Dangerous Work

A new history by a soldier who took part, as a laborer, in all the great battles of 1917, 1918, and the Army of Occupation of 1919

Some days the amount of bodies to be reburied was so numerous that hardly any construction work was accomplished. It wasn’t long before the line Regiments in the trenches discovered our Unit was an unarmed, non-combative one, and formed the impression wrongly that we were conscientious objectors. One day this led to some trouble . . .

British military labor during World War I developed from an ad hoc arrangement in 1914 to a Corps in 1918 some 400,000 strong, supported by as many as a million dominion and foreign workers. Records of this contribution to victory are extremely rare. George Weeks wrote down his experience on squares of wallpaper—always a practical man—and what a record it is. The Somme, Paaschendaele, and Messines Ridge all feature in George’s calm description of his extraordinary experiences. He camped in "the vast graveyard of Cambrai," he cut down an entire forest for duckboards, and he mended the aircraft of Captain Ball VC with dope and canvas.

George Weeks worked on the Millwall docks for 44 years after World War I. He died peacefully in 1982. His son Alan Weeks taught history at St. Mary's College, University of London and is the author of Tea, Rum and Fags and A Bloody Picnic. He has annotated the memoir throughout.