An Engineer in Egypt Part II

10 Piastre coin of 1916 

Monday 13th March 1916: Sapper W H James of the Royal Engineers is the son of Company Sergeant Major James of the 1st Field Company East Anglian Royal Engineers. The son is now in Egypt at Sidi Bishr Camp just outside Alexandria. He has been telling us of his experiences and giving us his observations.

“By dint of tram and route march we arrived at Sidi Bishr. The camp is a fine one, right on the sea-shore, so we get the chance of a dip in the sea two or three times a day if we feel inclined. Of course it is very hot here. After only two days I am a picture. My nose is a nice brick red colour  while my neck, so my pals say, is black. It is a glorious life here , I have been walking about all day in a pair of white sand shoes and in my shirt sleeves. It seems funny to think of you all at home enjoying (perhaps) the capricious moods of an English March, while we out here are divesting ourselves of every rag that we can, of course consistent with decency”.

“It is curious to notice how the women here undertake all sorts of work, while the men sit about and drink cooling drinks. Of course if a man has half a dozen wives and they all work there should be no necessity for him to do so”.

“The money here causes some consternation among the new-comers and they regard with great suspicion the change given them. The piastre is the chief coin here, but Tommy is not a bit particular and “pianos” and “disasters” are alternatives in the current use. One fellow in the same tent as myself bought a cake at the canteen, for which he was charged ½ a piastre and in payment for which he presented a florin and was paid the change in nickel piastres and ¼ piastres. He shot back to the tent like a thunderbolt and nearly exploded with the information that he’d got a pocketful of shillings and six pence change out of two shillings!”

Source: Bedfordshire Times 14th April 1916

An Engineer in Egypt Part I

Sunday 12th March 1916: Sapper W H James of the Royal Engineers is the son of Company Sergeant Major James of the 1st Field Company East Anglian Royal Engineers. The son is now in Egypt at Sidi Bishr Camp just outside Alexandria. He has been telling us of his experiences and giving us his observations.

“At first I was not struck with the beauty of Alexandria. It may have a history that goes back something like 3,000 years or more(1), but history will not cover the fact that near the docks the place is filthy. Nevertheless, it is interesting. Imagine row after row of ancient Eastern temples with their fronts knocked out and turned into rag shops; refreshment house, outside which sit men of all colours of the rainbow, drinking extremely suspicious concoctions; factories working at high pressure, but having no roof to them, and a great number of shops having apparently nothing  for sale, but outside which, serenely smoking in comfortable easy-chairs, sit the proprietors, their faces an object lesson in contentment, and you have some idea of Alexandria, or the parts of it nearer to the docks. Of course there are some fine streets and buildings in the main part of the town. As to its inhabitants – well, of course, the place is extremely Cosmopolitan, in other words the inhabitants are all the colours of the rainbow, or very nearly so. Coal black faces, brown faces, and faces even whiter than my own is at the present time, are to be seen at every turning. There are a tremendous number of Jews here, too, principally, I think, of Russian extraction besides, of course, Egyptians, Arabs and Europeans of every possible nationality. What excited a good deal of interest were Moslem women wearing Yash-maks, those veils covering the lower parts of the face. We could not have chosen a better time to arrive. The whole population of Alexandria, more or less, had turned out to see a fire, and we had the pleasure of inspecting the fire brigade. Some brigade. Then we passed a Moslem temple, or praying house, where in full view of passers-by, devout Alexandrians were bowing and scraping. It seemed peculiar to see the worshippers taking off their boots on the doorstep before venturing within”.

Source: Bedfordshire Times 14th April 1916

(1) It was founded by Alexander the Great, whose name it bears, about 331 BC.

1st/5th Bedfords Move Again

The Giza pyramids - photograph by Ricardo Liberato

Wednesday 2nd February 1916: the 1st/5th Battalion has been at Sidi Bishr a coastal area of Alexandria but yesterday moved to Mena Camp in the shadow of the pyramids at Giza south of Cairo. The journey took most of the day – leaving Sidi Bishr at 9.30 am and reaching Cairo at 6.45 pm, the Battalion having tea at Cairo Station. The great pyramids have gazed down on mortals for nearly 4,500 years and, to them, this war, however long it lasts, must be a very fleeting thing indeed

Source: X550/6/8

The 1st/5th Bedfords Leave the Coast

Friday 31st December 1915: yesterday the 1st/5th Bedfords left Sidi-Bishr, a suburb of Alexandria, moving some miles south-east to the town of Damanhur, taking over a barracks from the 1st Composite Battalion, 29th Division(1). Presumably this is the beginning of a deployment towards the Suez Canal far away to the east, which must be protected at all costs from Turkish attack.

Source: X550/6/8

(1) This Division did not leave Gallipoli until January 1916 so this battalion, presumably, was made up of reinforcements and those who had been wounded and sick and had recovered or who had been detached for some other reason.

Rain at Christmas

Sunday 26th December 1915: We have heard how two of the battalions of the Bedfordshire Regiment spent their Christmas. The 1st/5th Battalion, in camp at Sidi Bishr, a suburb of Alexandria, are closest to the place of the Nativity. Their Church Parade was cancelled owing to rain. It may surprise us to hear of rain in Egypt but we understand that around two inches falls in Alexandria in December, it is the regions further south where rain is practically unknown – in Luxor, for example, where the famous Valley of the Kings lies they experience less than one tenth of an inch in the average year! The Yellow Devils, however, rain or no rain, enjoyed their Christmas dinners to which every man was invited, even if on detachment away from the camp.

The 2nd Battalion, in billets at Ribeaucourt, west of Doullens in the Somme country, enjoyed a football match in the afternoon in which the officers beat the sergeants 9 goals to 1! Nowhere have we heard of incidents of fraternisation with the enemy such as occurred last Christmas. Perhaps the Germans’ use of such horrific weapons as liquid fire and poisoned gas have put them beyond the usages of civilization. Perhaps too much blood has flowed on both sides and, no doubt, the top brass will have been keen to prevent any repeat.

Sources: X550/3/wd; X550/6/8

Warm Work in Alexandria and on the Somme

German 105mm howitzer at IWM Duxford

Sunday 19th December 1915: the 1st/5th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment yesterday arrived at Alexandria. On disembarkation they marched to the suburb of Sidi Bishr, north-east of the port, reaching it at 3 o’clock and then encamped. We note that the average temperature in Alexandria at this time of year is around 59°F.

It is nowhere near so warm as this in France where the adjutant of the 7th Battalion tells us there was quite a lot going on yesterday afternoon. Between 3 and 4 o'clock the enemy started sending over rifle grenades, sausages, bombs and whizz-bangs(1). Five rifle grenades fell in rear of one trench and failed to explode. The Battalion retaliated with bombs from West Gun firing at the enemy front line trench - one or two trench mortars and a few shells when all was quiet again.

Sources: X550/6/8; X550/8/1

(1) The term sausage generally meant an observation balloon but here it clearly means some type of explosive projectile, unless the Germans really were throwing sausages, which seems unlikely. Whizz bangs were any kind of light shell.