Search - KCL Digital Collections

Information & Metadata

Catalogue record URL (AtoM):: https://archives.kingscollections.org/index.php/smith-wd-2-1

Source collection title:: SMITH, Major General Sir William Douglas (1865-1939)

Description (scope):: Manuscript copy diary relating to Smith's command of 1 Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers, Aug-Oct 1914, including: their arrival in France, 13 Aug 1914; the Battle of Mons, 23 Aug 1914; the retreat from Mons to the River Marne, Aug-Sep 1914; the Battle of Le Cateau, 26 Aug 1914; his high opinion of German infantry tactics, and the German use of aerial reconnaissance (5 Sep 1914); the First Battle of the Marne, 5-12 Sep 1914; the First Battle of the Aisne, 13-28 Sep 1914; the death of Major General Sir Hubert Ion Wetherall Hamilton, 14 Oct 1914; the Battle of La Bassee, 18-29 Oct 1914. Volume also includes: printed messages from King George V and Field Marshal Sir John French; a printed translated extract from an alleged order by Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany for the destruction of 'General French's contemptible little army', 9 Aug 1914; instructions, 22 and 23 Aug 1914, for an anticipated attack, including instructions by Captain R Stevens, 9 Infantry Brigade [Captain Reginald Walter Morton Stevens, died 28 Aug 1914]; a report on 'A' and 'C' companies, 1 Royal Scots Fusiliers, 25-27 Aug 1914, at Vendegies-sur-Ecaillon and Le Cateau, by Major Athel Murray Hay Forbes.

Copyright:: Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied from open material for research purposes only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, via the Archives.; King's College London Archives