to a unit as I dread the idea of getting attached to a hospital here. Of course at night everything in dark, no light is allowed to be shown, so we must go home & kill time around the house.
Context
116th Medical Officer Captain Briggs was born in the wrong era…and if he happened to be a GenXer, it would be certain that he and I would be fast friends. His entries of March 27th and 31st 1916 proved once again that he was a totally different type of fellow. Witty. Irreverent. Observant. Blissfully sarcastic. Most of his well-educated and well-heeled contemporaries from England would certainly play their role as refined, distinguished, reserved gentlemen. Briggs, on the other hand, would have none of that. When he had the chance to take a break and turn to his pen and paper, he dedicated the time to grumbling about the things we all feel but rarely are included to document in a pithy dialogue designed to amuse himself some day far into the future. He focused his time on highlighting the irritating idiosyncrasies of a certain individual who got on his nerves. We can all picture it…sauntering down the street on a wonderful day, taking in the sights, culture and atmosphere of auld London when your sidekick rhymed off a series of ignorant irrelevant mutterings like…”why are the streets here not straight?” and “why don’t they play baseball in England?” One can imagine the look on his face as he contemplated escape as his companion took a few seconds to veer into a local and use their water closet.
The Officer Briggs tolerated for a few days in London was Captain Charles Marble Pratt. Pratt was also a medical doctor, physician and surgeon. He also served in the CAMC and was attached to a number of units including the 35th, 60th and 58th Battalions along with stints in the 9th Canadian Field Ambulance and 42nd Casualty Clearing Station. He was also stationed at the No. 24 General Hospital in Etaples and the Queen Alexandrias Hospital in Millbank, England. Unfortunately, as it was only the Spring of 1916, Pratt was not able to demonstrate that he was much more than a walking irritant. His term of service and the thousands of men he cared for and saved are worth far more than the couple jibes that Briggs tossed out at him. Pratt lived a long life, continuing this service as a doctor in New Brunswick and died at the ripe old age of 88 in St. John NB in 1968.
Briggs remarks on the Zeppelin Raids of London on March 31st, 1916 also merit a few words. Five Zeppelins were sent to harass and bomb peaceful Englanders on the evening of March 31st/April 1st 1916. The five airships departed from their base in Northern Germans, crossed the North Sea and headed for London and East Anglia. (East Anglia for those who didn’t grow up there is the part of England located in the center-east portion of the country. It stems from Norfolk in the north, through Suffolk and to Essex located just north of London).
History would record that L22 (a 518 ft long airship) developed engine trouble and instead of continuing to London, decided to drop a few bombs on the seaside port city of Cleethorpe. 5 of the bombs did either no or very little damage. The fifth was a direct hit on a church where 84 soldiers were billeted. 32 men were killed in the attack. The remaining airships continued on towards London and dropped high explosive and incendiary bombs all along the way. The devastating was as deadly as it was random in its’ effectiveness. While many of the bombs harmlessly fell into fields or outside the range of people and buildings a number of citizens were killed in the attacks. These included:
Ellen Wheeler a 64 year old widow in Sudbury
John Edward Smith who was killed as he crossed the road, Sudbury
70 year old Ann Herbert was killed in her home at 19 Coronation St., Braintree
Anne Dureall, 29 yrs old and mother of five was killed with two children James (5) and Catherine (3) when the floor they were on collapsed by the bombing
15 year old George Adams was killed just outside the King of Prussia pub in Bury St. Edmonds when he went to check in on his horse
48 were killed and 64 wounded in the attacks mentioned by Briggs. He and Pratt were uninjured as the ships did not appear to threaten them where they were staying. However, the only thing threatened was Briggs sense of peace of mind and serenity…mostly due to his travelling companion Pratt.
Briggs attended McGill University when he went to medical school. He ensured that he mentioned a number of his mates from school that he encountered while in England. These included :
Lieutenant Walter Stuart Penny - 79thBattery – Canadian Field artillery, to 11th Battery
Major Otto Demuth – served with the Canadian Army Medical Corps, was transferred to the Royal Army Medical Corps and ended the war serving with the US medical Corps. He was twice wounded in his service and was awarded the Military Cross while with the RAMC.
Lieutenant Tom Leo Lynch – Lynch was born in Fredericton, NB and served as a Bombadier with the Divisional Ammunition Column, serving in both the 12th and 2nd Brigades
Private William John Conolley – William was born in Jamaica and was one of the first Canadians to enlist in the war effort. He signed up at Valcartier on Sept 24th 1914 and was able to survive the entire war serving in the Canadian Field Artillery.
For more information on the Zeppelin Raids of 03/31/1916 – 04/01/1916 please visit the following links…
Story: Cleethorpes Zepplin Raid | Lives of the First World War - 31 Mar / 1 Apr 1916