PAST EVENTS
Major Darrell Hall scored yet another hit with his slide talk on "The Diary of 2/Lt R.E. Stevenson" at our October get-together, for on that occasion Darrell had as his subject the WWI experiences of an emeritus member of our own Society. The 2/Lt Robert Elliot Stevenson of 1917 is no other person than Dr. "Bob" Stevenson, of Pietermaritzburg, who, in addition to having had a distinguished medical career, was well known as a prominent member of the S.A. War Graves Board for many years, and also as a member of the Board of the S.A. National Museum of Hilitary History, as it is known today.
Young "Bob" Stevenson sailed to England in February 1916, and was commissioned on 26 June 1916. He was posted to 3rd/7th London Regiment and then on 2 November to 2nd/7th London. He celebrated his 21st birthday on 22 December 1916 and a month later found himself on French soil on his way to the front in the coldest and worst winter France had experienced in 35 years.
Couched in simple, unassuming language the contents of the diary were brought to life by the skilful selection and arrangement of slides which carried the audience along from hum-drum activities to the stark horror of trench warfare, relieved here and there by glimpses of fun and laughter. Bitter cold, knee-deep mud and water, a sea of water-filled shellholes, worse to look at than any lunar landscape, artillery barrages and aerial warfare - and then again mud and mud, and the mangled corpses of the dead.
It was all there to emphasize the modesty of a young soldier's diary and to testify to the endurance and resilience of the human body and, even more so, the human mind; how days of hardship, work and hunger could be forgotten by just one good, hot meal, a swig of rum, and a good sleep; how the strain of mental fatigue and the horrors of the battlefield could be relieved by a few days "Blighty leave", a good laugh at a Charlie Chaplin film, or a pierot troupe's "Follies" show, and how a sense of humour made life at the front more endurable. "Bob" Stevenson was in due course appointed Battalion Intelligence Officer, promoted to full Lieutenant and Mentioned in Dispatches. In April 1918 he was gassed and sent back to England where he was recuperating when the war came to an end.
Fellow-member Barry Stephenson moved a well-earned vote of thanks for a most interesting talk which Darrell had concluded with the following plaintive verse from the "Diary" which aptly summed up life in the trenches:
CONGRATULATIONS to our Chairman, Commandant 'SB' Bourquin, on his appointment to the Durban City Council's new Cultural Affairs Committee (vide Daily News 11 October 1982).
FUTURE EVEXTS
Next month's meeting
NOVEMBER 11TH Colonel C.F. "Freddie" Hodgson will give the second part of his recent talk entitled "FROM HELL TO THE HIMALAYAS".
N.B. There will be no meeting in December. The venue for the meeting will be the Lecture Room, 'SB' Bourquin Building, the Port Natal Administration Board's head office, on the corner of Jan Smuts Highway and Buro Crescent, Mayville, commencing at 8 p.m. Glasses and ice will be supplied so please bring your own canned or bottled refreshments. Please check in at the security gate as there is ample parking, under guard, in front of the building. Friends and interested persons are welcome to come along.
WELCOME.
A warm welcome is extended to new member Professor F. McA. Clifford-Vaughan.
(Mrs) Tania van der Watt,
Secretary, Durban Branch,
S.A. Military History Society,
Box 870, HILLCREST, 3650.
Tel. (031) vvvvvv