During our annual Collections Fortnight each year we appraise and audit boxes held in our repository. Last year, as part of this auditing process, we came across a large volume of letters. Typed-up, it was quickly clear that these were not original letters, but nonetheless they were intriguing, and became even more-so as we read the introduction to the book:
“These are the letters of an ordinary temporary officer during the Great War, 1914-1918, to the girl he was going to marry. Now & then when the letters seem short it is because they only related to personal matters; at other times it is occasioned by the rush of work. I have included the accounts of many doings which happened many times in exactly the same way. This may be boring & monotonous to the reader, but I would have him realise that the War did largely consist of boredom & monotony as well as of excitement.”
M.G.M. Fagan
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The “ordinary officer” in question is Brian Walter Fagan, who was born on the 13 February 1893 to Patrick James Fagan and Emily Frances, in Lahore, India. The author of the introduction above was Mary Gwendoline Margaret Fagan (nee Moir), Brian’s wife.
Brian and Mary seemingly were long-standing sweethearts. There are some hand-written notes from Mary tucked into the front of the volume which reveal:
“My parents were against our marrying in 1914 as I was between 18 + 19 years of age, he 21 with no money & no job.”
Possibly, initially, at the relief of Mary’s parents this idea was quickly overtaken by international events, with Brian heading off to Lambourne, Berkshire on 8 August 1914, just as the war was starting. Compared to others, Brian’s perception of the war was remarkably far-sighted, writing to Mary:
“Whereas in this New Army you apparently don’t get much chance of doing anything unless the war goes on; & then you may go abroad. Again, the chances are in favour of its going on for some time on the Continent; whereas if we are going to get invaded it will probably be soon.”
By July 1915, Brian had entered the ongoing continental war, aged 22, where he was part of the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, eventually rising to the rank of Captain. The marriage was put on hold.
Brian and Mary’s relationship was clearly a deep one, as Mary records in her notes
“Before Brian went abroad we arranged a CODE which I never from that day to this have divulged to a soul. At the time I did not tell people, of course, that I knew what part of the line he was in.”
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By 1918 things had changed for the couple, and in the war. Mary’s notes continue,
“…we were to have been married in the spring of 1918 when he was going to be sent on a staff college course for 2 months. Banns called and everything. But the German break through came, and I received the kit bag with bloody congealed uniform instead.”
An entry late in the volume reveals more of the “bloody congealed uniform” and the circumstances behind it.
B.E.F. Field Post Card
29 March 1918
I am quite well
I am being sent down to the Base
I have been admitted into Hospital
I am wounded and going on well.
I have received your letter dated 23/3/18.
Letter follows at the earliest opportunity.
Signature: B.W. Fagan
Date 28/3/18
N.B. The above was written by a Hospital Orderly.
It is unclear whether the note at the end of the above extract was written by Mary, or whether it accompanied the original postcard, but either way, the nature of this post card was less than convincing, and no doubt caused great distress to Mary.
But what had happened to Brian? Well the diary ends with an Epilogue, though again it is unclear who wrote it. However, this epilogue details exactly what happened to Captain Fagan on that day:
“On the 29th March, Good Friday, Captain Fagan was out on a reconnaissance, trying to find the position of various units which had got lost in the great retreat… At about 2.15 he was on a pave road talking to some Australian doctors when shells began coming over. He was hit by the second shell exploding on the road. After a bit he was able to drag himself across the road (his right leg hanging off & his right arm broken in two places) to the top of the stairs of a cellar, which was being used by the Australians as a Forward Casualty Clearing Station, and he gradually worked his way down the stairs. He lay there until the shelling had stopped, & then two orderlies carried him back on a stretcher to the next Clearing Station behind.
Here he had his leg off the same evening; but before taking the anaesthetic he called an orderly & dictated a report, the result of the reconnaissance… He was moved the next morning to a Field Hospital at Camiers, on the north coast of France, and on Sunday night, 1st April, was put in a train & boat and brought across to England. He was put into Lady Carnarvon’s Hospital in Bryanston Square, & was there for just over two months.”
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Brian and Mary were eventually married in the Parish Church of St. John the Evangelist in the parish of Coulsdon, Surrey, on 8 June 1918, little over two months after he was injured and lost his leg.
From what we can find, Brian lived a long life after the Great War. By 1939 he was a listed as a Publisher, living in Hendon, Middlesex. He was to live another 32 years, dying, aged 78 in January 1971 in Tonbridge, Kent.
As for Mary, she was also found in the 1939 register, listed as with her occupation as “unpaid domestic duties” at the Knoll, Bridport. This connection to Dorset is all we have so-far been able to find which may explain why the diary has ended up here at Dorset History Centre. Mary died a couple of years after Brian, in April 1973, also in Tonbridge.
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Captain Fagan’s letters are a wonderful snapshot of life in the First World War, and the diary includes some fascinating annotated photographs of the front line as Brian saw it. The volume really does need further exploration to tell the full story. In future we will bring you a serialised look at the different years of the First World War, and what Captain Fagan was doing in each year. We publish new blogs every Friday, so keep your eyes peeled for future instalments!