Monday May 6th, 1918
Money Orders to wife E/66 714602 (4/-); 66/B 448386 (1/6); C/51 684814 (2/-) and L/28 668210 (10/-)
Work at 6:15 screening. Warned for Quarter Guard Thursday. Two hours work, complained and got two hours extra. Good mail up, eight letters and two papers from home and friends. Wrote home and sent Sterling 1.0.0.
Military Discipline
Frank sends money home again in the form of postal orders. He jots the numbers and values down here. His finances remain a mystery. Eight letters and two papers was quite the haul from one mail delivery, he is obviously delighted.
He is working on screening again – just like two weeks ago, but tomorrow will be on Guard Duty. It is unclear which two hours of work he is grumbling about – but clearly he has moaned to the wrong person and got his work load doubled.
I came across an interesting statement, ‘Obedience and order are the backbones of any military system. The purpose of military law, unlike its civilian counterpart, is to help ensure cohesion and victory through the imposition of discipline, and not to achieve justice.’¹
A different wording of the sentiment would be, ‘Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die’²
A better understanding of military discipline probably wouldn’t have made Frank feel any better about his extra duty, but it might have helped make more sense of it.
He was obviously deemed guilty of a ‘small scale misdemeanour’. ‘These crimes included everything from matters of individual presentation such as being unshaven, untidy or losing kit; not saluting or addressing superiors correctly; dirty or incorrect equipment; being late on parade or after curfew, etc. They would be detected and dealt with by the NCOs and officers of a man’s own unit. NCOs often gave men extra fatigues or exercise as punishment for small matters.’³
As described here, Frank received summary punishment in the form of extra fatigues – a bit like an on-the-spot fine.
13th (Service) Battalion War Diary – 6th May 1918 – Saida
Work as on 3rd and 4th. There was a conference of Battalion Commanders at Brigade HQ at Table at 10:30 hours.
References & Further Reading
¹ Discipline and Punishment, Canada and the First World War, Canadian War Museum
² Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’
³ ‘Military Crimes 1914-1918 British Army‘ on The LongLong Trail
* ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’, painted by William Simpson & lithograph by E. Walker. Library of Congress, public domain, Wikimedia Common