Landlord's Son at Neuve Chapelle

The Swan, Bromham (George Quenby, proprietor) 1902-1906 [Z1306/12/5/1]

Monday 12th April 1915: Jim Quenby, the son of the landlord of the Swan at Bromham is recovering well in hospital at Rouen from wounds received at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, where he was fighting with the 6th Gordons. He has described in a letter home how he came to be wounded:

“At four o’clock on the fourth morning we advanced to the trenches the Germans originally occupied, and about eight o’clock the order came to fix bayonets and be prepared to charge. We were shelled something terrible in this trench, and it was so wide, a lot of our chaps got wiped out there. About 8.30 we had the order to charge; well, I started off, the bullets were flying in every direction, and the shrapnel was laying them out in dozens. I hardly realised what I was doing. I had not got far before I felt a bullet go through my left thigh; I threw down my rifle and fell down; I had not been down a minute before I was shot through the right leg, so then I scrambled into a trench about eight yards away. I rolled in this trench on top of two 2nd Gordons, one of whom was kind enough to put on my field dressing and lend me his coat to lie on. I had to lie there until nine o’clock Sunday night (about 36 hours), when the stretcher-bearers fetched me. After a rough journey on the stretcher to the dressing station, I was thankful to have a cup of Bovril, as I had had only a few biscuits and a bit of bread and jam for two days.”

Source: Bedfordshire Standard 16th April 1915