[Archive] First World War Correspondence of Captain George Malleson Butt, Army Service Corps, Salonika Army and Black Sea Forces

Approximately 250 letters written by Captain George Malleson Butt (1880-1936) of the Army Service Corps, written while on active service in the First World War, mainly with the Salonika Army and Black Sea Forces in the Balkans; the greater part addressed to his father George Weller Butt (d.1931) of Wilbury, Littlehampton, but with a number to his brother Charles Arthur Butt in Brighton. The earliest letters date from 1914, and the latest from 1919.The Butts were a prosperous family of Sussex timber merchants, trading in Littlehampton and Brighton under the name John Eede Butt & Sons. Butt himself was a well-educated man, having gone up from the exclusive Lancing College to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1898. He was an active young man, excelling at cricket at Lancing, and at cross-country running at Cambridge. After university he joined the British Army, and was already a Second Lieutenant in the A.S.C. by 1908. Six years later, in December 1914, and with England at war, Butt was appointed a Captain in the Army Service Corps Territorial Force. After the war Butt continued in the family business. On his death in 1936 he was described in the London Gazette as a ‘Timber Importer’, ‘late of 21 Wilbury Gardens, Hove’. He was survived by a widow, Violet Mary Butt (née Stilwell, d.1982).Butt’s letters are signed ‘George’, and he addresses his father as ‘Guv’nor’, and his brother as ‘Balbus’. The correspondence is in good condition, on aged paper, with the majority of letters accompanied by their original envelopes, many of which show signs of wear (a number of letters and envelopes have yet to be matched). The envelopes, although often in poor condition, are of interest for their postmarks. For example, one letter, dated 15 May 1915 has a circular black postmark of the Field Post Office D.27, 16 May 1915; as well as a triangular red postmark ‘Passed by Censor No. 802’, and a circular black postmark, Littlehampton, 8.15am, 18 May 1915. One letter (15 July 1918) carries a spoof circular censor’s mark written in pencil: ‘PASSED BY CENSOR | YOUR WIFE’. Together with the main correspondence is a small miscellaneous collection of other items, including letters (one from C. A. Butt’s wife Helen), postcards, newspaper cuttings, and a few items relating to the business.Butt writes extremely well, and his letters are filled with perceptive comments on the state of the war. He is allowed to be surprisingly frank about operational matters, either because he is an officer, or because he is a censor himself. On New Year’s Day 1915 he writes to his father from France of the latter role: ‘one of the men in a letter I was censoring says we heard the noise of guns all day, a shocking lie, but the censor’s duty is not to say whether men are speaking the truth but to cross out any names of places or information that should not be given’. While there is no evidence that any of Butt’s correspondence has been censored, it is of interest that the envelopes of letters written by him as late as April 1919 still carry censors’ stamps. Topics include (non-specific) news of troop movements, the state of the regiment, speculation on the war in general, the terrain, equipment, personal and business news, and everyday practicalities including ‘Gillette blades’ and latrines)The following extracts give a flavour of the correspondence, but by no means exhaust its interest: perhaps for reasons of censorship it is almost entirely written in pencil, and is often extremely difficult to decipher. Butt was himself clearly aware of the problem with his handwriting, writing to his brother on 6 March 1915: ‘At last I am answering your last letter & the writing may be clearer, but it is being done with a pencil given me by our general.’1914:On 14 November he writes to his father (‘Dear Guv’nor’) from the Supply Depot, Sittingbourne, and three days later he reports that his regiment has ‘had telegraphic orders to be ready to move to Newcastle at short notice, that is all cancelled again, so now I suppose we shall settle down to prepare for France again: all home service men are being sent home in a day or two we expect to be quite ready to move, at present there are a few things still wanted, like rifles two bicycles & a motor car: we have our full complement of officers but 3 are new recruits: one difficulty is experienced N.C.O’s’. On 20 December he writes from Havre that he has been ‘biletted at a decent small hotel last night & slept between sheets & under a roof for a change’. The following day he is ‘Somewhere on Rail’, but unable to state where.Throughout the correspondence Butt keeps the family business in mind. On 29 November 1914 he writes to his father that ‘it is very good news about the bank loan [...] it is rather awkward timber being made contraband & if Germany is not settled by the summer wood will be very scarce, the only thing is that the demand by then will be pretty small [...] I think the Germans have had pretty nearly enough of attacking in the west, but what the allies plans are goodness knows, the bombardment of Zeebrugge must have been a nasty pill for Germany: I wish we could get some official news of the battle in Russia’.1915:On 14 January 1915 he writes to his brother from ‘Somewhere abroad’: ‘I had to go to a place not far from the trenches, & slept the night there to the tune of big guns, my billet was a store floor with a couple of blankets & a coat, my pillow the kit bag with knobly parts inside, still I slept soundly in all my clothes & shaved this morning, but did not take my shirt off to work: it was within 5 miles of a place that will go down to history as famous for the fight there [Ypres?], give you 2 guesses; the mud was awful, I had my field boots on, but the soles are beginning to suffer; I will see if I can get a sole put on here [...] I cant say much about the life of men in the trenches, but they are having a terrible time. The weather is still mild & wet the mud is awful & the roads atrocious, the middle is paved with cobbles not wide enough for 2 vehicles to pass, & when you get off at the side it is axle deep in mud, the troops are improving the roads as far as possible, but it seems a slow job.’To begin with he attempts to maintain a positive tone. On 31 January 1915 he writes: ‘Every one here is still optimistic about the war & think we are only waiting for fine weather. The news in the papers is good’. And to his father on 12 March 1915: ‘The news seems better now, I saw yesterdays paper in the morning [...] I also saw the Neuv Capel [sic] news earlier still, in a wire to our brigade office, but I had not heard of the second submarine push, I think we shall really begin to weary the Germans all along the line now on both borders & as she must be losing men faster than she can replace them, things may progress quicker than I first thought, I am still waiting for the news that the Dardanelles are open. The big gun has hit an observation tower of the Germans the second shot it had at it’.In a letter to his father of 2 April 1915 he reports that he ‘moved this morning which shows how smoothly things work. We have moved to the town I have told you of before & of which I have sent some photos: it might interest you to know how things work as far as the supply part goes. We refilled at W – yesterday morning, the troops marched out from there at 4AM this morning; I sent the supply section over here yesterday afternoon so as to be ready here I stayed there in touch with Hd Qtrs & the S.S.O. got up at 4.A.M. had breakfast & motored over here, the lorries with our supplies arrived to the minute at 8, the supply wagons were waiting to draw them off they went to the units, it was only my brigade that was no trouble or bother, there was not an ounce short of anything although one or two oddments were switched in to me late, even the mails came here at the usual time, the only thing missing was the papers & the lorries had to start before they arrived [...] because it is 2 ¼ hours run for them, even coal & coke came up: [...] He begins a letter to his father of 21 April 1915: ‘I don’t know if the papers will say that – has been bombarded again, well it has & I am all right having moved back to a town about 8 miles away from the last show. They did bombard the place & have got a 17in gun up against it you can have no conception of the terrific & explosive sound a shell causes, I cannot describe it in a letter, that will have to wait’.By 6 May 1915 his optimism has evaporated, as he writes to his brother: ‘Lloyd George’s statement is all very well for home consumption but out here we know pretty well what divisions there are here there are nothing like enough. There seem a fair number of guns, but so have the Germans & it is astonishing what a big part guns play now, they reach so far it is most galling to us to hear of all the thousands of men at home when we want them here. The Germans are mighty strong & they mass their troops so cleverly: I am back a bit in the hard ground under a tarpaulin & a very nice life it is too. I sleep well when the guns will allow me to get to sleep, but it is a trying game to lie & listen to the guns every night: the supply work has been a bit influenced lately by the fighting but it has all been carried out satisfactorily & no one has gone short so far. As to the Dardanelles we watch the proceedings with interest but wish we had the men here.’On 29 July 1915 he gives his new address and describes how he has been ‘shifted to supply the divisional troops as that is supposed to be the job of the senior of the supply officers which I am’. Again to his brother, 28 November 1915: ‘It is beastly cold here now, only wish we could do the waiting down south, at present there is no news as to when we are likely to move, although the 3 brigades have all gone some may now have landed at the other end, dont know what the difficulty is & I dont worry about it, so long as things go smoothly here, always minor trouble of course’. And again to ‘Balbus’, 23 December 1915: ‘Still in the same place, but tomorrow have small move 25 miles away, as apparently the billets held by this divis are wanted for other troops as we are moving further back, but the powers that be like to make things as awkward as possible & units are 25 miles apart which makes the returning awfully difficult, but at the same time good practice’.1916:By 22 January 1916 Butt is in the Balkans: ‘The camp is outside the town on a bit of a hill, all under canvas: during the day it is warm & mild but at night very gold [...] the population seem a very mixed crowd & the poor numerous, they scavenge & thieve like blazes, some are picturesque, you know the baggy trouser picture & the sort of bible pictures of donkeys loaded up with people on top. [...] There is a local rag the "Balkan News" but most unreliable, could you read the weekly edition of the "Mail" or the "Times"’.Later in the year, regarding the Zeppelin, he writes of the ‘usual crop of rumours of course: why dont you treat Zeps like we do, there have been claims about it coming many times, as it has crossed the border, & I felt absolutly sure it would be scuppered if it ever got as far as Salonica, preparations for its reception were so complete, & I believe many many were anxious for it to come, we very seldom see a bosch aeroplane, but many of ours visit them, so we have the absolute mastery of the air round here. Most of the good work in the different theatres of war seems to be done by the Russians & French & of course Smuts, the Russians are doing finely in Asia Minor & if we could only join hands I think the Turks would crumple up as they have not enough men to hold the whole line, but they die very hard.’On 16 May 1916 he describes one of the Army’s ‘ills’: ‘what is called P.U.O.(a.) a sort of mild fever the temperature rises very mildly & you may feel a bit slack & weak but nothing else [...] I have not experienced it yet, it is not due to mosquitos & the doctors do not seem to know the exact cause. Dysentry is begining to start now the fly plague has begun, they are a fearful pest, no peace during the day at all, but thank goodness they are quiet at night.’On 22 May 1916 he describes his Balkan surroundings: ‘The hills round here are covered with flocks of sheep, goats & ponies, goodness knows where they have come from but there are thousands of them, the shepherd have little encampments, bring their womenfolk with them, all in picturesque garb of course & certain not Greeks but what nationality I could not say probably all sorts including a good many Bulgars’.On 30 May 1916 he writes of the changes resulting from the removal of ‘my requisitionary officer Minter who has been with me for 18 months has now gone to another company & I have got another one, but he will not be here to give me a hand, so I am single handed, but as the work is not very strenuous it will not matter’. He reports that he is ‘going to try & make my tent fly proof, & mosquitos have started now’.On 4 June 1916 he writes to his brother that ‘the war situation does not seem to grow any less complex. Out here the air is being cleared by the action of the Bulgars, for which I am not sorry & by the time your get this you will know that the French have taken over control of Salonica, which no doubt includes the railways & anything else we want & is just what I have said would be done’He begins a letter to his father of 9 June 1916 in triumphant mode: ‘Well, this has been an eventful week for news – the naval battle, Kitchener’s death, Greece blockaded, Russian offensive with 25,000 prisoners & now a renewed French success with 40,000 prisoners [...] the blockade of Greece is a most ludicrous affair, we go & put an army into a neutral country & then blockade it, I am not sorry though, the Greeks have played fast & loose too long, there seems very little excitement round here & I fancy Macedonia is in our favour being most closely concerned, but altho being farther away cannot realize things properly. The Russian offensive is great. I thought she had taken too many men away from the Italian front & hope this is only the beginning of the success’. On 3 July 1916 he describes how the Russians are ‘still doing great things & it looks as if they will smash the entire Austrian front & so compel the Germans to fall back the English also in their front seem to be getting to work partly I fancy to relieve the pressure in Verdun as the Germans had certainly made a little headway there’.On 29 September 1916 he writes to his father: ‘I believe Spain is playing a dirty game by supplying submarines, just as Greece did, & by the way the last rumour this morning – that Greece has come in, you will probably say much as I did, on which side, [...] I dont see that she will be much help now with Eastern Macedonia already in Bulgar hands, 3 months earlier would have made a big difference to us, too late in the year now as well.’A typed copy (with corrections) of a long letter (2pp., folio) of 24 October 1916 gives ‘a little description of our difficulties and conditions, as far as I can give them without contravening Censor’s orders [...] As I have said many times before, the country is wonderful, and I don’t wonder at people being fascinated by the Balkans. The hills are high compared to Sussex, and there is only one main road’. He describes the transport differences: ‘and as for condition of the road, it is appalling – the King’s Road at its worse [sic] would not hold a candle to it. [...] The views are wonderful: through the Rupel Pass we can see a range of hills in Bulgaria, and all the villages in the plain look mere hamlets, and of course the river a mere ditch.’ He moves on to the weather (‘Of course, I don’t know if I am settled for the Winter: if I am I shall get it metalled somehow. [...] It is all scrub round here and the ground is in a filthy state, so I have had a public latrine made to avoid further fouling. I don’t know who was here before and responsible for it, but they ought to be bumped.’). He also comments on the region with an eye to the family business: ‘The scrub is mostly holly, Oak, holly leaves and acorns. I want to send some acorns home to see if they will grow. Our Ordnance officer is in the Timber Trade – named Jelly of Bryce Junor & Jelly, and I had a talk about Timber with him yesterday. It pays to be friends with Ordnance, also Supply Depots[.] I have several invitations from O.C. Depots to stop with them any time I am passing through, and I can get almost anything I like from Ordnance, within reason.’On 19 December 1916 he writes to his brother: ‘I believe Roumania’s collapse is entirely due to lack of communication & I should have thought Russia could have provided enough, I only hope she will recover like she did last spring & if Italy gets going earlier, as she ought to [...] things will look more cheerful’.On 8 October 1916, to his father: ‘The Roumanians seem all right in the Dobronji & steadily gain ground & firmness in Transylvania. Out here on our left the allies are gaining ground & on the right we are worrying them last week they had quite a successful little show this division’On 18 October 1916: ‘The new chap I have got is absolutely useless, no good at all. I wish I could get rid of him & get another but most of the recent batches of officers sent up men for sorts, only joined when they had to & have no life or guts in them, I even have to see the transport arrangements in the morning, in order to keep the road clear & get a move on, the officers are so slack. Last night we were watching a Bulgar searchlight fliying around, I suppose they had the wind up over an attack; the more one hears about the recent result the more successful it seems to have been. I have seen some prisoners, they are fine looking men & well equipped, but I believe a bit fed up with the war.’1917:On 12 June 1917 he writes to his father from Marseilles: ‘The war goes on slowly but well; the massive battle seems to have been extraordinarily successful, goodness knows what it must have cost the Germans, they are staggered by it, now the question is what is the next move, I prophesied that offensive; not I think there will be a push just north of Lille & possibly a demonstration north of it at the same time, anyway the objective now will be to push them out of Lille, which I think would force the line back north as well & I rather fancy the Germans are preparing for retirement; as to the Russians, nothing can be foretold but I fancy the Americans will be in the field sooner than most people fancy & I think the submarine question will get better Mespot Palestine & Greece will practically stand still until the Russians move; Italy is being attacked pretty hard but will hold her own & when the pressure goes off will move forward again; all optimistic opinions I know. I should like to be in England now to see the country & have some strawberries & cream; the cherries here are first rate; the oranges they say have been inoculated by the Germans with poison, dont believe it myself.’On 14 September 1917: ‘We have at last had some rain, 2 evenings ago a thunderstorm & today something more like a steady rain, the longer I am here the more I marvel at the beauty of the scenery, the scene across the valley whatever the weather is absolutely wonderful, last evening it was extraordinarily clear, today misty, little clouds rolling up it, & I am never tired of looking at it, although like everyone else, fed up with the war, but not to the extent of wanting to make peace before the b – are beaten’.On 29 October 1917 he writes of the Great Thessaloniki Fire: ‘I am trying to get a souvenir copy of the Balkan News with an account of the fire in it & will send one when procured, it must have been bad, the refugees to be looked after now are a nuisance & water is a great trouble can you imagine B[righ]ton without a single hotel, that is the state of the place now, only in one decent spot left & that out of bounds as it was Austrian. I attended my first court martial the other day as a witness, they are not like civil trials. I was a witness for the prosecution, & there was a solicitor defending, but there was no trouble & everything was "friendly". | The "revue" finishes up in the district tonight. I am going again for the fourth time, although it means the midnight walk’.1918:On 8 January 1918 he is back in the Balkans: ‘’we had an awful blizzard 4 nights ago, bitterly cold on the hill tops 5 below zero, not so bad down here but bad enough, today has been calm with a clean sky & nice sun, now we await the next bout, a 4th blanket is being issued, almost unknown in English army annals; work proceeds as usual bad weather makes difficulties but with our previous experience, they do not worry us much’.On 18 March 1918 he reports: ‘I was told today the Americans are preparing for a 3 years war, sounds cheerful, but I am game for it, in order to see it to a good finish but I shall feel terribly older at the end.’And on 19 March 1918 he prophesies: ‘Germany has got such big concessions in the east, she may concede everything we want in the west when she sees she cannot beat us & I dont see how we can force her to give it up unless we get to Berlin, & optimistic as I am I cannot see the allies getting over the Rhine line; one good thing we seem at present to have the superiority in the air & should do better still’.A letter of 9 April 1918 is accompanied by a newspaper cutting headed ‘A SOLDIER’S BRAVERY’, which Butt has annotated in pencil: ‘This happened in the "T" | 4/5 17 GMB’. And a letter ten days later is accompanied by another, headed ‘THE ANGLO-GREEK STURMA RAID’On 1 May 1918: ‘The weather still rather unsettled, rain & heat, we have started helmets already, but I dont feel the heat anything like so much as I did the first year: the betting is strong that we shall be out of the country before the year is up but I dont place much reliance on it: it was surprising to me how few white divisions are in Palestine and Mespot, the black spot of the whole show is this country which has absorbed good troops & accomplished nothing. America seems to be slow at present, but I believe in her & think her preparations are vast only Rome was not built in a day, it depends how well the Bosch gets on in this offensive to how long the show will go on for, if he got to the coast we should not give up, he will never beat us, all he is doing is killing off his men & I fancy they will realise it before long’.By the end of the year Butt’s letters are reflecting the change in the fortunes of the war. On 4 September 1918 he writes: ‘Had a Bulgar deserted in here today, he was undersized and ill fed, so have the prisoners been, when given food, they wont part with it or leave it, their own ration stuff is nearly black: there are all sorts of reports as to the Bulgar moral [sic] being bad but I cant see it yet, their artillery is active & seems to have plenty of ammunition, they shell all round every hour of the day or night, it spoils ones sleep at night otherwise does no harm’. And on 29 September 1918: ‘Naturally I have not had much opportunity of writing you, as we are in the show it has been most interesting & trying at times of course, but I should be sorry to miss it; it is a new & novel experience to go over ground the enemy has left & see how things are, I should say he has carried out a skillful retirement not leaving much & leaving a good bit, there is a big long range gun used to shell my plasce this is now done for it gave us a rotten time its last night: there must have been a good many Germans about it some time or other, because there is a lot of literature left, lots of notices in German [...] the question now is when the Bulgar will make peace, I think very soon.’1919:In a typewritten copy of letter, dated 24 February 1919, Butt reports to his brother that there are ‘signs of more rapid demobilisation from here, supposed the 800 per week and officers pro rata, [...] We have an excellent fatigue party composed chiefly of late Russian officers who get their rations and ten roubles (2s/6) per day. Such is the state of things i this lovely country. [...] The inhabitants are amazed at the British as usual. I fancy the German propaganda made us out to be all sorts of things. The quantity and quality of the grub and clothing also amazes them. They will give 150 roubles for an Army blanket. Any canteen stuff they will give three times what we can buy it at. White flour is worth its weight in gold almost. I have seen a crowd of Bolshevist prisoners. Poor devils, they wont bear talking about. Two died on the ground before they could be removed.’ He does not neglect the family business: ‘The price of African Mahogany is a licker when one thinks that a few years before the war it was anything between 2d. and 6d per ft. super as 1". [...] What about a stocktaking? I shall miss another one I suppose.’And on 20 March 1919 he writes to his father: ‘Out here there are great schemes for reconstruction of mined villages & there will be lots of employment for a long time to come. More officers than expected are offering for the army of occupation, the higher pay offered makes it attractive & the unsettled state of things in England; out east it seems to me the British have more to do than they can tackle, good men at the top is what is wanted & good workers under them’.On 28 March 1919 he writes: ‘I am on my way back to Salonique: sending me here was a typical army blunder, someone named Burr was the man wanted, & the commission has been finished a month, so I was hauled away from Tiflis on a wild goose chase [...] I am back at Salonique now: staying at the depot: no officers are allowed to demobilize except under 2 headings. I dont know what my papers are so I am in an uncertain state’. A month later, on 24 April 1919, he writes that he is in ‘the embarkation camp’, with ‘the next stage [...] ship or boat’ back to Britain.