TRENCHES

[Colonel F. E. G. Skey of the Royal Engineers.] Offprint of his obituary by ‘C. F. A.-C.’, with full-page portrait, from the Royal Engineers Journal; together with manuscript map of ‘SKEY TRENCH / near PONT FIXE’ (Battle of Loos, First World War).

Author: 
Colonel F. E. G. Skey [Frederic Edward Guthrie Skey] (1864-1944), first secretary and Treasurer of Institution of Royal Engineers, editor of Royal Engineers Journal [Battle of Loos, First World War]
Publication details: 
Offprint ‘Reprinted from The Royal Engineers Journal - March, 1945’ (London). Undated pencil sketch of Skey Trench, Battle of Loos, 1915.
£80.00

Scarce: no copies on WorldCat or JISC. 2pp, 8vo, paginated 1-2, with photographic portrait of ‘Colonel F. E. G. SKEY’ on art paper facing the first page. In grey wraps with printed title on front cover ‘Memoir / OF / COLONEL F. E. G. SKEY.’ In fair condition, lightly worn and aged, with two vertical creases. Describing Skey’s active career, the obituarist begins by noting that ‘It is not given to everyone to work as late in life as Skey did.’ Skey had been ‘promoted Colonel in 1912 and retirned in March, 1914, having been offered the Secretaryship of the R. E.

[WITH MS MAP] First WW aerial reconnaissance photo. of the area around Passchendaele during the 3rd Battle of Ypres, and intelligence map of the same area, with manuscript plan of the Honnecourt Wood and Lempire-Ronssoy area in pencil on reverse.

Author: 
[Aerial photograph and manuscript map of the Passchendaele area during the 3rd Battle of Ypres, First World War; No. 105 Machine Gun Company; British Army]
Publication details: 
Passchendaele, Belgium. 'Reproduced & Printed by No 5 Advanced Section AP & SS'. Stamped on the reverse: 'NO. 105 MACHINE GUN COMPANY', with the date '1/9/17' [i.e. 1 September 1917.
£800.00

Printed on a piece of card, roughly 50 x 22 cm., with the photographic side shiny and the reverse carrying the manuscript plan matt. In fair condition, folded four times and lightly aged, worn and chipped. The whole of the one side comprises a single photographic print, with 'Reproduced & Printed by No 5 Advanced Section AP & SS' at the foot. The upper part of this print reproduces an aerial photograph, roughly 15 x 22 cm, with six positions indicated: 'Kansas Cross', 'Gravenstafel', 'Passchendaele', 'Otto FM. D. 15a', 'Delva FM.

Printed programme of a performance by the First World War British Army 33rd Division Concert Party 'The Shrapnels', titled 'The First attempt at Pantomime in France | To avoid confusion we name it | The Babes in the W (censored)'.

Author: 
'Corporal James Flint, Glasgow Highlanders' ['The Shrapnels' Concert Party of the 33rd Division of the British Army in the First World War]
Publication details: 
Slug: 'Béthune. - Imprimerie H. DAVID.' 'Initial Performance Wednesday 22nd Dec. 1915 and every evening until further notice'.
£80.00

4pp., 4to. Bifolium. Fair, on aged and lightly-creased paper. An excessively scarce piece of First World War ephemera, with the only copy traced at the Imperial War Museum.

Carbon copy of manuscript.

Author: 
Stunts by Fag End': contemporaneous account of first world war experiences by unidentified writer.
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£100.00

3 pages, 8vo. On three leaves of paper, all creased, discoloured and worn, with a few tears and pin holes. Lively, humorous, and well-written account of the army career of a skiver. 'Behold me then the next time in the trenches a Lewis Gunner, my-self to be about to kill Bosches in neat little trenches of 47. As a matter of fact I did not kill one as I never fired the gun but we had one or two thrilling times. [...] January 1st. 1917 I became a member of the now famous Tank Corps.

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