Eric Dorman-Smith - World War I

World War I

"Chink" and the Northumberland Fusiliers were sent to Flanders on 13 August 1914 and were involved in the Battle of Mons. He was wounded in the retreat. Later that year he was involved in the battles of Messines, Armentières and Ypres and received another wound on 9 December. In May 1915 the battalion was involved in fighting at Railway Wood near Ypres. Although he had received a shrapnel wound and four lesser injuries from rifle bullets, he organised, under heavy fire, a withdrawal of the survivors of his regiment, for which he was awarded one of the first batch of the Military Cross. After a difficult period of convalescence, he was sent to teach trench warfare to new recruits and in January 1917 he was posted to the Northern School of Instruction. He returned to active service in July 1917 and, at the age of 22, he was temporarily appointed Acting-Major in the 10th Battalion. In the autumn of 1917, he was posted to the Italian Piave Front on attachment to the 68th Infantry Brigade School. He finished the war in Genoa, recovering from an attack of gastroenteritis, with a star added to his MC and having received three mentions in despatches. On his discharge from hospital he was appointed Commandant of the British Troops and sent to Milan. His war experiences had convinced him that military training needed to be totally revised.

In Milan in 3 November 1918 he met Ernest Hemingway, who had been wounded at the Italian front and decorated with the Italian Silver Medal of Bravery while serving with the Red Cross. Although they enjoyed spending time in each other's company and became close friends, after Hemingway left Milan on January 1919, it was three years before they met again.

"Chink" was posted to the Military Landing Staff at Taranto before returning to England as adjutant to the Northumberland Fusiliers. In June 1921, the regiment was posted to his native Ireland as part of the effort to contain the Sinn Fein rebellion. His battalion was part of the Curragh 5th Division and, from its headquarters in Carlow, its role was to patrol the county of Kilkenny. He discovered that his childhood nurse had married the local IRA brigadier. Apart from one incident where he helped his ex-nurse bury a cache of hand grenades in the grounds of Bellamont Forest prior to a raid by the Black and Tans, he tried to remain above politics.