Friday March 15^th, 1918

Raining & very cold indeed but usual routine. Wrote home

BSF Boxing Tournament

The 13th Manchesters enjoy success in the Welter Weights competitions at the Corps Boxing Tournament. Privates Glover and Marks are the winners of the Novice and Open classes respectively. The difference between the classes seems to be the number of  matches in which the boxer has competed.

These preliminary rounds are building towards  participation in the British Salonika Force (BSF) Boxing Tournament to be held at the Summerhill Camp between 21st and 23rd March 1918.   The Tournament sounds a splendid affair with a specially constructed ring and spectator areas, a flying display by the RFC and, at the finals, General Milne in attendance.¹

This photograph shows British troops watching an open air boxing tournament organized by the 3rd Battalion Royal Fusiliers at Lembet Camp in Salonika in spring 1916.*

General Milne, Commander in Chief, BSF 

Field Marshal George Francis Milne, 1st Baron Milne (1866-1948) was a career soldier.  Educated in Aberdeen and then at Woolwich Arsenal, he was  commissioned in 1885, serving initially in India, Malta and the UK.  He was with Kitchener both during the Nile Expedition (1898) and the Second Boer War (1899-1902) where he served in Intelligence.  By now a Brigadier-General, he saw distinguished service in France at the outbreak of WWI, being promoted to General Officer Commanding (GOC) 27th Division in summer 1915.

Posted to Salonika in January 1916  to command XVIth Corps, he became Commander in Chief of the BSF in mid-1916 when his predecessor, General Mahon, was moved first to Egypt and then to Ireland later the same year.  Milne became a Lieutentant-General in 1917, was knighted in 1918 and remained as head of the BSF until the end of the war.

In 1923 he became Aide de Camp (ADC) to the King and then Chief of the Imperial General Staff (head of the British Army) in 1926.  He was raised to the peerage as Baron Milne of Salonika and of Rubisilaw in 1933. Milne was an air raid warden in Westminster during WWII.

13^th  (Service) Battalion War Diary – 15^h March 1918 – No 1 Sector, Olasli

Training as per programme. Extract from Corps Routine Orders (Notices):- Corps Boxing Tournament Open Competition Winner Welter Weight Pte Marks, 13^th Manchester Regiment. Novices, Welter Weight Winner Pte Glover, 13^th Manchester Regiment.

References & Further Reading

¹ ‘Under the Devil’s Eye’ by Wakefield and Moody, Kindle location 3770

* image Q31849, copyright IWM

² General Milne, Wikipedia