Report from the Front: The Great War diary of Jack Halstead

JACK Halstead was Royston born and bred. His diary was kept during the First World War while he was serving on the Western Front. Copies of his diary – Jack s War – are available from Royston & District Museum, and by taking this article to the museum it

JACK Halstead was Royston born and bred. His diary was kept during the First World War while he was serving on the Western Front.

Copies of his diary - Jack's War - are available from Royston & District Museum, and by taking this article to the museum it is on sale at the reduced purchase price of £15.

# We were conducted to a pathway through the barbed wire and crawled along to the Observation Point. Fairly quiet except from an occasional livener from machine gun.

The Observation Point was the cellar of a ruined house. We just had to clear out the bricks and rubbish and reinforce the doorway with sandbags. Not a bad night's work.

- April 18, 1917.

# We put up a barrage on Cologne Farm and the chalk pit. By the number of shells that fell in this quarry, one would imagine that there would be little of it left. The Lincolnshires were in the line and lost nearly half a battlion. Such heavy machine gun fire. Until dinner time we kept up a continous fire.

- April 29, 1917.

# A quiet day. At night it was my turn for SOS guard on the hill near Brigade HQ. This was to look out for SOS rockets in case that the telephones were put out of action.

- April 30, 1917