My Grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Collinson (known as Frank) was a tailor's cutter in Leeds in the summer of 1917 when he enlisted at age 18. After spending time with a training battalion he was eventually posted to France with the Durham Light Infantry 20th Battalion in April 1918. He served as batman to James Wood DCM until October of 1918. At some point during October both men were involved in an action in Belgium which resulted in the officer being badly wounded. Frank came to his aid, carrying Wood back to safety and medical aid. On the 18th November 1918 Wood wrote a letter from his home in Newcastle to Frank to thank him for his actions and to tell him that he had recommended him (3 times) for the distinguished conduct medal (which was never awarded). Despite being seriously ill and likely to loose his right leg Wood also asks Frank where he put his compass and complains that it has probably been stolen. Clearly the whereabouts of the compass was of some concern to him. Wood also tells Frank that his wife died a week ago in the influenza pandemic and ends the letter with the remarkably understated So it has been a rather sad homecoming. John Sheen's book The Wearside Battalion (Pen & Sword Military, 2007 ISBN 9781844156405 British Library Shelfmarks m09/.14887 and YC.2008.a.12140) covers the actions of the 20th Durham Light Infantry at the end of the war in chapter 9. Although Wood's letter refers to his wounds of the 2nd October Sheen records an attack on 21st October where 2nd Lieutenant J Wood is wounded. From February 1919 to September 1919 Frank performed with The Tonics concert party, accompanying other acts and performing piano solos. Programmes show the Tonics performing at the Central Y M C A Cologne 44 Friesenstrasse on 19th June where in act 7 of part 1 Collinson Worries the Piano and on 12th August 1919 at the British Empire Leave Club Cologne where Frank Collinson performed a Pianoforte solo ampa\n At the end of 1919 Frank returned to life in Leeds as a tailor's cutter but also continued to play the piano, becoming a well known figure in many of the pubs and concert venues in the city. || 2 photographs of Private Benjamin Franklin Collinson taken at F Scrimshaw's in Leeds ; A photograph of The Tonics Concert Party. (Frank is on the back row 3rd from the left) ; A letter dated 18th November 1918 from James Wood DCM to My Dear Collinson ; A programme for The Tonics Concert Party performance at the British Empire Leave Club in Cologne 12th August 1919 ; A programme for The Grand Concert by The Tonics at Central Y M C A Cologne 19th June 1919 ; A poster for the Tonics Concert Party in a mixture of mirth melody and music tonight at 6. (Undated)

A British comic patriotic postcard. || The name of the artist – ‘S Hurley’ – who drew the scene depicted on the front of this postcard is written to the left of the caption, which reads, ‘“HAS ANYONE HERE SEEN KAISER BILL?”’. Above, stands a small boy dressed in a soldier’s red tunic and fusilier’s cap, toy sword drawn, a tumble of cut-down and cut-up toys surrounding him. There is plenty of information on the reverse. The printed details read: ‘CELESQUE SERIES – Copyright Design, No. 937. / Published by The Photochrom Co. Ltd London and Tunbridge Wells’, along with ‘B’, ‘ALL BRITISH PRODUCTION’ and ‘P.Co.’ The postmark states that the postcard was mailed from Bovington Camp Dorset at 7pm on 30 March 1915. There is a pencilled name and address: ‘Miss E Gibbs / 41 Harborne Park Road / Harborne / B’ham Birmingham’. There is also a message, which reads, ‘Dear Edith / received letter today glad all well my cold is better will write a letter tomorrow / with love / from Herbert’. || || Postcard || A British comic patriotic postcard.

Victory medal; British War Medal; Joseph's service record; modern photographs of visit to Ginchy. || My father, Joseph Doyle from Campile, joined up to fight for 'little Catholic Belgium'. He didn't join at the beginning of the war because his mother was unwell, but joined after her death. He first saw action at Ypres Ieper and he often talked about the horrors of trench warfare: the incessant rain and the trenches full of water. He also spoke about being trapped in the trenches under shell fire, having to dig holes in the sides to put the bodies into, and listening to the he rats gnawing on the bodies. He even said that at times he and his fellow soldiers were walking on bodies at the bottom of the trench. He also remembered being trapped for days in a shell crater wit nothing to eat but jam - he never ate jam again. Despite his terrible experiences, I never saw signs of trauma in him: he was a really placid man. Joseph was wounded in 1917 at Ginchy and both my brother and I have visited there. A bullet went through his arm below the elbow and he was eventually invalided back to England and discharged die to his injury. Joseph's brother, my uncle James also fought although I don't know what regiment he fought in. James was gassed which affected his voice and eyes. After my father came back from the war he had a pension for a while and often went for a drink on pension day. Another memory he had was of seeing a Pierce plough, made in the foundry in Wexford town, on a battlefield in France. He also brought home a belt from a giant German corpse but later my mother made him put it in a shed and it eventually disappeared. He also talked of the rations the soldiers had, about tinned beef and how awful it was. Joseph had no trouble with his arm after 1920 and after a series of operations including one carried out by Sir Arthur Chance. He was in Dublin having an operation in 1920 on Bloody Sunday 21 November and he saw some of the bodies shot by Michael Collins' 'Squad'. The men were in their pyjamas, having been shot dead in their bedrooms. Joseph was also arrested that afternoon as part of a crowd on O'Connell Street, but one of the officers who had been in the Irish Guards recognised him and let him go. After the foundation of the Irish Free State he got land from an estate that was being broken up and he got a local builder to build a home for him. He married a local woman and they farmed the land together. || || Joseph Doyle's British War Medal, obverse. || British War Medal - Joseph Doyle || Medal