Squadron Leader E D Kingsley

Ts account (54pp), written in (?) 1974, describing his enlistment in August 1914 and his service in France with the 1st Battalion, Honourable Artillery Company (8th Brigade, 3rd Division) (September 1914 - March 1915); his service on the Ypres salient, after being commissioned into the 2nd Battalion Seaforth Highlanders (10th Brigade, 4th Division), until he was wounded (March - May 1915); after a period of recuperation in the United Kingdom, on active service in Mesopotamia with the 1st Battalion Seaforth Highlanders (19th Indian Brigade, 7th (Meerut) Division) (March - July (?) 1916) and then, having volunteered for service as an observer with the RFC, with No. 30 Squadron RFC engaged on reconnaissance and artillery observation duties (July 1916 - June 1917) and also covering his subsequent training as a pilot in Egypt and service there as an instructor (June 1917 - June 1918) and his attendance on a heavy bomber course back in the United Kingdom. The account includes some interesting reflections on conditions in the trenches during the first winter of the war, on the attitudes of the volunteer troops and on the severity of conditions in Mesopotamia and low morale after the failure of the efforts to relieve Kut.

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