Thomas Bland (1894-1991)
From Winlaton, served with 10 DLI, interviewed by the IWM.
No County Durham Great War veteran is alive today. However, the voices of some of these men live on thanks to recordings made by the Imperial War Museum last century. Today these recordings may be heard on the IWM’s website, and, though the voices and memories are often faltering, together these old soldiers allow us a glimpse of what it was really like when County Durham went to war a hundred years ago.
Thomas Bland was one of the veterans interviewed by the Imperial War Museum. He was interviewed by Peter Hart in 1990.
http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80010971
http://www.iwm.org.uk/
Born in Winlaton in June 1894, Thomas Bland was working in a local colliery, when he enlisted in Gateshead on 31 August 1914 and joined the first of Kitchener’s New Army battalions being raised in Durham – the 10th Battalion DLI.
Though very frail when he was interviewed, Thomas could still remember the reasons why he had enlisted within weeks of the start of the war, and his description of his early months of training at Aldershot makes fascinating listening.
On 21 May 1915, the 10th Battalion DLI, including Private Bland, left Aldershot and crossed from Folkestone to Boulogne, before moving by rail to Belgium and, eventually, into the front line. Whilst hazy on the exact location and order of events in the trenches in 1915, Thomas recalls the daily routines of the trenches, and, as a batman or officer’s servant, provides some interesting observations on the relationship between officers and soldiers.
On 26 August 1916, Thomas Bland was discharged from the Army as being “no longer physically fit for War Service”. He had been wounded in the left knee by a shell burst on 15 January 1916 and evacuated to a casualty clearing station. There gas gangrene took hold and his left leg had to be amputated. His recollections of being wounded and of his treatment first in France and later in Britain are particularly moving.
At the end of his interview, Thomas Bland describes his life after he was discharged from hospital in 1916: how he had to learn to walk with a wooden leg; how he retrained as a shoemaker; and how he eventually opened his own shop in Winlaton.
Thomas Bland died in May 1991, aged 96 years.
Civil Parish: Winlaton
Birth date: 6-Jun-1894
Death date: May-1991
Armed force/civilian: Army
Residence: 1911 Census: 4 North Street, Winlaton, County Durham.
Employment: 1914 coal miner; post war shoemaker.
Family: 1911 Census: widowed mother – Mary Elizabeth Bland, aged 55; siblings – Susan, aged 14; William, aged 4.
Military service:
16075 Private Thomas Bland, 10th (Service) Battalion DLI, 1914-1916.
Medal(s): 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal. Thomas Bland was also awarded the Silver War Badge in November 1916.
Gender: Male
Contributed by Durham at War Volunteer | Durham County Record Office
