Fritz celebrated by putting a few whizz bangs rather adjacent to our happy home. – Douglas & Parsons down with nerves. – The old timers are all getting that way – It’s time the Divn had a real rest. – Didn’t go any farther than Valley Cottages tonight. Was afraid I’d have to carry Parsons home if I took him up among the stiffs in Sanctuary Wood. – The O.C. was up to’night – Think he’s worried for fear we haven’t enough to do.
"Douglas & Parsons down with nerves. – The old timers are all getting that way – It's time the Divn had a real rest." What Robertson is describing, in the language available to him, is close to what a Lancet article the year before had started calling "shell shock", though the term was new, contested, and far from a settled diagnosis. Treatment at this stage of the war varied widely by unit and medical officer, from actual rest to outright skepticism that anything was wrong at all. The same night, Robertson turns back early rather than take Parsons up "among the stiffs" in Sanctuary Wood. He reckons he'd have had to carry the man home.
A convention of miners was the only thing that kept me up tonight, but if I had gone to bed early I might have wakened up before noon which would never do. Decided to have a look at the tunnellers work at Vigo St. in daylight so left Ry. D.O. 7 P.M. – Got as far as Maple Copse, when Fritz got too funny with his whizz-bangs for us to take it as a joke. – Sat in a mud hole for half an hour to fool him. – Plenty of entertainment. – Three big rats fighting over a man’s hand. – Saw Geo. Gilchrist – Met Bevan at 10th H.Q. + went over part of the line. – Getting busy for tomorrow night.
Fine. 5 P.M. – Roosting out on the grass back of the D.O. – It’s glorious. – The gunners are giving Fritz a poor time around Mt. Sorrel – Preparing for the 8th show tonight. – Stock is up to go over & consolidate. – I’d rather like his opportunity. – Good news of the offensive down south. – Two mile advance on a 14 mile front. No working parties on account of the above.
Mt. Sorrel show called off 1 A.M. – Gunners failed to cut wire. – Postponed 24 hrs.
The "offensive down south" Robertson hears about secondhand was the opening of the Battle of the Somme two days earlier, Britain's largest offensive of the war so far, and still, on its first day alone, the bloodiest single day in the history of the British Army: nearly 20,000 men killed and 40,000 wounded before nightfall. The early, garbled "good news" Robertson records, a two-mile advance, reflects how slowly and unevenly the truth of the disaster on the northern part of the line reached soldiers elsewhere on the front. The battle would grind on for four and a half months.
Rain. – Spent the day visiting Birkett and Boney. – They are most entertaining. – The show has been on & off all day, being finally cancelled from corps. Rather rough on Stock’s nerves. –
Cloudy – Shook the dust of the trenches from my feet & elsewhere in Stubbin’s palatial baths – Bevan went down to LaClytte so I stuck around to keep house – Pretty slow. – Nothing to do but pitch horse-shoes with the Major. – Haigh came up to dinner and Ernie was around later for a while. Good news from the south again.
Showery. Orderly dog. – Bevan off touring the countryside again so I stuck round & did my best to keep the rats away. Major went up to Ry. D.O. at noon but Ham dropped in & saved me from a solitary meal with the Wire Wonder – Paymaster came round this aft. – Newman – Like to know how he got the job. – Cameron – 1st Pioneers in to dinner. – Gossip of a war in August
Fair. – Went for a tour with the Major. – 2nd Tunnel Co’y 22 21st Batty wagon lines. Saw Hal Mooney – Had tea with the C.R.E. – Turner, Birkett & Harvey will probably get something for last month’s work. – I’ll be the only one in the Co’y without a decoration then. – Pop was being shelled this aft. – Quiet otherwise. – Mac suggest going down to fight for Mexico when we finish here – 3 & 4 secs. came down from the line. – Co’y out
Cloudy. – Owing to the fact that most of the family are home we decided to have a young birthday. – Went into Pop with Scott & Pete. – Shelling being kept up. – High velocity stuff. Visited the E.F.C. + got the necessaries for a feed.
Cloudy. – Infantry drill & inspection. – Mackenzie got his commission. – Rode over to 9th Co’y to get some stuff for dinner.
Cloudy. – Physical jerks & company drill Baseball and cricket goods arrived, the boys are as tickled as a bunch of kids. – Pop. still being shelled & quite a bunch of civies are moving out. – Some high velocity stuff being slipped into Vlam. this aft. – Good news from G.H.Q. re southern activity. – Cavalry thro’ on reconnaissance. – Country too heavily wired for much cavalry action.
Clear – Warm. Bomb throwing. – Inspected Dickebusch huts this aft. Saw Ernie at Battery. He was surprised to find out I had rec’d some news. Lee Starthy came around for some material & stayed to dinner. Had a strenuous game of football with the batmen. No mail. Pop. put out of bounds on account of shelling.
Showery. More bombing. Slept all aft. – Expecting mail but none came. – Divine service at 5. – Capt. Robertson over to dinner. – Rode over to Dickebusch huts to arrange working party with Unwin.
Warm – Nothing doing round billets. – Turner off to Bailleuil. Wrote some letters this aft. but got none. – Bevan’s cousin from 250 R.E.T.C. up to dinner. – His opinion is that war will not start up here for a month yet, but when it does. – Wow. – 900,000 lbs ammonal should raise them a few. – Came up with Bevan 9 P.M. to take over from 1st Co’y. – Am taking over the Trench work. – Hope I can hold it. – Went around with Ted & got the lay-out. – A beaut. of a night. – Moonlight & quiet. – Bosch transport raising an awful racket. – Seemed to be moving fairly heavy stuff. – Crawled out into No Man’s Land to look at ground for new cut-off. Looked over crater 26/4. Too light for much work there. – Trenches in good shape & a good Battn to work with – Visited Col. Leckie. Turned in 3 AM.
Robertson's Military Cross is engraved on the reverse: "LIEUT. A.M. ROBERTSON. CANADIAN ENGINEERS. FRANCE JULY 18 1916", his 22nd birthday, as it happens. The diary never explains it in the moment; the most exposed, citation-worthy thing he does around this date is recorded the night before, when he takes over trench-work responsibility for the first time and crawls out alone into No Man's Land after dark to scout ground for a new cut-off, with enemy transport audibly moving heavy stuff nearby. But we don't have to guess entirely, six months later, in early January 1917, his name turns up on the New Year Honours list, and his own reaction survives in the diary: "Well here I am a bloomin' M.C. and lord only knows what for." He didn't know either. A day later he adds that he suspects Capt. Pepler was behind the recommendation, and that he valued that vote of confidence more than the decoration itself. Unlike some Military Cross citations, this New Year Honours list named recipients without publishing individual citations, so short of some other surviving document, Robertson's own bewilderment may be as close to an answer as anyone ever gets.
Fine – Bas & Casey got down in the early morning. – All serene till the M.O. came around. – Persuaded me that I needed a rest. – The O.C. endorsed him & I was ordered to #2 Fld. Amb. – Came back for kit. Mac up from corps. – News that Guy + Birkett got M.C. – Sorry Pete drew nothing. – Returned to #2 F.A. – Sent to #10 C.C.S. – Met El. Black. – Settled for night. – Williams & several other chaps from II DIV sent in – Parcel from Squib.
His service record has it exactly: a shrapnel wound to the forehead on July 19, 1916, and a spell in hospital from the 23rd until he rejoined the unit on the 31st. His own diary never uses the word "wound." There are no entries at all from July 18 to 22; the 23rd picks up with the medical officer having "persuaded me that I needed a rest." Through the days that follow (field ambulance, hospital train, clearing station), he writes about mosquitoes and card games, never about why he is there.
Fine. – After being fed on by flocks of skeeters all night & waking up occasionally to see someone brought in, had breakfast & was examined by the M.O. + booked for 10 dys. In Hazebrouck – Shipped down in a Hospital Train during the aft. Williams & I were unloaded at H. – The rest went on to the base. – This is an awful hole (#2 C.C.S.) – Whole place smells musty & everyone seems sorry for himself. – Went for a walk after dinner and had the riot act read to me by a nurse.
Fine. – Hopelessly fed up with this place. – Sneath of #4 co’y here – Went to base this morning. So did Williams. – Boney passed thro here a few days ago. – Am having a job to keep up the rep of the sappers. – Went out for a walk this aft with a Landsturmer. He looks like a rotter. – A VI D.G. chap who is not a bad sort & a scot’s guards fellow. – Also young Hill of the summersets. – An awful nut but a good sport. A sickly looking shrimp called Anzac in our ward – Don’t know him + a chap in #8 Quier + darn good sort. Got a lamp tonight so was able to read.
Rose early to avoid having the bed made up over me. The M.O. think I am improving – Didn’t know I needed to – ASked him to send me down to the base – might have added “or back to duty” – Went for a walk. – Met Kezar & had tea with him. #8 (capt. Cole) & I now have the ward to ourselves. – He is a very nice chap. – Spent the evening playing cold hands with Hill & Brown. Spent half the night with Henry V.
Dull – Up with the birdies – Read & wrote – Went out for a walk with Hill. – Dropped into an est. near the stn. where there was a piano & he tickled the ivories. Went for a stroll out toward St. Omer this aft. Roughhoused Hill’s room after dinner – that’s all.
Hot. – Visited the Fld. Cashier. – Had our usual stroll. – Hill left to rejoin this aft. – Brown & I loaded him on the train + set out in search of pastures new – Struck back to Hospital & slept till dinner. The place is full up again. An Aust. in 7A – As cole says, “A funny cove.”
HOT. – Did a little letter writing out in the Garden. Sister Humphrey Jones took us to a concert that didn’t materialize. So Field & I strolled off to tea. Afterwards he took me around to see some friends of his so we missed dinner. – Our Anzac friend in 7-A was a trifle feverish during the night.
Hotter. – Discharged to duty. – Played show-down all morning with Cole and Anzac. – The latter was sent down the line today. – Said goodbye to the bunch + caught the Pop. express at 4.36. Warm ride. – Met a K.O.R.L. chap & went over to the officer’s club for dinner. – Wire the O.C. to send in a horse. – Got home about 10.45 Received with open arms by Scott + Pete. – Bevan gone to hospital with a split dome. Mrs. Casey threw him over.
Hot. – Spent the A.M. replying to some of the pile of mail that awaited me. – Birkett was over.