November 1918

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November 1, 1918 (Friday)

DENAIN

No entries recorded: November 2–8, 1918 (7 days)

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November 9, 1918 (Saturday)

Fine VALENCIENNES

More ration worries. – Woods away off into the blue & 2nd Bde. on the move as well.

– All on their way to MONS.

– 3rd Div took JEMAPPES this morning & were in MONS this aft. – German delegates have till Monday noon ot accept or refuse terms of armistice. – Kaiser reported abdicating. – Naval revolution spreading.

Historical Context

News of the Coming Armistice

November 9, 1918

Robertson's entry for the day runs through several strands of the war's collapse. The 3rd Canadian Division took Jemappes that morning, though the fuller capture of Mons itself, just beyond it, wouldn't come until two days later, on the war's actual last day. Kaiser Wilhelm II's abdication was publicly announced that same day (he himself hadn't yet agreed to it); the "naval revolution" was the Kiel mutiny, which had begun in the first days of the month and was still spreading through German ports and cities; and the German delegation negotiating at Compiègne had been set a deadline early the following week, the Armistice was signed in the small hours of Monday, November 11, and took effect at eleven that morning. Four distinct, fast-moving threads of the war's actual end, all landing in Robertson's hands within the same day's news.

Mons →

No entries recorded: November 10–15, 1918 (6 days)

November 11, the day the fighting stopped, falls inside this six-day silence. Robertson's diary, which persistently understated even his own Military Cross ("Well here I am a bloomin' M.C. and lord only knows what for," January 4, 1917) and a near-fatal wound that February ("a shade more and I should have been paralysed," as he described it in a letter the following month), records nothing at all about the day the war ended, no entry, and no mention of it once the diary resumes on November 16 either. The unit's war diary, which he was keeping as its officer commanding until November 15, does. On the evening of November 10 he met a detachment of his unit at Pâturages, near Mons, and stayed with it overnight; for November 11 the entry reads that there was "great enthusiasm amongst the civilian population," and that "wine was freely distributed to all troops by the population." He was back at unit headquarters by one that afternoon.

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November 16, 1918 (Saturday)

Cold. Jemappes.

Started out in the boxcar at 0900 to rustle rifles & equipment. – Travelling pretty bad owing to traffic. – Troops & lorries going east. – Civvies with all sorts of weird vehicles westbound – Called at #4 C.C.S. – 4th Div. & corps Ordinance & got most of the stuff.

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November 17, 1918 (Sunday)

Cold JEMAPPES

Nothing much doing this A.M. – Took a run into MONS on the motorbike. –

– Tried to buy some chocs but the price was beyond me. – 50f. a kilo.

– Went over to GHLIN this aft & saw Joe. – Walked into MONS. – had tea at E. Mess after which Melville took me out to see some of his friends. – Dinner at E Mess & home in the boxcar.

Where Things Stand

Mons, Both Ends of the War

November 17, 1918

Robertson marked this town's name once before, in the margin of his August 23, 1917 entry, "MONS – 1914," the third anniversary of the battle fought here that opened Britain's war. Fourteen months later, six days after the war's actual end, he walks into the same town himself: pricing out chocolates he decides he can't afford, having tea, taking a run out to Ghlin to see a friend. The name that once marked where Britain's war began now marks where Robertson's own war winds down.

"MONS – 1914," August 23, 1917 →

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November 18, 1918 (Monday)

Cold. NEUFVILLES

Went ahead billeting with the Padre. – Not much choice but managed to get the old man a good room in the convent. – Jolly bunch of nuns.

Feeling rotten. Went to bed right after dinner.

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November 19, 1918 (Tuesday)

Cold. NEUFVILLE

Stayed in bed all day. – Temp 103. – Dr. says I have ‘flu’.

Where Things Stand

The Flu

November 19–23, 1918

Eight days after the fighting stops, Robertson is in a hospital bed rather than back with his unit: a 103° fever on November 19, a diagnosis of "flu" from the doctor, evacuation to a Casualty Clearing Station in Mons the next day, and three more days there before the diary falls quiet again. The 1918–19 influenza pandemic had already been circulating for months in the crowded conditions of army camps, hospitals, and troop transports, and its deadliest wave was only beginning that autumn, by the time it ran its course, it's estimated to have killed more people worldwide than the war itself did. Robertson recovered; he lived until 1971.

More on Robertson's life after the war →