This year, the world will commemorate and remember those who fought bravely and gave their lives during World War I.
Millions of men were sent to places across the globe – many they had never heard of – and lived in treacherous conditions while their families at home struggled on without them.
World War I touched almost everybody’s lives in one way or another. Among those is David Gunn.
Now 79, David learned much about the war through his father, Phillip, who served in the Royal Navy.
WAR STORIES
Phillip was 18 and in the Far East aboard HMS Clio as an ordinary seaman in August 1914, when Britain declared war on Germany, which two months later was joined by Turkey.
HMS Clio was dispatched to the River Tigris in Mesopotamia (now Iraq) to support a British and Indian army fighting the Turks who threatened the vital supply of the Navy’s oil from Persia.
In one of the most demanding climates in the world, Clio fought up river and Phillip was detached to command a Calcutta River Police launch towing two Suez Canal horse boats, each armed with a large gun.
Phillip’s experiences as a young man are detailed in David’s new book, Sailor in the Desert, which follows his father’s adventures in the Mesopotamia Campaign in 1915.
Like many survivors of the war, Phillip did not speak about his experiences with his family.
But David said it was only after he had his own children that his father opened up more.
He said: “Early on, when I was quite young, he didn’t talk much about the war, mostly because he was busy fighting World War II and he was away in Arabia. He then came back and commanded a battleship in Glasgow.
“We didn’t talk much in detail, but it all opened out much more when I got married and had children.
“Grandpa opened up to the grandchildren; he talked an awful lot to my children. We had a disused pigsty in our house and it was full of sand and Grandpa and my children re-fought the battle up the Tigris, building a river through the sand in the pigsty.
“A lot of it came out then. What tended to happen was he would say something happened to the ship and that would open up another question and gradually it all emerged. It unfolded much more through his grandchildren than through me. But I picked it up when he was talking to them.”
David’s father also wrote his memoirs later in life, which have also been used to help structure Sailor in the Desert. Oil paintings that Phillip painted are also incorporated in the book and help illustrate the story.
FATHERLY CHARACTER
One aspect of the war that came out during his father’s memories was the vital role one north-east man played in his father’s survival.
David explained that, fresh out of training, his father was sent to the China Station. All young seamen were put into different parts of the ship and he was sent to the quarterdeck.
“At the time, Jock Bryce was the quarterdeck petty officer,” David said.
“He taught the young seamen to climb the rigging and man the sails, fire the guns, lower and hoist boats, splice wire and everything they had to know as seamen.”
During his time on the ship, Petty Officer Jock Bryce and Phillip spent a lot of time together and Jock became something of a fatherly figure for the young seaman.
Dotted throughout the book are mentions of Phillip’s time with Jock, including a lovely anecdote involving a pipe.
“You weren’t allowed to smoke when you were a boy seaman, but when he became an ordinary seaman Jock Bryce told him to go get a pipe from the canteen,” David said.
“My father bought one for a penny and was immediately sick. My father was very sorry to lose touch with him when he left the ship.”
That was 100 years ago, But through his father’s memories, a clear picture has been painted of what kind of man Jock Bryce was.
“I think Jock was an immensely professional seaman who just knew it all backwards, with masses of experience. He had a kind but firm nature and I think he reminded my dad of his own father,” David said.
“It was the way in which he took him in, and other young seamen, and taught them everything they would need.
“He was a very fatherly character and his influence must have gone across not just my father but a lot of young seamen.”
KNOW THEIR WONDERFUL FOREBEAR
Now, David hopes to get in touch with Jock Bryce’s family to tell them about the effect this “unsung hero” had on so many young men’s lives.
David said: “I just thought that this man had such a wonderful influence on my father and other seamen and it all happened on the other side of the world, so his family probably haven’t had the faintest idea that he had such an important influence on a lot of young seaman and I thought it’d be really nice for them to know.
“I am very keen that the Bryce family should know of their wonderful forebear. Jock Bryce would probably have been about 28 at the time, so he has almost certainly got relatives living today, and there is a fair chance they are living in this area.”
In the book, we discover some of the horrific experiences and conditions seamen like Phillip and Jock Bryce had to endure.
For Phillip, some of the most horrendous incidents included having to watch a young school friend die in quicksand and, after collapsing with severe malaria, being transported on a steamer with more than 600 men, some dead and others close to death.
David believes, however, it was the training by Jock Bryce that helped his father through these experiences, as well as helping to fight successfully against the Turks.
“My father was toughened up by Jock Bryce, so he was able to cope with it all,” David added.
ENORMOUSLY HIGH REGARD
Not a lot is known about Jock Bryce, but David hopes what he has gleaned from his father’s memoirs will help him to reach his family.
He said Jock Bryce would have been out on HMS Clio from around 1913 through to 1916 and his father remembers Jock talking fondly about growing up in Aberdeen, although he does not remember exactly which part of the city he came from.
“He used to talk about how much he missed it and he used to talk about the countryside there and the city itself,” David said.
“He was just very nostalgic about it. These sailors had terrible long periods away from home.”
His first name is also something of a mystery to the author and his father.
“His first name was almost certainly not Jock,” said David.
“But anyone with a Scottish accent in a ship whose home port was Chatham in Kent would inevitably collect that as a nickname.
“It is not totally clear what happened to Jock Bryce during those years. I know he qualified to man the guns himself and he then led them to fight up the river Tigris against the Turks in Mesopotamia.
“And as far as we know, he remained on the Clio, but we don’t know what happened to him after that.
“My father would be absolutely delighted about me trying to get in touch with Jock Bryce’s family and he would have thought he should have done it himself years ago.
“He had an enormously high regard for him and it would be a wonderful thing if his family got to know what a wonderful man this ancestor of theirs was.”
If you have any information relating to Petty Officer Jock Bryce, please e-mail yourlife@ajl.co.uk