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Notebook, 1914-1916, kept by Nursing Sergeant Davies of 'C' section of the 130th (St John) Field Ambulance unit, attached to the 38th (Welsh) Division of the British Army. It includes a diary, November 1914-June 1916 (ff. 1-12), describing duties in Britain before embarkation for France on 3 December 1915, and subsequent activities on the Western Front prior to the Battle of Mametz Wood.
A draft application for an army commission (ff. 45, 46 verso) suggests that Sergeant Davies was a native of Carmarthenshire and a former miner. The notebook also contains medicinal recipes (ff. 13-14, 44 verso, 45-6), ration tables (ff. 8 verso-9, 14), and poetry in both English and Welsh (ff. 22 verso-23, 31-44, 49-53). An additional folio, tipped into the volume (f. 16a), contains further diary entries, October 1916, and suggests the existence of a second volume, subsequently lost.

British Red Cross Society's Note Book and Diary for 1916, of Corporal Howard Ll[oyd] Roberts of Borth, Cardiganshire, serving on the Western Front in France and Belgium with the 129th Field Ambulance of the RAMC, attached to 15th Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers, part of the 38th (Welsh) Division, containing diary entries for 16 January and 2 February-31 December 1916 (pp. 74, 78-174). The frequent references to water tanks and carts indicate Cpl Roberts was part of the 129th Ambulance's Sanitary Section.
The Division began the year in the Neuve-Chapelle sector, between Merville and Bethune (pp. 78-116), then in June was ordered to the Somme, taking part in the Battle of Mametz Wood during the 1st Battle of the Somme in July (pp. 121-124). On 31 July (p. 130) Roberts's battalion arrived at Poperinghe, Belgium, and spent the rest of the year in the vicinity of Ypres (pp. 130-174). Roberts was on leave in Birmingham and Borth, 3-10 April (pp. 96-98), and was hospitalised at St Omer with German measles, 4-15 May (pp. 104-108). As an artist Roberts contributed sketches to the New Year Souvenir of the Welsh Division for 1917 (see pp. 160-165). A sketch map of the British lines at Windy Corner, [Neuve-Chapelle sector], is on p. 65; a very small pencil sketch is on p. 124.