Photo - at home on leave June 1917 Scanned document - Arrival Report, 10 days leave June 1917 || Sunday 25th March 1917, Lieutenant Archibald Cecil Margrett, of the 8th Bu. East Lancashire Regiment, was at Rebruviette for bombing (hand-grenade) training. The next day his commanding officer, Major I. M. Campbell wrote to his father to advise that your son has met with an accident. He was attending a course of instruction in bombing and I know no details.....he has been wounded in both legs and one arm. I am happy to say that the Commandant states that the wounds are not considered (dangerous deleted) serious.....very sorry to lose a very promising young officer. \n By Monday 9th April 1917 he was back with his unit at Port d'Amiens, under the city of Arras as the hour of the assault approached during which the East Lancs supported for a number of days in the advances beyond the German Brown line. Saturday 9th June 1917 Lt. Archibald Margrett, with permission, left his unit for Boulogne and Folkestone to spend 10 days leave at home in Leywood House, Meopham near Gravesend where his mother was the school headmistress. The War Office form Arrival Report states the cause of the return as Shell-Shock. Wednesday 20th June saw him return to France and his unit. Did that time at home make any difference to his condition? Over the Autumn the East Lancs. moved to the Ypres field and the 8th Bu. was disbanded and he joined the 11th Bu. There were several actions including at Hazebrouck and other fields. On Monday 24th June 1918 Lt Archibald Margrett before the sitting of a Courts Marshall, in field, to face charges of desertion, disobedience and miscelaneous offences according to the Registers in the London Archives. On the line recording this capital charge is written in red ink acquitted, insane at the time of commission of offence. It seems plain that he had been in the same mental condition since 1917, and on aquital was returned to the unit and it's action in the field. On Wednesday 21st August 1918 his departure at Bolougne by the Ambulance transport St Denis arriving at Dover and on the same day being admitted to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, Southampton, Hampshire. He was under their care until January 1924 when he was discharged from the Army on the grounds of ill-health and received a disability pension for the rest of his life. A sad waste of a life? No. After perhaps two years unemployment, with the help of his sister Dorothy, he was employed by Barclays Bank. He worked for them gaining a circle of friends and getting married. His fiance, Mary Jarrett was called to meet the doctors at Netley under whom his recovery was placed, to be warned about his mental injuries. There were tough times in their marriage not least in the Second World War when he dug a trench in the garden after joining the Home Guard. But he was a very good Father and much acclaimed as a fair and caring Office Manager of Barclays Bank when he retired aged 60. Just before his death in January 1981, he celebrated with Mary their Golden Wedding. || || Official document || France || Leave ticket June 1917 || A 1917 page from the Army Personnel file of Lt. Archibald Margrett recording he was suffering from Shell-Shock and allowing 10-days home leave in the UK from France. || || London? || Recruitment and Conscription || 2nd Lt. Archibald Margrett || Trench Life || (left) 2nd Lt. Archibald Margrett after enlistment and on being commissioned 1915 || Photograph || || Remembrance || Meopham, Kent || June 1917 Lt. Archibald Margrett at home on leave in Meopham, Kent with his Mother and Father || Trench Life || Photograph || Lt. Archibald Margrett

A British sentimental postcard. || The front of this photographic postcard shows a boy sitting on his mother’s knee, beneath the photograph of a soldier. Underneath them is printed the following lines: ‘WHERE HAS MY DADDY GONE TO? (1) / ’Twas in a cosy cottage, one cold, raw Christmas Eve, / Sat a mother with her baby boy, nurs’d upon her knee ; / The boy ask’d for his Daddy, and why he ne’er came home, / Please won’t you tell me, Mamma ? he ask’d in a gentle tone.’ Beneath these lines is the following information: ‘BY PERMISSION OF E. MARKS & SON, 125 MARE STREET, HACKNEY, LONDON, N.E’ and ‘BAMFORTH. COPYRIGHT.’ Further printed details on the back of the postcard tell us that this is the first of a series: the ‘“SONGS” Series No. 4981/1’, ‘PRINTED IN ENGLAND’, by ‘BAMFORTH & CO., LTD., PUBLISHERS HOLMFIRTH (ENGLAND) AND NEW YORK’. || || A British sentimental postcard: 'Where has my Daddy gone to?' || Postcard

This is the second of a set of four postcards, the ‘“SONGS” Series No. 4981/2’, ‘PRINTED IN ENGLAND’, as the small print on the back informs us; the publisher’s details are also given: ‘BAMFORTH & CO., LTD., PUBLISHERS HOLMFIRTH (ENGLAND) AND NEW YORK’. The scene depicted on the front of the postcard is a young boy questioning his morose-looking mother, who stands below a soldier’s photograph. The text beneath them reads: ‘WHERE HAS MY DADDY GONE TO? (2) / Where has my Daddy gone, to my darling Daddy dear? / Won’t you please tell me, Mamma, why Daddy ne’er comes near? / He must know ’tis very wrong to give Mamma all this pain ; / Please, Mamma, tell me where my Daddy is, and I’ll bring him home again.’ Printed beneath the poem are the following lines: ‘BY PERMISSION OF E. MARKS & SON, 125 MARE STREET, HACKNEY, LONDON, N.E.’ and ‘BAMFORTH. COPYRIGHT’. || A British sentimental postcard. || || A British sentimental postcard: 'Where has my Daddy gone to? 2' || Postcard