Lives of the First World War

Capt. R.E. Partridge of D Company, 1st Battalion Dorset Regiment at Burnt Farm, about 400 yards from Wulverghem Church and 500 yards from our front line. January 1915.

Lt. R.E. Partridge at 5.30a.m., 2nd Sept. 1914, after a night’s rest under a stack. On THE RETREAT about 25 miles east of Paris. This stack was the Bn. Hd. Qrs. bivouac for the night. Lt. Col. Bols and his Adjt. Capt. Ransome slept alongside.

Wytschaete, February 1915. Captain R.E. Partridge coming back along communication trench after having observed for an Artillery battery.

Letter, dated 24th March 1921, from the Canadian Prime Minister thanking him for his services while attached to the Canadian Forces during the Great War.

A clipping from the Tatler November 11th 1914. The officers are numbered, named and with their current status: wounded, killed, etc. My grandfather, Lieutenant Partridge, is listed as killed, with a handwritten note saying: “error”. This must have been quite difficult for the family at the time as they had lost their other two remaining sons, Captain Charles Burnett Partridge, and Lieutenant Geoffrey Dorman Partridge on the 1st and 3rd November respectively.

Officers of the Dorset Regiment. Photo taken at the Victoria Barracks, Belfast, in August 1914.

Brigade Major RE Partridge on 'Confidence' while attached to 14th Canadian Infantry Brigade.

D Company, 1st Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment. Sgt. Major Steer, servants and orderlies at Burnt Farm, near Wulverghem, Jan. 1915. D Company was in Battalion support.

In uniform

Dinner menu at 31 Div. Signal Company, 3rd Feb. 1918 at Rollincourt.

Captain R.E. Partridge, M.C. at railway embankment dug outs near Ypres, 10th July 1915. He had been awarded the Military Cross 3rd June 1915 [Birthday Honours of King George V, 1915].

Two of the men in D Company writing letters home. Taken in the fire trench near Wulverghem-Wytschaete Road, January 1915 by Lieutenant Partridge.

Two men of 'D' Coy., 1st Bn. Dorset Regt. in a support trench, having their dinner. One man is bending low so as to be under cover from a sniper who was busy at this moment. Taken January 1915 opposite Wytschaete.

Arrival of first draft of reservists at Victoria Barracks, Belfast, 6th August, 1914. Men being allotted to their platoons in D. Coy.

View taken in our front line trench no.15 A, opposite Wytschaete, February 1915. German trenches by tree in background. Man in centre has just fired a shot through a loophole.

Lt. Wood cooking breakfast in 'dug out' in fire trench near Wulverghem-Wytschaete Road, Jan. 1915.

1st Battalion Dorset Regiment. Pioneers making wooden stakes for barbed wire entanglements at our transport lines, Neuve Eglise, 10th November 1914. Pioneer Sergt. in centre. R.S.M. Pell on right.

1st Bn. Drums playing in a big draft of Reservists joining 1st Bn. Dorset Regiment at Victoria Barracks, Belfast, 8th August 1914.

Battalion Headquarters servants at a Halt during THE RETREAT - 31st August 1914.

Lt. Dick Partridge, 1st Bn Dorset Regt, when stationed at Blackdown, near Aldershot, 1912.