Alfred Forbes Johnson MC is a Lieutenant in the artillery who keeps himself sane in the war with a mixture of humour, letter writing and prodigious reading while on duty at the often hazy observation point - OB.

An academic librarian, he had worked at the British Museum where he returned after the war and became deputy keeper of books.

Letter from Alfred Johnson to his wife Essie:

May 22nd 1918. We are having gorgeous weather and are walking about without tunics. I expect some superior officer will shortly object and we shall have an order. "It has been brought to notice that officers are going about without tunics. This practice must cease forthwith."

May 25th 1918. Letter from Alfred Johnson to his wife Essie: "This country is an absolutely bare waste but in the last month quite a lot of wild flowers have come up, so that it is not so bad as it was in winter. There are lots of poppies and cornflowers & many small things I don't recognise. We had some lilac in the mess."

[The academic and artillery officer often read a book a day on duty, because visibility was so hazy at the OP - Observation Point. Today he was reading Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens, (1850)]

May 23 1918 Lieut Alfred Johnson to wife Essie:

I am on the telephone to-night, a job I don't like. One feels afraid to go really sound asleep. I see you had a pretty big raid on Sunday. He dropped a few round here last night but I was tired after a long day and never woke up.

In April he wrote: I wonder what they would do in this war without telephones. I have answered the blessed thing about 10 times in the last hour. It is very annoying to be rung up by H.Q to know why you have only fired 30 rounds, which they then discover to be the correct amount.

When visibility was poor, artillery officer Alfred Johnson read when he was at the OP [observation post] Wife Essie sent books ranging from suffrage writer May Sinclair to Tolstoy, Dickens and John Buchan. Here's what he got through in the first half of 1918:

Tom Cringles Log, Michael Scott, (1915); The Life of Wilkes, Horace Bleackley, (1917); Life of Johnson, James Boswell, (1865); Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy, (1877); May Sinclair [a member of the Woman Writers Suffrage League]; 39 Steps, John Buchan, (1915) ; Gibbon; The Loot of Cities, Arnold Bennett, (1903); The Stucco House, Gilbert Cannan, (1917); Land & Water, magazine; E. V. Lucas, [Collection of letters]; Martin Chuzzlewit, Charles Dickens, (1842); Leonora, Five towns Tales, Arnold Bennett (1903/ 1905); Edmond de Goncourt; Elizabeth and Her German Garden, Elizabeth von Arnim, (1898); Barnaby Rudge, Charles Dickens, (1850); The Egoist, George Meredith (1879); The Amateur Gentleman, John Jeffery Farnol, (1916).

15/6/18 Ltr from Alfred Johnson to wife Essie:

I have had a letter to say I have been promoted to First Class, which means I get £300 a year, or £24 per month. There will be another soon as I am now a full Lieutenant. Reading The Egoist by George Meredith (1879)

June 22 1918 Lieut Alfred Forbes Johnson to his wife Essie:

If you are not for OP [observation point] you are on night duty or taking the early morning parade at 7 o’clock, or starting an aeroplane shoot at 5 am. I seem to get about one full night a week in bed

Reading: 'The Amateur Gentleman', John Jeffery Farnol, (1916)

24th June 1918 Letter from Alfred Forbes Johnson to his wife Effie:

As to the books I know I should not look a gift horse in the mouth, but really are you trying to get rid of the rubbish off the shelves?

June 30 1918 Letter from Alfred Johnson to his wife Effie:

Reading: Edmond de Goncourt. I generally manage to read a book every time I am at the O.P. [Observation Post] as there are generally many hours in the early part of the day when it is too hazy to see anything

Letter from Alfred Forbes Johnson to his wife Essie, 8th July 1918.

The land is covered in poppies and corn flowers and all sorts of wild flowers. It is very different from what it was like in the winter.

I went down to some sports yesterday. They tried to get me to run an officers obstacle race but when I saw the first obstacle, climbing up a 20ft rope to get over a pole, I decided my running days were over.

8th July 1918 - Letter from Alfred Forbes Johnson to his wife Essie:

I wish I could have as many baths as I liked in a day. All our water has to be carried in petrol tins about a mile, so there is little to spare for baths

August 9 1918 Letter from Alfred Johnson to wife Essie

You will know by now where we are from the news in the papers. We have been taking part in a very successful affair.

As far as we are concerned it has been an affair of very hard work to get ready in time and nothing else at present we are in a captured Hun battery with some idea of using his own guns. We are miles from our supplies and it is difficult to get any rations.

16 Aug 1918 letter from Alfred Forbes Johnson to Effie

This is a weird state of affairs. The Hun is shelling something about a quarter of a mile on the left, and on the right there is a band playing.

Reading Emma by Jane Austen. It was a queer sort of society of those days, but I suppose it is not much different now in quiet parts of the country.

20 Aug 1918 letter from Alfred Forbes Johnson to Effie

I’m 2nd in line for leave if the present rate keeps up and the Hun does nothing desperate. I have had a days work translating German papers relating to their guns. Reading: The Vicar of Wakefield, Oliver Goldsmith, (1766)

September 2nd 1918 #OTD Alfred Forbes Johnson - letter to wife Essie

We have moved on again and are miles and miles from civilisation

September 6th 1918 Telegram to Mrs Essie Johnson, Haverstock Hill, London from Folkestone Pier.

“Due Victoria 2/32. Second train, Alfred”

Tuesday 24th September 1918 Letter from Alfred Forbes Johnson to his wife Essie

..we are still living the same kind of life under tarpaulins in any holes we can find. Reading: Chance by Joseph Conrad

September 28th 1918 Letter from Alfred Forbes Johnson to wife Essie

It is getting rather late in the year for this open air life, but perhaps it won't last much longer. Reading: Joan and Peter, by H. G. Wells, (1918)

[The book, which blames England's stagnating education system for the suffering in WW1, and reflects on the impact of the war on society, was praised by Thomas Hardy who read it aloud to his wife in the evening.]

Tuesday Oct 1 1918 Letter from Alfred Forbes Johnson to wife Essie

The news continues to be splendid from all fronts. We have been doing another push and are now hoping it will last for a bit, so keen are we on the war. Reading: Mansfield Park, Jane Austen (from 1816)

2/10/1918: Ltr from Alfred Forbes Johnson to Essie Today I have been out with Simpson to a town where I was when I first came out. It is all in ruins now.

I am writing this is a crowded mess with the table covered with the latest papers and everyone discussing the news.

Sat 5th Oct Letter from from Alfred Forbes Johnson to his wife Essie

Yesterday I walked about 10 miles with the Major to see the war.

I divide my days into a walk, reading and playing bridge in the evening.

Reading: The Adventures of Roderick Random, Tobias Smollett (1824)

Letter from Alfred Forbes Johnson to his wife Essie, 9th October 1918 We have been pushing the Hun back again, but still there is a general air of fedupness due to lack of all the comforts of life..

Oct 15 1918 letter from Alfred Forbes Johnson to wife Essie.

What do you think of the news now? I really think the end is not far off. I see the Daily Mail tries to make out that these negotiations won't come to anything chiefly because they don’t wish it.

Writing from hospital. Having ankle massaged and expect to be here about three weeks. I have finished Roderick Random (Tobias Smollett 1748) and shall soon have to search the hospital for literature.

26.10.1918 Letter from Alfred Johnson to his wife Essie:

What do you think of the news now? I am still inclined to think that an Armistice will be signed in a few weeks time, which I take it will mean the end of the fighting. Reading: Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope

Oct 21st 1918 Update to Alfred Johnson from a battery colleague. We pushed off straight into action the day after you left, had another ‘do’ and are now in delightful billets in beds & and untouched houses with glass in the windows - all the furniture and ornaments intact.

The liberated inhabitants are weeping on our necks, gardens filled with vegetables of all kinds. In the words of the poet we are quids in. The only trouble is trying to keep Lee & Gregson in order where the two Mademoiselles of the house are concerned

74th General Hospital BEF lettter from Alfred Forbes Johnson to his wife Essie 29 October 1918:

I am glad to see the MG [Manchester Guardian] after a spell of the Daily Mail. I don't think one need be despondent about peace. There is a strong rumour that Austria has given in. I don't know what it is worth

Reading A Change in the Cabinet by Hillaire Belloc

Saturday Nov 2nd 1918. 74th General Hospital BEF letter from Alfred Johnson to his wife Essie: I have been marked as fit and shall be probably leaving here on Monday.

Mon 4/11 1918 Letter from Alfred Johnson to his wife Essie I crossed over from Trouville by boat today. If there is a shortage of small houses I think it would be better to take a maisonette than to stop at Haverstock Hill. It may be many months before the shortage is righted. Reading: 'Pride and Predjudice', Jane Austen, (1813)

7.11.18 letter to Essie from Alfred Johnson What do you think of the news now? The Germans must realise the hopelessness of their position and I should not think will go on long however stiff the terms are. They have absolutely nothing to gain by continuing. Reading: Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad, (1900)

Friday 8th Nov 1918 Letter from Lieut Alfred Johnson to Essie: A couple of days ago I was Orderly Officer in all the rain starting with a parade at 5.30 am. I am going back on to the battery to-night...I think the war is as good as over

Letter from Alfred Forbes Johnson to Essie, 11th November 1918

I believe the war is over. You will know for certain by the time you get this. I don’t think I shall see any more shelling and I am not at all sorry.

November 14th 1918 Letter from Alfred Forbes Johnson to Essie.

We are in a village where there are liberated French civilians. I was talking to one of them yesterday. They have certainly had a difficult time

16.11.18 Letter from Alfred Johnson to Essie:

We are going on to Germany with the army of occupation and I am looking forward to an interesting time. I found the battery billeted in a village and all very comfortable. I am glad we have finished the tarpaulin life.

We have been drilling this morning. I think the men are rather fed up with it and you hear some of them say they would rather be in action. I suppose we ought to look as smart as possible in Germany.

21.11.1918 Letter from Alfred Forbes Johnson to Essie.

We shall be in Catillon near Le Cateau for a week or two yet as we going on by train. We are allowed to mention places now. I can't imagine how long we shall be there when we shall be demobilised...some are pretending to get bored already.

I suppose I have got lazy and so far am not tired of this idle life.

There is a sort of a piano in this room and we had a sing song last night. We are having quite a jolly time here. Reading: The Wrecker by Clive Cussler.

I knew about the Armistice on Sunday night but I was not letting myself believe it until absolutely certain.

27.11.1918 Letter from Alfred Johnson to Essie.

Cambrai is a good deal knocked about, must have been a nice place once. I am afraid they are going to take a long time gassing at the Peace Conference. There may be a long argument among the Allies about the freedom of the seas

30 November 1918 Lettter to Essie from Alfred Forbes Johnson: 
I know you are very lonely and I am sure the war has given you a much worse time than it has on me. I have really had a good time on the whole except for moments and there is only one day that remains as a nightmare.

As to my not saying anything of the future it is because it is so far ahead and we are not feeling that we shall be home soon now.
I see the delegates at the peace conference seem to be making comfortable preparations for a lengthy stay. Meanwhile parliament is dissolved so no awkward questions can be asked, and as far as I can see nobody here is likely to get a vote.

04.12.1918 Letter from Alfred Johnson to his son Christopher in Bury, Lancs where he is living with his grandmother. Wishing you a happy birthday. Before your next birthday comes I shall be living at home with you and mother.

05.12.1918 Letter from Alfred Forbes Johnson to wife Essie: We are allowed to say almost anything in letters now.

Tomorrow we are moving on and I shall have a long day with the caterpillars. The opinion seems to be that we are not going on to Germany at all but are going to fetch up somewhere in Belgium.

Have you secured a vote and do you intend to use it? The bill giving a vote to the Army seems a complete farce. image: US Secretary of War riding an artillery tractor in July 1918 picture: US Library of Congress http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/npcc.28122

06.12.1918 Letter from Alfred Forbes Johnson to wife Essie: We are going on Sunday and will trek about 20 miles a day for five days. We expect to have a more interesting time in Belgium as we shall be in civilisation once more.

9th December 1918, Letter from Alfred Johnson to Essie, : We have started our trek now and have spent the night in a place called Bavay. I am with the guns going in a different way to the rest of the battery.

11 December 1918 I am writing in a place called Philippeville [Namur province]. We had quite an exciting time getting the guns through old gateways and over bridges. You very nearly had me back a gunner as I should certainly have been courtmartialed if we had dropped one of the caterpillars in the moat. We are in civilised country now the fields cultivated, cattle grazing and no ruined houses.

12th December 1918, Letter from Alfred Johnson to Essie :

I have had various election papers but no authority for voting. I expect I should have voted for that Labour man. One has only to read Wrentmore's address to see what a fool he is.'

There are rumours that we are to go on to Germany later.

We have spent the night at Dinant on the Meuse - The Germans shot a lot of civilians here in 1914 and there are notices on the walls about it..

Alfred Johnson, letter to Essie 16.12.1918


We have at length received voting papers, so after all the government seems to be making an effort to give us a vote. From what Lloyd George says it seems that the Government is going to get all it can out of Germany and go back on what they have asserted in the past.

Civilians here are very grieved at our departure. Last night there was the devil of a row in the street among the gunners who’d had too much cognac. There were several fights and the chief offender finished up in the guard room.

Letter to Essie 23.12.1918

The pig has been killed. At one time it was feared he would die a natural death from too much lorry travelling but has survived all the moving and met his end yesterday morning. Reading: 'Beyond', John Galsworthy, (1917)

Printed Christmas card from 69th Siege-Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery.

Albert Johnson to wife Essie I seem to remember that you did not get a vote. How was that? I voted for the Labour man but I don't know if my vote will arrive in time.