As an historian of WW1 it is always a delight to find a primary source that I had not come across before so it was with some eagerness that I visited the Zion Letters website. This website shares a collection of letters received by Harold Hill, a Sunday school teacher at the Zion Congregational Church in Manchester, from servicemen in the congregation during WW1. The link to the website is below and I can really recommend browsing the contents. I have visited 100s of sites relating to WW1 and I think this archive is really important. A brief glance has proved to show how the letters demonstrate how the men felt about the war, their experiences and the conditions they lived under. In fact as an example, the very first letters I read describe how a soldier survived the sinking of a troop ship on its way to Gallipoli - and how the men were put straight back on another ship to continue their voyage to the peninisular and how angry they were that all the officers were returned to Blightly and remained there! Herbert Bryden was not impressed! Here is his story.
The Zion Congregational Church and Institute on Stretford Road was funded by Enriqueta Rylands, the widow of John Rylands, andopened in 1911. It was the centre for a wide variety of member activities such as Sunday schools, social gatherings and a Boys' Brigade troop.
Herbert was born on 6th January 1890 the youngest of 9 children born to James and Catherine Bryden. James was born in Birkenhead but after his marriage he moved to Hulme in Manchester The 1891 and 1901 census returns demonstrates what an important source of employment the textile industry was in Manchester at that time. At least five of the family were involved in the industry, shown by their occupations; Stitcher, errand girl, hooker (grey cloth) and maker up. Herbert worked in the Tolson and Chisnall Mill and it seems likely that the other family members did too (he was described as a "maker up" as was his father James.)
This mill is mentioned in the Graces Guide to British Industry of 1914. I discovered that one of the partners in the mill was killed in the war.
Entry for the mill in The Graces Guide 1914
Herbert volunteered in the Army in November 1914 and joined the Royal Army Medical Corp. This was some time before conscription. The Field Ambulance was a mobile front line medical unit (it was not a
vehicle), manned by troops of the Royal Army Medical Corps.For more detailed information on their role, see the link below.
Members of the RAMC Field Ambulance in WW1
Herbert's service record is quite complicated, but we can see that he served on at least two battlefronts abroad - with the BEF in France and in the ill fated Gallipoli campaign. One of Herbert's letters recounts how he was on board the HMT King Edward on its way to Gallipoli from England when it was torpedoed by German submarine UB-14 on 13 August 1915, sinking
from the stern in just 6 minutes. Figures vary, with at least 864 lives
known to have been lost, and at least 661 rescued.
HMT King Edward at Alexandria, en route to Gallipoli
There is an incredible amount of information online about the sinking ( Herbert's brother Robert was also on board and was also rescued). Significant RAMC fatalities were incurred in the East Lancashire Field Ambulance which lost 61 officers and men.
An Admiralty casualty list, published in The Times in September 1915, named 13 officers and 851 troops as missing believed drowned, a total of 864 lost,It was while reading one of Herbert's letters to Harold Hill that I discovered he had been one of the men rescued, but also, the anxiety and distress it had caused him. A full transcription of his account can be found on the |Zion Archive site but I will reproduce part of his account below:
Well Mr Hill I don’t wish to state anything regarding the wreck and our experiences. I think the least said of it at present the better for it saves a lot of after thought and I am trying mybest to forget it. You will quite understand my idea Mr Hill for when I realise I am in the land of the living after such a terrible experience, my mind goes a complete blank. I haven’t much to say this time I would willingly write you a line or two of the work out here in the Dardanelles but you know I am not allowed.
It is clear, from our knowledge now, over 100 years later, that Herbert is suffering from PTSD. In his next letter dated three months after the sinking, in December 1916, he gives more details and says that "my nerves are not right by a long way" . He was picked up by the hospital ship "Soudan". Very indignantly (and rightly so!) he states that the men were sent back to Gallipoli within three days (and which he thinks contributes to his "nerves") but the officers were allowed to remain (I don't know if they had landed somewhere and been put on another ship or if the officers had been landed but remained). Apparently though, the officers were jeered by the men as they remained!
Survivors of HMT Royal Edward boarding Soudan
credit:
By Ndovu09 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73070351
In spite of being rescued, Herbert did not escape the War unscathed. He suffered a gun shot wound to his right thigh in 1916, when he had to have an operation to remove a bullet lodged in his leg and the records also show he was gassed. He served in Egypt, France and Gallipoli and returned to "blighty" on several occasions. He was a patient at the Scottish General Hospital, Stobill, in January 1916, presumably following his GSW.
Stobhill Hospital (also known as Springburn)
I noticed from his records that Herbert was granted 11 days leave in October 1917 and I was very pleased to find out that it was for a very good reason; he married Sarah Wilkinson at the Zion Church, where he sent his letters toHarold Hill. I was even more happy to discover that Herbert survived the War. In 1921 he wss back working in his old job at Tolson and Chisnall. Intriguingly, he was as "attendant at an art galley" in 1939. I wonder if it was the City Art Gallery in Manchest city centre. Even more happily, I discovered a newspaper announcement in 1942 celebrating his and Sarah's silver wedding. They had at least one daughter, Catherine who was born in January 1919. Herbert died in 1983 at the age of 92!
I was delighted to be able to trace Herbert's story from the letters he wrote back to Harold Hill. This is a very small collection within the vast Manchester & Lancashire Family History Society and I am very glad that I discovered it! Herbert's two letters have been transcribed and are an excllent and entertaining primary source; his writing style is very accessible and often witty (he complains that he is now much more adept at carrying stretcher poles than a billiard cue! Well worth a 10 minute read!.
Herbert's story and particularly his terrible experience in the War have been rescued and, happily we can discover that, he managed to survive, marry and have a family. I hope he enjoyed his last job in an art gallery! He deserved it.
https://mlfhs.uk/zion/letters
https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/File:Im1914WWB-p938a.jpg
https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/soldiers/a-soldiers-life-1914-1918/the-evacuation-chain-for-wounded-and-sick-soldiers/field-ambulances-in-the-first-world-war/
https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/soldiers/a-soldiers-life-1914-1918/the-evacuation-chain-for-wounded-and-sick-soldiers/field-ambulances-in-the-first-world-war/
https://www.westernfrontassociation.com/world-war-i-articles/2025/january/friday-the-13th-in-the-13th-month-of-the-war-the-sinking-of-the-royal-edward/
https://www.glasgowworld.com/news/glasgows-great-war-14-old-pictures-of-glasgow-during-the-first-world-war-4690467
https://www.friendsofmillbank.org/downloads/the%20RAMC%20in%201914.pdf
https://emptageofthanet.co.uk/military-and-maritime-service/military/ww1-military-biographies/
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