Lecture | Albert's War

In this Talk, Albert’s War, Lt Col (Retd) Lee Smart will cover the first eleven months of the Great War (Aug 1914 – Jul 1915), from one of the first clashes at the Battle of Le Cateau to the 2nd Battle of Ypres, through the experiences of Private Albert Edward Fyfe, of A Company, 2nd Battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders. He will also discuss the British Expeditionary Force’s composition, its tactics, weapons and equipment, the evolution of trench warfare, and the day-to-day existence for the average ‘Jock’ or ‘Tommy’ on the Western Front.

A Reservist who had served as a Regular Infantry Soldier in the Seaforth’s in 1904 – 1908, Albert was called up from his job as a Porter and Shunter in Perth Railway Station in the first week of the War. Albert landed in France on the 23rd August 1914 and was immediately thrown into General Dorien-Smith’s II Corps desperate stand at Le Cateau before the British Expeditionary Force’s retreat from Mons, conducting a rearguard action against the advancing Germans:- Von Kluck’s 1st Army, three times larger than the BEF, and marching over 150 miles in the next ten days, almost to Paris.

Albert dies in June 1915 but in those ten months Albert participated in three bayonet charges at Meteren, Freilingheim and St Julien and was present at the famous Christmas Truce in 1914, was gassed during the 2nd Battle of Ypres and returned to the front lines only to be killed a month later in an artillery duel as the Western Front became entrenched in a stalemate along 400 miles from the Swiss Border to the English Channel.

His great-grandson, Lt Col (Retd) Lee Smart, will provide a fascinating insight to Albert’s war after six years of research. Lee is retired Lieutenant Colonel with 40 years’ service in the British Army, including operational tours in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and Mali, Lee brings his own Army knowledge and enthusiasm for all thing’s military to bear in his account of Alberts trials, tribulations and ultimately his sad death, in the trenches of Flanders.

6.30pm Drinks Reception (Drink included in ticket price), 7.00pm Lecture Commences

£12 non members | £10 Friends