Hi, my name is Kevin Hicks, welcome to my YouTube channel the History Squad. Now today we're here at
the Saskatoon Museum of Military Artifacts right in the middle of the Prairies in Canada. I can
tell you outside it's minus 30 in that snow, so we're tucked up nice and warm. Now I'm dressed
in my First World War uniform, this one I, I've pitched it quite early war. So I'm there with my
swagger stick on parade or going on leave, you can't go anywhere without your swagger stick.
Many a young officer charging over the top of the trenches with nothing more than a swagger stick,
hellish eh? So what I'm going to do, is I'm going to show you some of the hidden things
of a First World War Soldier what’s he got in his pockets for instance. So for a start here,
top left, what have I got? Oh quite simple, this is Active Service, the New Testament.
So what I'm going to do with these I'm actually going to place them down so we can film them
and you can have a closer look. This is original right, so let's place him down there. Now, what
else have I got in this top pocket? Ah, a whistle, you can't go anywhere without your whistle,
so the whistle on the lanyard ,that can go back in and then in the other pocket? It's my pay book,
now the paybook is important. There it is.
But inside the pay book, it's your records right. Where you've been,
how much you're owed, but there are other things as well. Uh, gas defense leaflet, I'll put that
so that we can film that a little bit better,
and some special information about you. So let's see what we've got. Oh yeah, patriotic pledge,
I'm not going to get drunk what kit I’ve served, um, signed for. A little momento of France. I
think we're gonna have to block some of that out I'll put that down there, but in here…
Field service postcard, and this is a flyer really, just before you go into combat you say
‘I'm well’ or ‘I've been admitted to hospital’ ‘I've been sick’ ‘I've been wounded’. You just
tick it and then you sign it, put the address on the other side and away it goes. I've got some
originals of these from my uncle who was killed in Normandy. My great Uncle Albert, and the one
he actually filled out and signed the day he was killed. Then I have my national registration.
Everything laid out, and I think this one is another one to do with gas because you
had to try and instill in the soldiers how to look after their gas equipment
yeah? Instructions for you so the respirator and smoke helmets, so this is quite late war. Can
you imagine you start to read it during a gas attack? I would hope not, so I'll put this out
right. So that's me breast pockets done and let's have a look here on my hip pocket,
what have I got in here? Ah, very important, trench lighter.
Tobacco pouch and in it a pipe, very important, a nice comfort thing.
Anything else in here? Oh some of you might find this strange, a nit comb,
and this one's made of bone so they didn't have the plastic that we have today. So I will keep my
hair clean as I can. And been handed to me, The Gospel According to Saint John, active service,
please carry this in your pocket. So, I've got lots of oh, interesting little pocket here,
and this is where you keep your first aid kit. You open it up
and you have a little vial, protected in a cardboard tube, of iodine and then inside
there is your shell dressing, say your bandage and your pad. So if you’re hit, either you or
a friend can actually look after you. I'm going to put that back in so it doesn't go astray. Now
in the other pocket. I sometimes forget what I've got in these. Oh yes most valuable, pack of cards,
boredom you need to keep yourself occupied. Cards isn't too bad, but the old game of Crown and
Anchor, it's illegal, heavy gambling. And I've got something else here, just a simple comfort,
Oxo cubes. It's no good if you're stuck somewhere and you're going to brew up and
you've got nothing to put in your hot water, so I always carry a little tin
with the necessaries in there. Now I'm going to take off my belt and show you
what's on the inside of the tunic. Let's just put this to one side.
so undoing the tunic you will see that underneath
Hooks and eyes, buttons and everything. I'm wearing a gray back shirt, under that a vest,
sometimes I'll have a cardigan if it gets too cold, but now these are your dog tags.
There's two of them, it just compressed cardboard these. If you're wounded yeah,
they can identify if you can't speak, but also if you're killed they can take one
for the record and then either nail the other one to your cross or leave it on the body, but
they're only on a little bit of string so these things rot away. Before this, it was a single
dog tag, you know with a very very thin aluminum so they would corrode very very quickly. Now
around me waist I have my belt, I have me braces, no elastic. In the films they've always got modern
British Army braces, this no elastic. Now I have a lanyard and on the end of the lanyard, my
clasp knife. Every Soldier had one, there were lots of variations of these I've just got the
one. You know I've had people say oh that's from the artillery, that's from the cavalry,
this is this, this, this it's mine. It's my clasp knife and in my pocket I also have
a watch. I've got just an old-fashioned fob watch there and also my wallet because
I will carry personal things in there as well as cash. I might even have a little
purse which I haven't got at the moment, but I'm looking. Now in the other pocket, a strange one.
Red handkerchief. Now you can verify this for me because I come across this years ago,
you were forbidden as a British soldier to carry a white handkerchief into the front line
for fear that they would all surrender. So you had a colored one, mine,
he's red. Something I am missing in my little collection shall we say is a First World War
condom. They did have them apparently, they were reusable so get your head around that one yeah?
You could wash it out and use it again. They were important, but they were also expensive
so I should imagine only your older soldiers would have, would have had one. The younger ones
um not and of course France and Belgium there was a a roaring trade in prostitution, and with that
came the knock-on effect of syphilis, gonorrhea, and of course soldiers returning from the front
line would then pass on the syphilis to their wives. It's a horrendous story, but it is actually
part of real life isn't it? Now the last thing I'm going to show you is something I didn't click when
I first started looking into First World War is what is this disc stuck here? And you can often
see soldiers on the march and it is in fact simply your spoon. And I can relate to this as
an ex-soldier an ex-squaddy, is uh you need your spoon close by. It might be just a quick something
to eat you might be lucky to have a, you know, a mess tin full of stew and you simply eat it
clean your spoon put it back and these are often found, let's put him back properly,
on the battlefields of France and Belgium where soldiers are charging forward and
they've fallen out or been blown out. So from personal effects, paperwork,
military gear, dog tags and the red handkerchief, I hope you've enjoyed
our little film here at the Saskatoon Museum of Military Artifacts right in the middle of the
Prairies of Canada. If you did like share and subscribe and don't forget to turn on the all
notifications button so you know what's coming down the line. But for now, I'm away. Bye-bye.