After the outbreak of World War I, in August 1914, Reginald enlisted with his local regiment, the Sherwood Foresters – even though he was only eighteen, and the minimum official age for service was then nineteen. He spent the first two and a half years of his service in training, while his regiment was held in reserve, apart from a brief distraction in Dublin in 1916. It was at Easter in that year that the Irish republicans chose to mount an uprising against the English, and the regiment was sent over to help restore order. In a tragic episode in the streets of Dublin, a whole detachment of Reginald’s comrades were massacred in an ambush by Sinn Fein, who were using guerilla tactics. Reginald never forgave the Irish for that. His regiment remained in Dublin for a while, continuing with their training, until things cooled down.
Early in 1917, Reginald’s regiment was sent to France to join the main
British front line. A major onslaught started in March. The regiment passed
through Foucocourt and the ruined villages of Jeancourt and Vraignes, and
pushed the Germans back 20-40 miles, only to lose ground again when the
Germans started a last, desperate counter-offensive. At the beginning of
April, eight hundred of the regiment were in action again between St.
Quentin and Péronne on the Somme when another great advance started. As a
result of bad planning and organization, they reached the enemy six hours
late – instead of two hours before daybreak, as intended – , only to be
mercilessly mown down by the German machine guns, which the artillery were
supposed to have silenced first: out of the original eight hundred, only
twenty-five were left fit enough to carry on. Reginald was badly wounded in
the left shoulder, and was fortunate to get home. Indeed, at first he was
not expected to live. He was taken first to a dressing station and then to a
casualty clearing station at Bray-sur-Somme, before being transferred to a
hospital at Le Havre. From there he crossed the Channel in the hospital ship
“Lanfranc” (which was sunk on its next crossing), before spending three
years in Springburn Red Cross Hospital and then Kelvingrove Red Cross
Hospital (now the Western Infirmary), both in Glasgow. He lost the use of
his left forearm and hand (which was ‘set’ as a closed fist), for which he
received a War Disability Pension for the rest of his life. His industrial
career was at an end, as he could now only do clerical work; but
surprisingly, neither his sport nor his art suffered noticeably – and he
could still play the piano with one hand and a fist! The bullet that wounded
him was mounted by Mappin & Webb in London , and is inscribed “4.4 RT
1917” (The 4.4 refers to the date of the action). When he visited the War
Memorial in Melbourne in 1975, he was genuinely moved to read all the
names of those killed in France, with whom he had been at school or played
games in his youth; there were so many of them, almost a lost generation.
Commentary by Reginald's son. Many thanks to him for the amount and the quality of the information received with regards to Reginald and the Tivey Family of Melbourne
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