Christmas turkey in Crimea for troops far from home

FROM a feast of turkey and champagne above the ruins of Sebastopol during the Crimean War, to standing guard at Bethlehem in 1919, to a sweltering Christmas Day in Belize, researchers have discovered a treasure-trove of letters, photographs and cards detailing how soldiers spent Christmas while serving their country overseas during the past two centuries.

The remarkable collection has been unearthed as the Green Howards Regimental Museum in North Yorkshire museum places its collection of some 40,000 photographs onto a new online database.

The discovery comes at a fitting time as the current generation of Green Howards soldiers – who were amalgamated into the Yorkshire Regiment as its 2nd Battalion in 2006 – prepare to spend Christmas away from their loved ones in Cyprus where they have been posted as battle casualty replacements for Afghanistan.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Among the artefacts is a Christmas card made from an old piece of uniform by a Lance Corporal Smith and sent to his sister from South Africa during the Boer War. The card contains a poem that reads:

Good luck and prosperity to you he sends

A soldier who is not with the best of friends

One piece of khaki from an old coat he’d worn

Discarded because it was tattered and torn

It is not a gilt edged or highly priced card

But it carries best wishes and kindest regards.”

Another Christmas card has also been discovered dating back to 1941, written by Corporal John R Needham, from the 5th Battalion Green Howards to his children at 50 Nelson Street, Scarborough.

The handwritten card depicts Santa riding a camel.

The range of photographs include soldiers from the 1st Battalion guarding the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Palestine, in Christmas 1919, a Green Howards’ Ball in December 1929, the 1st Battalion band playing at a Christmas event in 1941, and celebrating Christmas in British Honduras, now Belize, in 1968.

Lynda Powell, director of the Green Howards Museum, said: “These soldiers would have been spending Christmas in far-flung places hundreds of miles away but the fact that they had people back home thinking about them obviously means a great deal.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“For a lot of soldiers it gives a purpose to what they are doing.

“As we have gone through more and more of the database it has made it easier to search for exact things, but it is always a surprise to find something new.

“I was surprised when these photographs turned up.

“As soon as you start to pick away, it is amazing what comes to light. These pictures show that soldiers have always made the best of a situation and go out of their way to celebrate Christmas among themselves and to enjoy the day. It shows the effort that people go to.

“It is lovely that as a regiment we have all these regimental photographs which tell us such a vivid story of our Christmases gone by.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The collection also contains a description of Christmas during the Crimean War written by Captain Charles Lidwell in 1854 while posted at the port of Sebastopol.

He describes coming back from trench duty on Christmas Day with a frost so cold it froze soldiers’ instruments and gripped the camp with an “iron-bound hardness”.

Capt Lidwell spends much of the day searching for somewhere to eat Christmas dinner, before being invited to a meal by two fellow soldiers.

He writes: “At seven o’clock I presented myself to Uniacke and Clay and we sat down to a rare good dinner, consisting of soup, turkey and champagne.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“How the cooking was arranged I cannot tell at all, considering that there was no fuel, except roots of trees.

“We had a most convivial evening and our confidential communications went on into the early dawn, when we rose to return.”

The collection is being made available on the Green Howards Museum website today. The building is open until Friday before shutting until February 1.

The public can come to the museum to do their own research, while its staff also offer a service where they can research on people’s behalf for a donation.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Anyone wishing to conduct their own research needs to book by calling 01748 826561.

The regiment was first raised in November 1688 for service under William, Prince of Orange.

It first became associated with the North Riding of Yorkshire in 1782 when it was granted the title of “The 19th (First Yorkshire North Riding Regiment) of Foot” after returning from taking part in the American War of Independence.

Giving aid to our heroes in need

THE Yorkshire Post’s Christmas appeal in aid of ABF – The Soldiers’ Charity comes to an end this week.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The charity was founded in 1944 as the Army Benevolent Fund to cope with the enormous strain following the end of the Second World War and need for a charity to give practical help to our soldiers and veterans. Its first patron was King George VI.

The charity exists to provide lifetime support to serving and retired soldiers and their families and immediate financial assistance to those in need.

In the past year, it has seen a major rise in applications from soldiers and a 50 per cent leap in the number of Armed Forces families in need of help.

The charity needs to double its annual income from £7m to £14m by 2015 to cope with the sheer scale of soldiers in need of its support during what is widely predicted to be a time of unprecedented need.

Cheques with individual donations, payable to ABF – The Soldiers’ Charity, can be sent to the Editor’s Secretary, Yorkshire Post, Wellington Street, Leeds, LS1 1RF.

Related topics: