Levison Randall

Dynamic, opinionated, charming, Levison Randall, who died of wounds on 5th October 1915, is one of the most vivid of our dead soldiers. He also epitomises the gulf in attitudes between then and now.  The report of the death of this ‘general favourite in the village’ – Bisley – came in the ‘Stroud News’ on 5th November, which noted that he was the son of Athelstan Randall, a painter and decorator, and nephew of Wilfred Randall, principal of Brimscombe Polytechnic. There was a brief summary of his activities, including his prowess on the cricket field, where he was ‘a good bat and a capital field’. Later, in the issues of 26th November, 3rd December and 17th December, a fuller tribute and extensive selections from his letters home were printed.

The character described in the article of 26th November (anonymous, but –  looking at internal clues –  written perhaps by his uncle, Wilfred?) was impetuous, strong-willed and attractive. Born and bred in Bisley, he had attended school and church there, sung in the choir, rung the bells. He had been a lively companion on  evening trips  to Brimscombe Polytechnic by pony and trap  – “One who accompanied them said: ‘What a run of fun we had during those journeys, song, joke and laughter, and the breezy heights and young spirits of Bisley were felt at the BP…” Mention is made of the pony, Jenny, obviously a good natured beast, being ridden by the lads one or more at a time. (You get a real flavour of those larky, carefree late Edwardian days!) At some point in his late teens or early twenties, he enlisted as a soldier – ‘not wishing to discuss the point with his parents, he left home one morning and quietly stepped into the ranks’. He seems to have made a good soldier, but dismayed by the way the army was being reorganised by Lord Haldane – it is unclear to what he took exception  – he served the minimum term and re-entered civilian life.

The newspaper account doesn’t say this, but at the time of the 1911 census, Levison was working in Barnwood House Hospital, as an ‘attendant on the insane’. Nick Thornicroft, in Rural Sacrifice, discovered in documents from the asylum that Levison and another Bisley lad, Frank Webb, were fired from their jobs for playing truant on 31st July 1911…

He rejoined his Regiment on the outbreak of war, but succumbed during training to exposure, rheumatism and pleurisy, which confined him to hospital in London. The first letter quoted  from France is dated 14th January 1915, and the last 2nd October 1915 – three days before he died. These letters give a vivid impression of life at the Front, and also an insight into what were presumably a fairly typical patriotic soldier’s opinions – which can seem very alien to our twenty-first century thinking.

The physical experience of the trenches is brilliantly conveyed – he describes not just the freezing cold and  mud, but all the noises surrounding him, from the singing to the explosions; the camaraderie and the games of football; the sensation of reading and writing with  shells and bullets whizzing past. There are fond references to Bisley and a countryman’s eye for the land of northern France around him. There is also mention of friends and family – and Jenny, the pony. Here are extracts from the extracts, to give a flavour:

“25/1/15 ~ so sorry not to have written before. We are just returned from the firing line. I am keeping ‘in the pink’ up till now. We are getting plenty of rain and it is very cold, especially at night. The trenches are in an awful state, but we are well provided with plenty of food, a waterproof sheet and blanket, and whenever an opportunity occurs a bath in vats at a bleaching factory…As a rule we enjoy ourselves as much as possible – cards, singing, football etc. Reading is out of the question, unless we get any old papers from home, then there is a rush for them: one takes one page and another takes another, and so on, taking little or no notice of the shot and shell flying around. At this moment an artillery duel is proceeding not many yards from us, and with our fellows singing the mixture makes it no easy matter to write.

29/1/15 ~ …It is very cold, snowing and freezing hard, and the water freezing in the water bottles as we carry them…

22/2/15 ~ I am writing not 50 yards from the Germans, and you can bet it is none too comfortable, but for all that the boys are playing at cards accompanied by music on the melodian, a little shout to the Allyman [his usual term for German], occasionally an answer back in very good English. The Bavarians shouted to the South Welsh Borderers last night. We have to be very ‘fly’ with them because immediately they see anything they fire…

26/3/15 ~Y ou will be pleased to hear that I have accepted the Lance-Corporal. I now wish that I had accepted when previously offered, I should have been well away by this time. Did I tell you of our success at Neuve Chapelle? It was great! But awfully hot at times. Our rations were being served out when the order came “Over the parapet.” I can tell you we were as the old saying “UP Guards and at ’em.” We had only one object – to smash them. The Prussians did look a disreputable lot and they seemed very pleased to be captured and taken prisoners. We came across one pleasing incident – a German bandaging up one of our fellows. You would have laughed to see me going up. We had to get there, so thinking I would go through an easy place, jumped hoping to clear a ditch, but instead went into water and mud above my waist…

22/4/15 ~ I am sending you a few flowers picked within 10 yards of my trench. It is simply lovely here today. We had a grand dinner to-day. Having found some potatoes we boiled them with bulley beef and finished up with rice pudding and jam, with cocoa to drink…The Germans are getting beat on every point of their line now. They make very heavy counter-attacks and lose heavily as they come in such huge masses. When the machine guns are turned on them by our fellows there is a deadly awful mess. Their bodies are lying in heaps. and yet those fighting are plucky. We must give them their due. Some of the enemy have told us that they are properly fed up with this War. We can talk to them quite easily being only 50 yards apart. I saw the report of Duncan’s death [Duncan Ridler] in the “Stroud News”.

19/5/15 ~ I am still in the land of the living after the glorious British victory [he was presumably referring the the Battle of Festubert]. It was an awful sight. We went in Saturday night ready for Sunday. Got the Germans on the move and the Prussian Guards, the Kaiser’s crack regiment, all gave themselves up as prisoners. It was a pitiful sight to see them come running up out of the trenches amidst an awful shell fire. We stopped rifle fire to receive those that honestly intended to give themselves up, but woe betide those who ran back, every one of them was brought down. We have gained more than a mile of frontage and they are still going back, but the sight! One can never imagine it, and no fellow could describe it. Thank God! I got through safe again, and so did Simmonds. I found him as soon as I possibly could…If some of the slackers in England could have seen them they would either enlist right away or destroy themselves for being such cowards.

26/6/15 ~ Out of the trenches at last after a long spell. We had just prepared to leave for a rest when the order came to stay another five days, so we have done three turns more than usual. It all counts and had we not done it others would have had to. I expect the country around Bisley is looking fine and I would like to have a walk over on Sunday and look at it. I often think of all the boys of Bisley. No this cannot last much longer and no one out here will be sorry. It is a little hell, and that is the only word to describe it…

28/6/15 ~ …Generally from 9pm till 2 am we were put between the enemy’s and our lines digging trenches and putting up parapets to strengthen them against shell fire…

2/7/15 ~ …Well, I am alive and kicking, but rather by luck than otherwise. A shell came the other day and knocked the parapet down just by me. I went to report, and whilst kneeling down by the officer’s dug-out another landed on the top of the dug-out and we thanked our lucky stars that it was one of the many German shells that do not explode. We are but 40 yards from their trenches, a little too close for comfort, but I think in a day or so they will go upwards toward the sky as we have a little surprise for them. Our people do not enlist miners for nothing.

11/7/15 ~ …It is surprising how little sickness there is here as the bodies of the dead and also of the cattle become very unpleasant. I am greatly in favour of innoculation. In my opinion if our fellows had not been so treated there would have been a terrible lot of fever.

30-9-15 ~ We have had some very wet weather lately. We had a trying march of about 50 miles and straight into action…I went to see Will Simmonds. I am sorry to say he is slightly wounded and in hospital. It is not serious…

2/10/15 ~ Just a few lines, hoping these will find you in the best of health and in as good spirits as they leave me at present. I am pleased to say I came out of the grand victory of ours once more without a scratch. I must say my nerves are a little shaken, but shall soon get over that and be ready for another smack. Damn them! We shall beat them if you give us the stuff to do it with. We have some good men out here and all good hearts. My God! You should see them. It makes anyone proud to belong to such a race. No such thing as “wait a minute,” and the square headed brutes in front of us know it. My word, Mill, if I do live to get back what a time we will have telling you all about it. This is all for the present. Please remember me to everyone. Take great care of dear old mother and father!”

And those are the last words, of the last letter. Levison Randall, that indomitable spirit, died of wounds three days later, a casualty of the Battle of Loos. He is buried at Chocques Cemetery.