The personal side of this journey

The centenary of the Great War has been significant to me on a number of fronts, but none more than the personal side. My early experiences of the conflict were tales of my grandfather, Harry Sennett (who died a few years before I was born). I always knew Harry was an artist – having grown up with his painting on our walls. He was trained by Frederick McCubbin at the National Gallery School, in Melbourne Australia – schooling paid for by his benevolent step father, John Sennett.

Harry Sennett (seated).

'The Grey Mill', HJ Sennett, 1947. Painted from oil sketches made of everyday life
behind the lines of the Western Front in 1917-18.

But the other side to my grandfather that captured my imagination, was that in 1916, at the grand old age of 34, he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force and went on to serve on the Western Front in 1917–18. After a stint in the trenches with the 39th infantry Battalion, Harry's cartography and drafting skills came to his rescue and he was transferred to a position as a clerk at 10th Brigade HQ then was subsequently posted to GHQ as one of General Monash's personal clerks.

A grand collection of maps, documents and souvenirs came home with Harry – many of them now at the Australian War Memorial. Some remain with me, fortunately. Although, I remember my mother telling me that in the 1930s he pulled out a kitbag of Pickelhaubes and German forage caps and tossed them on the fire saying 'nobody will ever want to see these'!

I've always heard that Harry kept a diary during the war (indeed, through his while adult life), but they have always been in the (very safe) possession of others. So, they have always presented an unreachable opportunity. Well, today that has changed! I have finally managed to get my hands on the three diaries he kept while on active service.

The three elusive diaries on Harry's kitbag

March 1st to November 17th 1916 – enlistment to leaving England for the Front in France.

December 1916 to the icy fields of Flanders in December 1917. 

1918 diary

Well, as you can imagine, I can hardly wait to get my teeth into these. The plan is to transcribe all three volumes and try and piece together a narrative with help of the official records. I will post some of the more interesting finds among it here.

German IX Corps musters for Battle of the Frontiers

Having WWI commemorations in full swing has inspired me to keep at the painting table on the Mons project. Today I finished the first batch of German infantry for IX Corps. Irregular miniatures in 6mm – as per the BEF – with five figures a base (Irregular bases are 3 figures per base).

While the grey uniform certainly differentiates them on the table, I've also changed the basing colour scheme just to make that easy at a glance. I've not found the German infantry as easy to paint as the British troops.

In many of these Irregular sculpts the Pickelhaube is a little indistinct. To try and capture that very early war look, I've gone with painting the regimental number (well, a red dot!) on the Pickelhaube cover in red rather than the green that would be more appropriate for 1915, which I hope to stretch this early war range into.