Page 29 - WW1 - 1914

Redditch Local History Society Remembering Redditch Residents & WW1

th
The Bromsgrove, Droitwich and Redditch Messenger – Saturday 26
September 1914

Wounded Redditch Soldier – Private W. Griffiths ( 8608), of the Worcestershire
Regiment, whose home is at 25 Victoria Street, Redditch, and who is now a patient at No 1
Northern General Hospital, Newcastle-on-Tyne, in a letter to his wife, says: - “It was an awful
time out there. I shall never forget it. I had my baptism of fire at the battle of Mons. I was
under shell and rifle fire for eight hours. Then we were marching and fighting rear-guard
actions all the while. We marched 217 miles in ten days, and on many days we did not get
th
time for a wash. On Monday 7 September, however, we started advancing, driving the
enemy out of the towns and villages as we went. On Tuesday we drove them out of the town
of Rebais. Some of the houses were still burning when we entered the town and our
company captured two Germans. One of them told us he had been a waiter at the Savoy
Hotel, London. About three miles the other side of the town we had to drive the enemy out
of a strong position on a heavily wooded slope. We had just got them on the move out of it
when I got my wounds from a bursting shell. The doctor extracted the pieces. I will show
you the piece out of my head when I get home. I have given the other to the nurse. The
doctor tells me I have had a wonderful escape and must have a skull made of cast steel. The
skull turned it and it ran along under the skin. The other piece went in the thick of the thigh,
and was not quite through on the other side. It was got out from the underside, and it gave
me “gip.” I shall have to go back again if the war is still on when I am well, but I shall have a
furlough first.

© RLHS 2014 Page: 29