Warm -
Reports of Gas attack in. - Frontage S.B. Molen - Messines. - Casualties in D4
Went up to the words this aft. Left Dolly tied in field behind Belgian battery. - Had to get her our under shell fire - Dolly never turned a hair. - Fritz repeated performance this eve’g with the result that 14 out of 93 entrenchers got to work
Gen. Glubb made a tour of the works yesterday & raised hell & knocked the props out.
Warm - showers.
Went up to 3rd for lunch & stay all aft. - Ham came up. - Fine place on a hot day
War in Ireland at an end & rebels under arrest. - Wonder what they thought they were going to do. - Pres. Wilson is still waiting for german reply to his latest note. - Hope U.S. keeps out of this. - Not much cause for worry I guess. - Archie McDougall, Cassels & Page called.
The Easter Rising, which Robertson first noted on April 21 with Casement's arrest, is over: crushed within a week, its leaders under arrest and soon to be executed. The "latest note" from President Wilson is an April 18 ultimatum threatening to break relations with Germany over the March 24 sinking of the Sussex, and his "Hope U.S. keeps out of this" is written two days before Germany backs down with the "Sussex Pledge" of May 4.
Warm.
Slept all morning. Went down for bath & called on 60th. Saw Todd, Jacques & Bailey. - Shift majority of night party to Swan Chateau comm. trench - Called on 1st Battn but didn’t stay long. Roulston came around the work & roused Taylor of the entrenching Bn.
Hot & close.
Buchanan arrested a couple of times to-day. – Dickson, 60th Battn came up.
Uncanny quiet tonight. No breeze at all or should have expected gas. – Gunners say that our heavies put some Boche 8” hows out of action – Hope it was the ones that stir up things round Kruisstraat. – They are mostly 5.9s I think.
Hot & close. – Shower bath rigged up. – Fritz woke me up by shelling huts down the road about 8 A.M. – Box of fudge by mail from home.
Went over to see wire gang & called in at 7th Battery. – Saw Pige. Haultain & Maj. Macdonald. Also saw Puss Fee in gun pit. Very dark riding down tonight.
Cooler thank goodness. Harry Cavanagh was around. Stewart rigged up a jump down by the horse lines. – Walked up tonight – Called in at 3rd for mail. Letter from R.V. Mac telling all about his nice time in London. – Beautiful to read about. – Writing him to stand by for my leave. – Called on Rankin in the 1st A.T. Co’y dugout & had some cocoa brewed. Fritz has dropped messages in Ypres & Pop saying all Br. troops will be out of the salient by the 9th. – No such luck.
Rainy. – No infantry
Spent the day reading & writing letters. – Bunch of mail – Cake, fudge & post from Hazel. – Papers from Charley – Letter from Sam. A few hands of showdown with Mac & Haigh. – Wrote to Cur’s mother & it took all evening. – Sam’s letter related chiefly to leave – I sure hear enough about it. Was going up to 3rd to dinner but Fritz got nasty.
"Wrote to Cur's mother & it took all evening." Nearly two weeks after Cur's death (see April 26), this is the unglamorous, recurring duty that came with losing a man under your command, not the death itself, but the letter afterward, the one that took an entire evening to get right.
Cool - Showery – heavy showers this ev’g. – Joe got back safe & sound. – Rode up to works this aft. – Another tree clipped off by Belgian battery position. – Walked out tonight in the rain. – Spent most of the ev’g in 11th Batty mess with Maj. Creor – Col. Creighton & Capt. Sampson were in. – Rain cleared off. – Good nights for work in sight. –
Report of raid on Anzacs the first night in. – Fritz stole 2 stokes guns which gives the game away. – Surprise for the newcomers but they will get back.
Showery – Slept in till noon. – Fooled around camp all aft. – Gassing with Nairn in the orderly room all evening. – He comes from Kenora. Figuring out what I’m going to do on leave. – Have written Bob Macaulay to stand by.
Warm. – Went up to 3rd for lunch & pushed on to the war. – Wilkes arrived on Monday to take Morrow’s place. No nothing of his past history but he seems alright. – A different mess to what it used to be at Dranoutre. – Joe had Mac up at the job. Towed me back with the bus. – Rode up on the Burg. Sent him back by Bradshaw & cycled in. – The gang worked well tonight aided by judicious cussing & jollying. Went over to 1st Co’y but Rankin has gone to the R.F.C. – Got in about 1 A.M. – Fed & finished Coriolanus before retiring.
Slept all morning and loafed all aft. – Garland 1st H.B. was here all aft. – Some other gunner people dropped in too.
Hot. – Took a push bike & went up to have a look round. – Met Shaw, (old 21st) – Poked around & came down about noon. – Dropped in at the 3rd & had lunch. – Feeling rotten. – Headache & bilious. – Mac going on leave. Gave him a couple of letters to take over. – Great ball game. – Hdqrs. Sec. vs. Co’y. – Joe went up for the work in my place. – I censored the mail, tried out the new shower & went to bed. – Big Can. mail in letters & plum pudding. – Oh this war.
Rain. – Light duty. Stayed round camp all day & wrote two beautiful long letters home. – Frank’s egg flips for breakfast are the clear thing. – To bed fairly early but read half the night. “Measure for Measure”.
Showery. – Slept in till noon. – Partook of a little nourishment – Read the Post. – Experimented with a loaded crop on a tin hat, worn by G.H. – Haigh disconsolate at getting no mail. Cheered up at dinner. – Tried out mother’s pudding. – A blue day.
Wrote a flock of letters
Warm – Went in to Pop. on the lorry this aft. Good moonlight night for work. Came back thro’ Ypres with G.H.
Hot.
Cooler
Got to sleep with the twittering Birdies & Archies raising a morning song. – Was awakened about 7 A.M. by MacCallum coming in & rudely sitting on my stomach & insisting on telling me all about leave. – I wish people wouldn’t do that. – Evidently he enjoyed his visit to Bournemouth. – Eventually got to sleep & was not disturbed again til noon. Passed a quiet afternoon with Ian Hay’s “First Hundred Thousand” – Quite as good as Bairnsfather's sketches. – This evening Napoo infantry – all been sent away in the drafts. Must have been a show somewhere. – Joe went up the line, so I read the Co’y’s love-letters, & wrote some myself. Buchanan gone on leave.
Reading outgoing mail for security violations was a routine officer duty. Robertson's version: "I read the Co'y's love-letters, & wrote some myself."
VICTORIA DAY
Not so hot. – Got up before breakfast. – Took a push bike & went up to the job. Wrote letters after lunch. – Push bike up again tonight. – Tramped out to Br. 18 with Taylor – Rain. Had a round of Jacks in the dugout & came down about 11.30
Rodes[sic] to[sic] greasy to ride in dark.
Cool – Showery. Breakfast at 1 P.M. – Tommy Williams & Galway were in. – Went up to 3rd Co’y this aft. – Haigh had a birthday. Joe took the boys out so yours truly looked after the mail & goes to bed early. Had a letter from Squib, somehow, wasn’t expecting mail today.
Comfortably warm. Rose with the birdies and took the early parade. – Ran down to the C.R.E’s in the sidecar this aft & arranged to get leave with the 2nd A.T. Co’y – Inf. party very small tonight so came down early
Called in at 1st F.C.C.E. to arrange leave with Ted. – he’s still in forward billets & Feather is going tomorrow so doubt if Ted will make it next week. Can hardly bring myself to wait over for him. – What if leave were stopped.
G.H. got away in the small hours. – Lucky dog, with his wife in Boulogne. – Joe continues to live on the works just as if he didn’t have Co’y duties to look after – Makes me feel like a loafer. – Took a run down to Ouderdom on Dolly this aft. – Saw Tom Williams & Pete Corneil – Sent a note to Ted & made out a prov. schedule for my leave. – Very few men again tonight. Went up around by Br. 18, came back & swung a shovel for a while. – Foggy.
Fritz shelled the dump & party at Br. 18 this morning. – One C.M.R. casualty. – Some stuff dropped in Vlammertinghe this aft. Warm. – Rolled in 2.45 Ack Emma& had no worries till noon. – Wrote letters in the sun & slept all aft. – Must get sun burnt before going on leave, night work doesn’t give me much chance. Orders in today to prepare to hand over work to cavalry. – Wonder what that means. – Padre Shires took Divine service at 4.30 – Ball game at 5.30 – Licked the 1st Heavies again. – Shires stayed to dinner. Al Stewart & Macfarlane were in.
Orders arrive on the 28th to "prepare to hand over work to cavalry," and by the 30th Robertson is touring the sector with the cavalry major taking over, swapping stories about the 1914 campaign. The sector is passing to new hands: the frontage "cut down," and Robertson himself already sorting out where his own leave should be made out to.
Bright – Warm – Good day for observing – Saw Fritz bring a plane down. – Went up to the job. – Left my jacket in the dugout & went over to 2nd Heavy’s for lunch. – Fritz active along road from Kruisstraat. – Made me hurry – After lunch coming back, he whizzed two into the left sec. 1st Heavy’s & put one of Leach’s guns out – Decided it would be unwise to come thro Kruis. – so spent the aft with the 1st Heavy’s. – Met silent Percy’s young brother for the first time. Came back via Vlammer without my jacket – Visited Belgian battery tonight & met Day. – Spent evening there. Two wiring parties reported today & cavalry have come up to take over from us.
Showery to fair. – Was aroused by Nairn coming in to find out where I wanted my leave made out to. – Murmured “Aberdeen” & went to sleep again. – Toured the country from Kruisstraat to Zillebeke looking for M.G.E.’s with Mac. – Some fine roses around the Lille Gate. – Called on the 7th F.C. & wandered onto Manor Fm. – Saw Ted & Birkett. Wandered in the open in front of Hill 60. Found a 5.9 dud. – Had dinner at 11th Battery. – Tramped around with the Cavalry Major O.C. the gang taking over. Heard some very interesting tales of the 1914 campaign. – Saw Day at Belg. battery & placed order for a 75cm case. – Div. frontage cut down.
Warm. – Nothing much of anything till 4 P.M. – Met Hunter R.E. at the water tank and got a line on our new job. – Ball game with 43rd cancelled. – Sent the boys to the cinema instead. Leave postponed till Monday. – Suits me. – Alex & Turner going this week end. – Don’t think I’ll get farther north than Oxford st. – Went up to 3rd F.C.
Casey in bed with a bad knee. Must see the Alhambra show. Pep brought back some great records.
After four straight months in and around the Ypres salient (mud, working parties, and the daily business of staying alive), Robertson's leave finally comes through in the first days of June. The diary's tone shifts noticeably once it does: theatre shows, restaurant dinners, visits to Uncle and Charley in London, all recorded with the same plain enthusiasm he'd once given to training-camp socializing back in 1915.