Henry Buckle's War - 1914-1916

Henry Charles Buckle was a whitesmith from Tewkesbury. Before the Great War he had been a part-time soldier with 5th (Territorial) Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment. He volunteered for active service in September 1914, despite being married and with a young child, and rejoined his unit, 1/5th Gloucesters.

Henry Buckle’s period of service abroad was a relatively brief one. 1/5th Gloucesters went to France on 29th March 1915, and Henry was injured in October of that year when a trench collapsed on him, as a result of enemy shell-fire. The injury to his knee involved many months of treatment before he was pronounced unfit and discharged from the army in August 1916.

He kept a diary of his experiences which he typed up after the war, omitting all the dates and many place names. He was a keen amateur photographer, and water-colourist, but it has to be said that his water-colours are by no means accomplished. However, together with his diary, Henry Buckle’s paintings, over seventy in number, provide a fascinating insight into life in and out of the trenches in France during 1915. Contemporary colour images from the front are all too rare, and Henry’s charming and naïve pictures are full of exquisite details and insights.

The photograph above shows men of 1/5th Gloucesters, including new recruits without uniforms, during their early days of training at Chelmsford in late 1914 and early 1915.

Henry wrote:-

No uniform yet, the old blue suit looks a mess, and boots are nearly done, three of our pals do not mess with us, (that is, squat in the field), they go down town to a restaurant; can’t afford that.

Obtained a pair of boots today, also a rifle (old pattern). The rifle seems familiar again, but the boots—-! Oh lor, had job to manage the day out with them.

Despite Henry’s enthusiasm for photography, no photographs taken by him during this period are known by us to have survived, although he did set up his own photographic studio in a farmhouse near Chelmsford, to take pictures of his chums. 1/5th Gloucesters were accompanied by a professional photographer from Cheltenham during their stay in Essex, and hundreds of the pictures taken by him have survived. It might well be that one or more of them include images of Henry Buckle, but, surprisingly, we do not know what he looked like.

The introductory image to this exhibition shows 1/5th Gloucesters drawn up on parade in front of Chelmsford viaduct, prior to leaving for France. Many of them would not return. Henry Buckle’s wound, a “Blighty” one, ensured that he was spared many of the later horrors of the Great War, including the Battle of the Somme. His diary concludes on Christmas Day, 1915:-

This is Christmas day, have just eaten my Christmas dinner with the wife and kiddie, for which we are all very thankful. But have remembered those who are still out there, especially the old pals who are in little plots of ground that will be England for ever, and that this upheaval will speedily end, and the others will be restored to their homes and people.

This Exhibition commemorates not only the military experience of Henry Buckle, but remembers with him the millions of other individuals who fought, lost life or limb, or who served their country in any capacity during the “War to End All Wars” as well as in those which preceded and came after it.