BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR CASE STUDIES ON
SIDNEY SMITH AND ROBERT MILINGTON KNOWLES
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The Army Postal Service and the importance of letters and parcels
Types of letters used by soldiers in the First World War
Censorship
Reading Soldiers’ personal letters
British Army war diaries
Princess Mary’s Christmas Gift
The Wipers Times
Hill 60
1.The Army Postal Service and the importance of letters and
parcels
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Frequent delivery of letters and parcels helped to maintain the morale
of the troops serving on the front line.
It also served to lift the sprits of families supporting the war effort back
home. This was especially true once the war of movement dragged into
the war of stalemate.
Soldiers did not know which letter would be their last letter home and
every soldier had a page in their pay book where they could write their
own Last Will and Testament
The wartime post was a very effective operation that saw 12.5 million
letters sent to the front line each week.
The British government went to enormous lengths to have letters and
parcels delivered in a war-zone. Parcels included food luxuries such as
Christmas puddings, cakes and sweets as well as cigarettes,
newspapers, magazines and even a watch and a golf club (see the
letters of Sidney Smith and Robert Millington Knowles). Given the
distances involved, the movement of army units and the arrival of new
recruits, they did an incredible job.
The Royal Engineers, a versatile Corps of the British Army, played a
key role in supporting the development of the wartime postal service.
Originally established in 1913 with 10 officers and 290 other ranks it
grew significantly in size by the end of the war. By 1918 the Army
Postal Service employed 4000 soldiers.
The Army Postal Service moved to France in 1914, along with the
British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F) and letters were collected from the
UK and sent to a base at Le Havre where sorting took place.
The main unit was the Field Post Office and each of these had its own
number and special stamp (see examples of the stamps on the
envelopes of Sidney Smith and Robert Millington Knowles)
Each letter showing the words ‘On Active Service’ (O.A.S) was posted
free of charge but censorship was introduced and relevant officers in
the Field Post Office would sign to say that the contents of letters had
been checked.
2.TYPES OF LETTERS
Examples of these can be found on the resources pages for both case
studies and also on the PPT ‘The importance of letters and Parcels’.
The military authorities supplied the cards and envelopes to those on
active service.
Field Service Post Cards
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They were a quick and ready way of sending a message home to
families –but without soldiers having to write a long letter.
The sender completed the form by crossing out the statements that
didn’t apply to them. As such, this method of communication had both
advantages and disadvantages
Green Envelopes
 These are mentioned in Sidney Smith’s letters and they enabled
soldiers to send intimate letters to their loved ones back home.
 As a special concession to troops, the contents would not be routinely
read and censored by officers. Once the envelopes were sealed the
soldiers had to sign a statement to say that the contents would not
infringe the censorship regulations.
 As these were sometimes in scarce supply- especially to married men
with large families, the soldiers using this means of communication
generally adhered to censorship regulations.
Red Envelopes
 These were used in the early years of the war (1914-15) and were
specifically intended so that soldiers could deal with urgent family
matters or share personal information and feelings without being
routinely checked. At first one or two of these were issued to the troops
each week. The green envelope replaced them in 1915.
Telegrams and War Office Telegrams
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As the sender had to pay for each word the messages written on these
were generally very short – less than 50 words. There are examples of
these telegrams on the resources page for Hilda Zigomala and also for
Robert Millington Knowles.
Families of officers who died were informed by telegram
Army Form B104-82 usually informed families of soldiers who were
missing or died.
3. Censorship
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Examples of censor stamps can be found on the envelopes of Sidney
Smith’s letters and those of Robert Millington Knowles. Please see
PPT referenced above. Both men refer to censorship within their letters
but Robert’s comments are particularly interesting- especially in view of
some of the content included in his letters.
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With the outbreak of war, the British government brought in one of the
biggest acts of censorship ever attempted. As a result of the Defence
of the Realm Act (DORA) passed in 1914, soldiers’ letters could be
routinely read and censored by junior officers and they were given
instructions to cross out any questionable references.
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Some officers preferred not to read their men’s letters and so some
letters managed to get through the censorship checks .The following
information was prohibited because of its military importance:
-Location of the army units
-Information about defences
-Information about forthcoming offensives
-Information about casualties
-Negative comments that might harm morale back home
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There could be a random check once the letter was in transit and
letters subject to these checks were stamped with the ‘ opened by
censor ‘mark.
Some soldiers used secret codes in order to let their loved ones know
where they were fighting. For example, they might use capital letters in
a certain sequence of sentences to indicate places- or they could start
their letter with a particular letter, which might indicate a location (e.g.
So sorry for not writing sooner ….S for Somme).
Many families followed the news from the front through newspaper
reports and focused on references to place names and battles. Both
Hilda Zigomala and the family of Millington Knowles, admittedly very
well read and affluent people, kept themselves very well informed of
events taking place on the front line.
Provision of stationary
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Soldiers could obtain stationery supplies from bases located behind the
front lines and from families
Letters could be written in pencil or ink but soldiers did not have the
modern array of writing equipment available today and writing in ink
could prove difficult in the trenches.
4. Reading soldiers’ personal letters
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The letters of Sidney Smith and Robert Millington Knowles were written
as private letters for family members. As such they contain references
to shortened family names and nicknames and to events linked with
personal family circumstances. Sometimes it is difficult to make sense
of these references as the reader is only looking at one side of the
communication. Nevertheless, as personal letters they provide
poignant insights into the experiences and attitudes of the two men.
Although Sidney Smith and Robert Millington Knowles served in the
same battalion of the Norfolk Regiment they came from very different
backgrounds. Pupils will pick up on incorrect spelling and changes in
the use of language since 1914 and these offer interesting
opportunities for discussions linked to ‘ Trench Talk’, to schooling and
to writing under the conditions of trench warfare.
The spelling of words and places on transcribed versions of the letters
are authentic and pupils can explore reasons why they have been left
uncorrected.
5. Official War Diaries
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Each unit in the First World War was required to keep a diary of its dayto-day activities. These are not private diaries. Sometimes they contain
information about particular people-for example officers joining or
leaving the battalion or particular incidents involving certain officers or
soldiers. Some include sketches of maps and plans. The relevant war
diary containing information about the Ist Battalion Norfolk Regiment
can be found on the case study resource page for both Sidney Smith
and Robert Millington Knowles.
6. Princess Mary’s Christmas Gift, 1914
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This is mentioned in one of Sidney Smith’s letters and an example of
one of these boxes can be found at the Castle Museum. Please see
PPT slides on the resources page to access a photograph of this.
A public fund was set up to provide money for a gift to the troops
serving on land and at sea in 1914. It was estimated that £60.000 was
needed and £ 162,591 was raised. The original plan was amended and
expanded in light of enormous pubic support.
The gift box is an embossed brass box designed for smokers and nonsmokers. Smokers were given cigarettes and/or tobacco and a pipe
and non-smokers were given a pencil and writing materials. Each box
also held a Christmas card and a photograph of Princess Mary.
The first batch of boxes was sent out on 12th December and Sidney
Smith received his in time for Christmas 1914.
7.The Wipers Times
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This was a humorous and satirical paper produced for the troops by
Captain Fred Roberts and Lieutenant Jack Pearson of the 12th
Battalion, Sherwood Foresters. These enterprising officers found an old
printing press whilst stationed in the ruins of Ypres and they managed
to get this working effectively. The first edition of the Wipers Times had
a print run of just 100 copies (due to cost and availability of paper).
However, the readership was considerably larger than this because
each copy was passed from soldier to soldier. You can gain an insight
into the magazine’s origin, tone and style through studying the editorial
page of the first issue. The content (poems, advertisements and
parodies etc.) focused primarily on the experience of soldiers fighting
under the most ghastly of conditions but the tone was stoically upbeat
and the paper did not contain ‘ smut or vulgarity’.
8. Background on Hill 60
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Both Sidney Smith and Robert Millington Knowles refer to this area
within their letters.
This was approximately three miles from Ypres and was man-made.
It was created in the 1860’s from the material dug out from a nearby
railway line
It was almost 50 meters high but because the surrounding terrain was
so flat it offered clear advantages to whichever army unit managed to
keep control of the summit.
The Germans used poisonous gas at Hill 60 and this is mentioned in
the letters of Robert Millington Knowles.
The Hill was an ongoing military target for both Allies and the Germans
and it changed hands on a number of occasions during the war.
Because of the fierceness of the fighting for Hill 60, it is believed that
many bodies may still lie there.