Archibald Annan Dickson

IWM has his private papers . Chiefly concerned with his experiences in Dublin at the time of the Easter Rising, describing skirmishes with the Irish rebels, escorting prisoners to jail and his organisation of a military execution;

“A hateful task: so was another duty of one misty dawn soon after, when four young officers had to command four firing parties, and four rebel leaders stood in turn blind-fold against a wall”

After the Easter Rising he was eventually posted to France, and for the remainder of the war, commanded a Trench Mortar Battery. In the photograph he wears two wound stripes on the lower left arm. Both from further narrow escapes. His hand was damaged in an artillery bombardment on the Somme. In the photograph he carefully masks the injury. And in 1918 he was shot through the neck by a German sniper in the killing fields of Gommecourt, Northern France, a shot which ended his war. He returned to civilian life, to Lloyds Bank where he rose to be bank manager in a quiet English town.

1893 Apr 20 Born Devon

1911 census in Plymouth Devon

1916 Jan 9 The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment). The undermentioned to be Second Lieutenants. Private Archibald Annan Dickson, from the Inns of Court Officers Training Corps

1916 Apr - Dec His commission was with the 2/7th (Robin Hood) Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (178th Brigade, 59th Division) with whom he served in Ireland, April - December 1916

Commanded firing squads in Dublin in 1916

1917 Feb 2, Posted France as the Battalion's Trench Mortar Officer, until September 1917 when he transfers to 125 Trench Mortar Battery (42nd Division)

1917 Jul 9 Promoted Lt in Notts & Derby Regt

1917 Sep 4. The undermentioned to be actg Lts — Whilst empld as 2nd in Comd of Tiench Moitai Batts —2nd Lt A A Dickson, Notts & Derby R , T F

1917 married

1917 Sep 29 Lt. A. A. Dickson, Notts. & Derby Regt., T.F., to be actg. Capt. whilst comdg. a Trench Mortar Batt. (Substituted for the notification regarding 2nd Lt. (actg. Lt.) A. A. Dickinson in the Gazette of 17th Dec. 1917

1918 Apr he was shot by a sniper and evacuated back to hospital in the United Kingdom.

that moment he got me: a terrific "Bung-g-g" on the jaw, and down in the ditch by the track I spun, face and neck streaming blood. Field dressing was pulled out in a moment, but it was no place to stay: back to that trench I must creep, dragging flat along the ditch. Too slow, though; bleeding at that rate I'd never cover 200 yards: up on all fours and crawl. But then "Smack-k!" came the vicious spit again: was I to crawl and be potted at? One hundred and fifty yards to go: "Smack-k-k!" again before half-way, and a spurt of earth just behind. How long—how long, to get into that trench? And how long does it take to reload and fire? I know that perfectly well, and I see time for one more shot before I can reach it. Slacken speed, to make a final effort, and "Smack-k-k!" into the ditch a yard ahead…. And when the ambulance pulled in to a chateau marked "C.C.S.," I heard the voice of an English nurse; and at the sound there came a most wonderful feeling that now everything would be perfectly all right: there was no need to worry any more.

1919 Jan 29 The undermentioned Lts. relinquish the actg. rank of Capt. : — A. A. Dickson, 7th Sherwood Foresters,. T.F.