Introduction

Summary

This volume consists of three main parts: firstly the War Diary of the 7th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment; secondly, a private diary kept by one of its officers, Second Lieutenant Henry J. Cartwright, during his time in France, and, thirdly, appendices detailing some facts and figures about the battalion, a selection of Operational Orders it received and descriptions of battles in which it was involved.

A War Diary was kept by each unit of battalion size and larger (including such formations as brigades and divisions) while on active service during the First World War. The diary was intended to be a record of the unit's doings, and was written by the Adjutant. The diaries were completed in a number of identical copies, of which one was kept by the unit itself and one sent to the War Office. Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service (BLARS) has the battalion copy; The National Archives has the War Office copy. This transcription is of the BLARS copy.

The Bedfordshire Regiment became the Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Regiment in 1919 and in 1958 was amalgamated with the Essex Regiment to form the 3rd Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment. The Regiment had used Kempston Barracks as a training facility and depot base. When it gave the building up BLARS cleared the building and the records taken formed the Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Regiment Collection under the reference number X550. Included in these records were the War Diaries of each battalion and that of the 7th Battalion which was allotted the reference number X550/8/1.

The BLARS copy of the diary contains a large number of Operational Orders. These were received from Brigade, Division, Corps or Army Headquarters and dealt with such matters as moving from one area to another, training to be carried out and, of course, attacks to be made on the enemy. Selections of these appear in the Appendices together with reports on battles in which the battalion took part, written by the Commanding Officer of the time. The Appendices also contain statistics on such matters as where the battalion was at any one time and numbers of men killed in selected actions.