Lieutenant Clifford Sadlier, 51st Battalion Australian Imperial Forces, was awarded the V.C. for bravery at Bois L'Abbe, Villers-Brettoneux during a German attack involving gas and German tanks, 24th - 25th April 1918. Citation: For conspicuous bravery during a counter-attack by his battalion on strong enemy positions. Lt Sadlier’s platoon, which was on the left of the battalion, had to advance through a wood where a strong enemy machine-gun post caused casualties and prevented the platoon from advancing. Although himself wounded, he at once collected his bombing section, led them against the machine-guns, and succeeded in killing the crews and capturing two of the guns. By this time Lt Sadlier’s party were all casualties, and he alone attacked a third enemy machine-gun with his revolver, killing the crew of four and taking the gun. In doing so he was again wounded. The very gallant conduct of this officer was the means of clearing the flank, and allowing the battalion to move forward, thereby saving a most critical situation. His coolness and utter disregard of danger inspired all. (London Gazette: 11th July 1918.)The attached account of his actions was written by James Price Lloyd of the Welsh Regiment, who served with Military Intelligence. After the war, the government to destroyed all the archives relating to this propaganda (section MI 7b (1)). They were regarded as being too sensitive to risk being made public. Remarkably these documents have survived in the personal records of Captain Lloyd. Many of these papers are officially stamped, and one can trace the development of many individual articles from the notes based on an idea, to the pencil draft which is then followed by the hand-written submission and the typescript. The archive Tales of the VC comprises 94 individual accounts of the heroism that earned the highest award for valour, the Victoria Cross. These are recounted deferentially and economically, yet they still manage to move the reader. Date stamp: 5 September 1918. || Article with annotations.

This a list of duties given to individual soldiers in the supply corp.

The interview was conducted by Age Exchange in partnership with The University of Essex and The First World War Centre –University of Hertfordshire –as part of the Children of The Great War project. Brian Key came to share the story of 3 men important to him from his family. There were 2 Grandfathers and husband of a cousin of his father. Fascinatingly they fought in three different theatres of war. The husband of the cousin of his father was Sidney James Scarfe. He was born in 1897 and died in 1952. He had worked as a groom at Rettendon Hall. By the time of the war he was working at Hoffman’s Factory in Chelmsford. He served on the Western Front including The Battle of Messines Ridge where he was injured invalided out. He recorded a cassette tape lasing one hour, His injury came about in a dugout on Menin Road when a whizz bang came over. Some men were killed but Sidney had a shrapnel wound in the leg that caused him to be invalided out. After spending times in nursing homes he looked after Prisoners of War later and had correspondence with them. Brian’s paternal grandfather was Thomas Albert Key who joined 1915. He ended up in the Army Service Corps in Park Royal. At the end of war was sent to Russia to support white Russians. He was stationed in Archangel and Murmansk looking after Bolshevik prisoners during 1918-1919.They lived wooden Huts. Little known about it as a conflict and Brian has the feeling the soldiers were unsure why they were there. Illness and disease were the major dangers to life. Died 1951 George Huffey was his maternal grandfather. He was a master wheelwright and joined in Thaxted. He initially joined the Royal Garrison and was finally sent to East Africa. He worked repairing and making cartwheels. It was a mostly a guerrilla form of war with hit and run attacks rather than trench warfare. Again more men died of disease than conflict. He died in 1957. Brian brought along a cassette recording and transcription of the recording with Sidney Scarfe He also brought photographs from North Russia with a collection of postcards both personal and general. There were photographs of Sidney having just joined up and Thomas in Russia. || || Western Front || Photograph || Sidney James Scarfe || || Balkans || Photograph || Thomas Albert Key || Thomas Albert Key & co. in Russia || || Sidney James Scarfe on a ward || Photograph