British, French and American Relations

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CHRIS KEMPSHALL

BRITISH, FRENCH AND AMERICAN

RELATIONS ON THE WESTERN FRONT,
É
British, French and American Relations
on the Western Front, 1914–1918
 Chris Kempshall

British, French and

American Relations
on the Western Front,
1914–1918
Chris Kempshall
Canterbury, Kent, UK

ISBN 978-3-319-89464-5 ISBN 978-3-319-89465-2 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89465-2

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Cover illustration: A French ‘poilu’, accompanied by American, British, and other Allied
soldiers, scales a blood-stained peak, atop which waits a German Imperial eagle. text: EUG.
COURBOIN un dernier effort et on l’aura IMP. CORNILLE ET SERRE, PARIS VISA
13.625 [One last effort and we’ll have him]. © IWM.

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer

International Publishing AG part of Springer Nature
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 For my parents
For Jo
For the Tommies, Poilus, and Doughboys
I’ve spent the past ten years with
 Acknowledgements

To truly acknowledge and thank everyone who assisted in the creation

of this work would, I fear, require more words than are available to me.
This book began as my Ph.D. in 2008 and has evolved beyond that to
its current form. With that in mind I would like to initially thank both
of my Ph.D. supervisors, Professor Ian Gazeley and Dr. Chris Warne,
for giving me the opportunity to do this in the first place. In addition, I
would like to thank my examiners, Professor John Horne and Professor
Claire Langhamer, for their hugely helpful advice. I would also like to
thank all of the staff at Palgrave Macmillan for their support and belief
in this project and for answering my increasingly strange questions as we
approached the conclusion.
This work would not have been possible without generous finan-
cial support from several organisations. I was the fortunate recipient of
a Postgraduate Travel Grant from the Society for the Study of French
History which ensured I could undertake research at the Service his-
torique de la défense. Further to this, a research bursary from Gateways
to the First World War enabled me to undertake research at the
National WW1 Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. I was hugely hon-
oured to receive a Founders Travel Award from the British Association
for American Studies to visit the United States Army Heritage and
Education Centre in Pennsylvania. Without these financial contributions
this study would not have been possible.
Because of the international nature of this study it has taken in
archives and libraries in Britain, France, and the USA. As a result,

vii
viii    Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the staff of the following institutions for their time,
advice, assistance, and patience as I trawled through their holdings: The
Imperial War Museum in London, the National Archives at Kew, the
British Library, The National WW1 Museum in Kansas City, The United
States Army Heritage and Education Centre in Pennsylvania, The Service
historique de la défense, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the
Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg. The staff at the
National WW1 Museum in particular were so welcoming whilst I visited,
and supportive of this project, that they deserve extra acknowledgement
and appreciation. My stay in Kansas City was also made possible thanks
to the welcoming generosity of Christiana Coffey.
During my time working on this project I have had a variety of teach-
ing roles at different universities, all of which supported me in various
ways as I undertook the writing and research. With that in mind I would
like to thank the staff and faculty of the University of Sussex, University
of Kent, University of Brighton, Goldsmiths College London, and the
Baden International Study Centre. The students I have taught at these
institutions have often been truly inspirational. Their interactions with
history and their desire to learn more about whatever subject was under
discussion helped me hold on to the actual joy of research when at times
it felt like a never-ending slog. The library and administrative staff at the
University of Sussex and the University of Kent in particular have been
amazing in securing me books, sources, and usable images.
I would also like to especially thank my current and past colleagues
on the East Sussex WW1 project at East Sussex County Council for
their unwavering support. Especially Lee, Indea, Beth, and Jane. It is no
understatement to say that the flexibility they gave me to pursue my writ-
ing and research enabled this book’s completion.
In intellectual terms I am indebted to a great many people who are
all, invariably, better historians than me and are the type I aspire to
become. Professor Mark Connelly has been a huge source of support
at various stages of my career. Dr. Sam Edwards’s advice on using the
US Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC) and acting as a
reference for various funding applications has been hugely helpful. Dr.
Franziska Heimburger’s support in sourcing difficult-to-find items in
France and also sharing her amazing work with me has been brilliant.
Bryon Thomas Smith was gracious enough to share with me his forth-
coming, and excellent thesis on US–French military relations in 1918,
and I strongly recommend others seek out his work. Professor Connie
 Acknowledgements    ix

Ruzich repeatedly sent me amazing sources and information during

her own work, and I am profoundly grateful for this. The work of Dr.
Elizabeth Greenhalgh initially inspired the Ph.D. which became this
book and I continue my hunt to read all of her amazing work.
Beyond individuals, the International Society for First World War
Studies has been a hugely useful and affirming organisation to be a part
of. Its members eagerness to help with queries and offer advice is a won-
derful example of the collegiality that exists in this historical sphere.
I have been fortunate enough to present the work of this book in
a variety of academic locales and receive feedback from hugely knowl-
edgeable historians. As a result, I would like to thank Legacies of War at
Leeds, the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, the Institut français du
Royaume-Uni in London, and many other conferences and symposiums
around the world.
The maps for this book, which I believe to be truly stunning, were
designed by Paul from Battlefield Designs, and I heartily recommend
them as a company to others. Other images and material appear courtesy
of the Imperial War Museum, Punch Magazine and the Daily Mirror.
It may take me the rest of my life to thank my assorted friends and
colleagues for their direct assistance on this project, and I will endeavour
to do exactly that. My cohort of friends from my Ph.D. at the University
of Sussex continue to be an inspiration to me. Drs. Sam Shave, Becca
Searle, Stella Sims, Ben Jones, Sian Edwards, and Rose Holmes are all
wonderful and treasured people. My ‘geeky games group’ of Steve
Newman and Drs. Roger Johnson and Tom Akehurst have provided
endless opportunities for fun and nostalgia away from the First World
War. The Friday Night Football group at the University of Kent, com-
posed of similarly optimistic/tired historians and academics, has proved
to be a perfect source of distraction and social interaction during the last
year. The soon-to-be Drs. Peter Keeling, Natasha Silk, Adam Rolewicz,
and Kasia Tomasiewicz have all interacted at some level with me and this
project, and all of them prove that the field of history is in good hands
for the future. The residents of ynwa.tv have shown far more interest in
this book than could ever have been expected, whilst also providing use-
ful tips for my research trips in the USA.
Dr. Sylvie Lomer remains one of my best friends and an amazing aca-
demic who is going to continue to make huge waves in her own field
even if it doesn’t involve the First World War.
x    Acknowledgements

Jo Baines has quite literally shared her life with this book for the past
four-and-a-bit years. She has been supportive and loving, and barely
complained about the fact I have reproduced trench systems using piles
of books in our lounge. I love her very much. I’m looking forward to
being able to properly interact with our friends Ruth, James, Lorraine,
Bethany, Matt, and Jessica again.
My family, particularly my mum and step-dad, have been as supportive
and as interested in this work as anybody can be when the topic is not
actually that interesting to non-obsessed people. They have proofread
and listened to my ponderings and complaints about this process. I will
never be able to repay them.
I have spent the last ten years with this project in a variety of forms.
A decade with long-dead soldiers from Britain, France, and America
is a very long time. I could continue working on this exact book for
another ten years. Decisions over what to include, what to cut out, and
what leads to pursue or abandon have been supremely difficult. Trying
to squeeze the wartime experiences of three nations into one book has
been a challenge. As a result, this book could easily never be finished.
However, in its final form I believe it provides the information I wanted
it to. It is the book I always wanted to write.
I recently asked some of my students what gave me the right as a his-
torian to read the diaries, letters, and more of men who had lived a hun-
dred years ago. It is a difficult question to answer. I have read almost
everything ever written during the war of the men who are quoted or
who appear in this book. For some I have read the letters their parents
received informing them that their sons were dead. The study of history
is critical in the modern world but that should not allow us to forget that
even at a historical distance it is an intrusion into writing that was never
meant for us.
Whilst researching at the USAHEC I came across the Veteran Survey
Questionnaire of Lt. McKoy who declared: ‘This is an evidence of “futil-
ity.” Many hours, money, and time was wasted in preparing this ques-
tionnaire. My time was wasted in filling in the answers. No one will
ever read or be influenced by it.’ Historians cannot undertake research
without access to the documents of the past. I wish I could inform Lt.
McKoy of how wrong his belief was and reassure him that these would
be read and they would have an influence.
So, my final acknowledgement is to the men who appear in this book.
I both thank and apologise to them. I hope I have done them justice.
 Contents

Introduction: ‘Liberty and Union …’ 1

Part I Confusion

Building the Entente Cordiale 17

Initial Interactions: The British Expeditionary Force

in France (1914–1915) 63

Part II Co-Operation

‘My Heart Softened to the French … All at Once I Loved

Them’: The Entente Cordiale at the Somme 107

‘That Liberty Shall Not Perish from the Earth’:

The USA and the Entente Cordiale 159

Part III Collapse

Careless Disasters: Allied Relations in 1918 191

xi
xii    Contents

Allied Relations and l’après guerre 247

Conclusion: ‘… Now and Forever’ 267

Bibliography 275

Index 295
 Abbreviations

AAT Archives de l’Armeé de Terre

AEF American Expeditionary Forces
ANZAC Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
BC Brigade de cuirassier
BEF British Expeditionary Force
CC Corps de cavalerie
CEP Portuguese Expeditionary Corps
DIT Division d’infanterie territoriale
GHQ General Headquarters
GQG Grand Quartier Général (French headquarters)
KOYLI Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
IWM Imperial War Museum
NCO Non-Commissioned Officer
OHL Oberste Heeresleitung (German high command)
POW Prisoner of war
RC Régiment de cuirassier
REF Russian Expeeditionary Force
RFA Royal Field Artillery
RH Régiment de hussards
RHA Royal Horse Artillery
RI Régiment d’infanterie
SHD Service historique de la défense
SSA Section Sanitaire Anglaise
SWC Supreme War Council
TF Territorial Force

xiii
 List of Figures

Building the Entente Cordiale

Fig. 1 W. K. Haselden, The Spy Mania Before the War (19 September
1914, Daily Mirror—Image courtesy of Mirrorpix) 59
Fig. 2 W. K. Haselden, What do Channel-Tunnelphobes Think Now?
(21 September 1914, Daily Mirror—Image courtesy
of Mirrorpix) 61
Initial Interactions: The British Expeditionary Force in France
(1914–1915)
Fig. 1 Battle of Mons (1914) 71
‘My Heart Softened to the French … All at Once I Loved Them’:
The Entente Cordiale at the Somme
Fig. 1 Punch Magazine, To the Glory of France (1916, Image
courtesy of Punch Ltd.) 125
Fig. 2 Battle of the Somme (1916) 142
Fig. 3 Punch Magazine, Comrades in victory (1916, Image
courtesy of Punch Ltd.) 153
Fig. 4 La Fessée (1916, Image courtesy of Prof. David Welch) 154
‘That Liberty Shall Not Perish from the Earth’: The USA
and the Entente Cordiale
Fig. 1 Archie Gunn, Liberty and Union Now and Forever 172
Fig. 2 Joseph Pennell, That liberty shall not perish from the Earth
(Image courtesy of: Library of Congress Prints and
Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540 USA,
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print) 173

xv
xvi    List of Figures

Careless Disasters: Allied Relations in 1918

Fig. 1 Operation Michael (1918) 207
Fig. 2 Attack on the Hindenburg Line (1918) 232
Fig. 3 Pendant la bataille de l’Aisne (Image courtesy of BNU
de Strasbourg [ALS.AK.411,10. NBI 1]) 240
Allied Relations and l’après guerre
Fig. 1 Le Monument Aux Morts, Calais 265
 Prologue: 21st March 1918

Flashing lights in the fog at 04:40 on 21 March 1918 signalled both a

beginning and an end. British and French soldiers, who were shocked
from their beds, hurried forward into trenches to watch with fear and
trepidation. Behind them, Americans were stepping off ships and rush-
ing east towards the Front. The men of these three nations were a varied
mix: the skilled and the fortunate, the veterans and the newrecruits, the
survivors and the yet to be tested. However, as the lights resolved them-
selves into the largest artillery bombardment the war had seen, the situa-
tion they existed within changed irrevocably.
Those men who had lived through the war’s opening battles of 1914
and the large-scale battles of 1916 would perhaps now look back on
those moments to try and draw strength and solace from the relation-
ships that had emerged from them and the lessons they had learned. The
relationships between British, French, and American soldiers and the
evolutions they had undergone (the confused early meetings, the joys,
the despairs, the triumphs and the disasters) were about to be placed
under pressure and strain that was even more cloying and suffocating
than the mustard gas falling at Flesquières.
The men of the British Expeditionary Force who arrived at Le Havre
in 1914 scarcely had time to meet French soldiers before the weight of
the German Army was brought to bear against them at Mons and Le
Cateau. The days that followed were marked by fear, paranoia, and
death. Around the Somme in 1916, British soldiers had written of how
accomplished and accommodating the French had been towards their

xvii
xviii    Prologue: 21st March 1918

British allies; how they hoped to be able to match the apparent skill
and ferocity of the French fighting soldier, and how they were acutely
aware of their own shortcomings when held in comparison with them.
By 1917, a British soldier would write about the great debt he believed
was owed to France. The French would temper their frustrations about
the lack of skill and training of the British armies in 1916 by paying trib-
ute to the bravery and indefatigability of the British Tommy. They would
reach out to the men of Kitchener’s New Armies out of a desire to be
good hosts and also in the hope that they would learn quickly the skills
needed to aid in the liberation of la Patrie.
The Americans, though not involved at the outset of the war, were
beginning to arrive in greater numbers. They had been wooed by the
French, particularly Marshal Joseph Joffre, and the shared republican
spirit of the two countries created an immediate bond between the men
of the two armies. British soldiers, on the other hand, looked on these
new arrivals with suspicion and discontent. The freedom and democracy
that the Americans celebrated seemed, to the British mind, to make them
a military liability.
At the commencement of Germany’s 1918 Spring Offensive, these
were the men who made up the bulk of the alliance. Thousands of
German soldiers had been redeployed from the Eastern Front to the
West. Their aim was to split these allied armies apart. As shells began to
drop amongst them, the men of the Entente nations had nobody left to
reach out to or trust but each other. Other allies such as the Russians had
come and gone. The Belgians had been ever-present, but their army and
resources were dwarfed by those arrayed around them. If the war was to
be won it would be through the efforts of Britain, France, and the USA.
In the early morning of 21 March 1918, the men who manned the
defences knew this and to an extent they trusted in those around them
to do their job, to hold the line, and to rely on the relationships pro-
duced by years of cooperative allied warfare. In the weeks and months
that followed, victory and defeat would go hand in hand. Within days of
the German attack, the Entente allies would be forced onto the retreat.
Within weeks, relations began to break down into suspicion, displeas-
ure and, eventually, furious recrimination. At the same time, men would
stand fast alongside those of other countries. The fluid nature of the
fighting meant that soldiers would fall under the control of allied gen-
erals in a bid to turn the tide. Some relations would hold as others were
 Prologue: 21st March 1918    xix

ruptured. Following 11 November 1918, some allied soldiers joined

arms to sing in triumph whilst others would brawl in the streets.
Victory was symbolised by the singing of each other’s national
anthems; defeat by anger, betrayal, and violence.
How had it come to this?
 Introduction: ‘Liberty and Union …’

For many years we have had a long-standing friendship with France [An
HON. MEMBER: “And with Germany!”]. I remember well the feeling in
the House and my own feeling – for I spoke on the subject, I think, when the
late Government made their agreement with France – the warm and cordial
feeling resulting from the fact that these two nations, who had had perpetual
differences in the past, had cleared these differences away; I remember saying,
I think, that it seemed to me that some benign influence had been at work to
produce the cordial atmosphere that had made that possible.
(Sir Edward Grey addressing Parliament, 3 August 19141)

Perhaps more than with any other countries, the relationships between
Britain, France, and the USA came to represent and define Western
civilisation and power in the twentieth century. Enduring through two
world wars, the division of Europe, and the remaking of the world after
the Cold War this is a relationship which appears sturdy and more suc-
cessful than most others in modern times. However, this does not
tell the full story. Breakdowns in agreement in London, Paris, and
Washington have been equally common at times. Old rivalries, disa-
greements over policy, and in the development and direction of Europe
have introduced cold anger into one of the world’s most powerful but

1 ‘Statement
by Sir Edward Grey (Hansard, 3 August 1914)’, accessed 12 November
2017, http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1914/aug/03/statement-by-sir-
edward-grey#column_1814.

© The Author(s) 2018 1

C. Kempshall, British, French and American Relations
on the Western Front, 1914–1918,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89465-2_1
2 C. KEMPSHALL

also most unwieldy alliances. The origins of this alliance lie in both the
lead-up to and the midst of one of Europe’s and the world’s most trau-
matic events.
Much scholarship and indeed public interest both in the lead-up to
and during the First World War centenary have been focused justifiably
on answering questions about why war began in 1914 and what moti-
vated the empires of Europe to wage war upon each other. An offshoot
of this is the additional question of why the USA was eventually moved
to join the conflict in 1917 on the side of France and Britain. The steps,
decisions, and military plans that brought Britain, France, and the USA
into an alliance were complex and at times contradictory. Understanding
them will be an important part of this study. Further to this, it will
also primarily concern itself not with the ‘why?’ of this alliance but
the ‘how?’: How did the nations of Britain, France, and the USA fight
together as allies?
Before the outbreak of the First World War, Britain, France, and the
USA did not appear to be a natural triumvirate of allies. Britain and
France had no history of mutual cooperation, with their joint efforts
in the Crimean War little more than a confused blip set against an his-
toric backdrop of distrust, rivalry, and conflict. Franco–US relations had
been warmer over the preceding hundred years but even then, their most
notable attempts at military cooperation had been aimed at thwarting
the British. The Americans still remained resolutely neutral and largely
disinterested in European affairs in 1914, so had no position in the orig-
inal Entente Cordiale. It was an alliance that did not require Britain to
actually do anything it did not wish to do, and included the Russians
far to the East, the country which had been the opposition for Franco-
British efforts in the Crimean War. However, by 1918 the Americans had
been drawn into the conflict, effectively replacing Russia, which had sued
for peace whilst collapsing into revolution and civil war. And yet despite
this, the alliance and military power of Britain, France, and the USA
proved victorious over Germany and the Central Powers. How did three
countries with plenty of history of suspicion and enmity create a victori-
ous alliance? Who ran it? How did it function in practice?
The direction and the course of the First World War were governed,
given the numbers of men involved in the fighting, by a very few people.
Leading politicians and heads of the respective militaries decided on the
overall strategy and focus of the war effort. However, whilst each of the
allies shared the same overall goal of victory, they were also concerned
 INTRODUCTION: ‘LIBERTY AND UNION …’ 3

with their own spheres of responsibility and their own national interests.
In many ways the men who decided the strategy became the embodi-
ments of these interests and were charged with protecting them. This had
certainly been the case regarding the orders presented to Field Marshal
Sir John French at the deployment of the British Expeditionary Force
(BEF) in 1914, and it did not evolve very far in the years that followed.2
The interactions between the commanding generals and their aides
therefore often took on a very particular dynamic. Discussions about
imminent strategy and the movement of armies were undeniably impor-
tant matters, but these discussions could often become bogged down
and entrenched over a myriad of issues ranging from who had opera-
tional command in certain sectors and scenarios, the responsibility for
resupplying, and which nation would bear the weight of an assault. In
this sense the discussions highlighted the inherent weakness of a large-
scale coalition; the final goal may well have been the same, but each
country had its chosen path to reaching it and a price they thought rea-
sonable in achieving it. Further to this, none of the primary combatants
wished to achieve a victory that greatly benefited everyone else but left
their efforts unrewarded, nor did they want to risk one of their coalition
partners ‘going it alone’ and making a separate peace.3
Exploring the relationships between politicians and generals of these
three nations is crucial in understanding the political and military deci-
sions that defined and directed the alliance. Steering the actions of three
nations that, whilst allied, each had its own desires and objectives was
no small undertaking. However, the role of those at the highest levels
of power does not represent the totality of experience within the alliance
itself. Below this world of high strategy, national bargaining, and real-
politik, however, lay another world of national interaction. If the activ-
ities of the leading generals and politicians represented the First World
War being governed by a small group of men under maximum focus and
direction, then the opposite clearly lay in the huge numbers of soldiers
who encountered each other with no interference or guidance. From
examining the records that these men kept of their meetings with the

2 Lord Herbert Kitchener, ‘Instructions for the General Officer Commanding the

Expeditionary Force Proceeding to France’, 1914, War Office Records; WO 32/5590,

National Archives, Kew.
3 Elizabeth Greenhalgh, Victory Through Coalition: Britain and France During the First

World War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 2.

4 C. KEMPSHALL

strangers from foreign lands, who had become their principal allies, it
quickly becomes apparent that the political disputes and considerations
of generals and wartime leaders did not filter down into the trenches.
The concerns of those in power did not begin to play any particular role
in forming opinions until word of President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen
Points began to spread amongst the French soldiers in 1918.4
At the highest levels, the business of attempting to coordinate a coa-
lition war was often combative in itself. Whilst the relationships between
soldiers of different nations could be equally fraught, the reasons for it
differed greatly. That is not to suggest that those in positions of com-
mand and authority did not have their own views on their allies’ men
and national traits; they absolutely did. However, these images and
understandings did not translate into anything that those in the trenches
could immediately recognise or become interested in. This strongly
suggests that whilst directing the alliance both politically and militarily,
the assorted generals and politicians gathered in capital cities and at the
front were not the ones facilitating interactions further down the ladder.
Therefore, to fully understand how this alliance actually functioned as a
social, cultural, and military organism, we must also understand the sol-
diers who comprised it.
An examination of relations between regular soldiers within the armies
of Britain, France, and the USA produces a variety of initial questions.
How well did these men from different nations interact? What were the
key factors in producing positive or negative encounters? To what extent
did existing cultural and social awareness of different countries play a
role in these interactions? However, whilst important, all of these ques-
tions relate to a single more encompassing one; What impact did rela-
tions between allied soldiers have on the overall war effort? Whilst any
discussion of relations between those of different countries is going to
have strong social and cultural importance, it is also important to con-
sider these interactions within the context in which they occurred. The
events of the First World War would have a direct impact on how well
different soldiers reacted to one another, with the events leading up to
the Battle of the Marne in 1914, and the German Spring Offensives of
1918 in particular, providing clear examples of this. However, by the

4 Even in this case, it can be argued that the soldiers and generals each dismissed the

notion on similar grounds rather than the opinion of those in command filtering down to
those in the trenches.
 INTRODUCTION: ‘LIBERTY AND UNION …’ 5

same token, this particular door does not swing in just one direction. It
must also be understood that the ability, or lack thereof, for allied sol-
diers to build lasting and workable relations with one another would
have a significant impact on their ability to wage war together and, by
extension, to win battles. The British soldiers stationed along the south-
ern flank of the Somme alongside the French before the offensive in
1916 had a very different experience of the opening day than those fur-
ther north, and some of this must be considered an outcome of cohe-
sive allied behaviour. Similarly, the attack by the Germans in March 1918
which forced the allies into a new retreat, and which French soldiers in
particular viewed as almost a betrayal by their British allies, should not
just be viewed with regard to how it changed the strategic nature of the
Western Front but also considering how it changed the way the alliances
worked on the ground.
Understanding both the motivations behind soldiers’ behaviour and
the evolution in their relationships with others must also be understood
within the framework of existing studies on soldiers’ experiences and the
place they already have within historiography. The experiences of First
World War soldiers have become increasingly popular, and writings from
the trenches (be they letters, diaries, or poetry) have found a particular
resonance within both French and British culture. However, the histori-
ography has traditionally been focused on the experiences of each coun-
try’s particular soldiers. This eventually reaches the point where other
national experiences have been pushed out of focus almost entirely. The
founders and members of the International Society for First World War
Studies have helped pioneer the shift to more transnational examinations
of the war and those who experienced it, which has brought back a more
panoramic approach to the conflict.
That British and French soldiers were often in such close proximity
but never given a full examination is one of many peculiarities about the
approach to soldiers’ histories of the war. In this regard, the interactions
between British and French soldiers is of great social and cultural inter-
est. The opportunities for these groups to meet in such numbers would
never have existed in civilian life. That they managed to form their own
understandings and workable relationships speaks a great deal about the
common humanity and adaptability of these men. Additionally, these
interactions have very clear military implications. A symptom of the focus
on the military and political actors of the war is the overlooking of what
soldiers were capable of achieving.
6 C. KEMPSHALL

The allied setbacks of 1914 were not just defeats of strategy; they
were defeats of cooperation. The BEF’s commander, Field Marshal Sir
John French, was undergoing something akin to a nervous breakdown
and had lost all trust in the French armies around him. Beneath him the
men of the BEF spoke practically no French and had no way of properly
reaching out to, and organising themselves with, the French soldiers who
moved around them. The BEF became utterly isolated as a result. This
was a potential disaster founded upon dual circumstances; the collapse
in confidence of Field Marshal French and the fact that British soldiers
were not in possession of either the skills or the time to form any sort
of relationship with their allies. Had either of these circumstances been
improved upon, the situation might not have developed so disastrously
and the allies might not have come so close to defeat.
By contrast, in 1916, British and French soldiers were able to come to
their own form of understanding and pass on their experiences and lay
the foundations for more adaptable relationships by 1918. As will be dis-
cussed in subsequent chapters, relations between British and French mil-
itary commands could still be fraught and tumultuous during this same
period, but upon assuming command of the BEF in 1915, General (and
later Field Marshal) Douglas Haig never appeared likely to replicate the
collapse and isolation of Field Marshal French. Both of these situations
served to provide this alliance with stronger foundations for the battles to
come. The evolution and nature of the relationships built between British
and French soldiers need to be understood as an additional factor in
explaining how and why the allies eventually proved successful in defeat-
ing Germany in 1918. The addition of the Americans to this dynamic in
1917 and 1918 was both a blessing and an obstacle to the long-standing
Entente allies, with the French being very pleased with their new allies
and the British far less so. The reasons behind this are as complicated as
those which drove Anglo–French relations at the soldierly level.
An examination of these grass-roots allied relations during the First
World War is not a simple undertaking, but it is one that several his-
torians have previously called for.5 The very nature of transnational

5 Alexandre Lafon in particular outlined the requirement for a specific study on this

aspect of the alliance, and Elizabeth Greenhalgh, in the article which originally inspired this
study, commented on the under-examined nature of allied relations at this level. Alexandre
Lafon, La camaraderie au front: 1914–1918 (Paris: Armand Colin, 2014), p. 180;
Elizabeth Greenhalgh, ‘“Parade Ground Soldiers”: French Army Assessments of the British
on the Somme in 1916’, Journal of Military History 63, no. 2 (April 1999): 283–84.
 INTRODUCTION: ‘LIBERTY AND UNION …’ 7

examinations history, particularly of warfare, is about understanding

the limits of both restrictive ‘national’ experiences and also of ideas
about universality. Wartime experiences do not stop at the boundaries
of armies; they are shared across nationalities, and the differences and
similarities between them are not limited by nation or language. At the
same time, there are clearly national motivations and ideologies that are
unique to the various combatants and need to be understood in context.
Furthermore, the very notion of each nation’s army being a homoge-
neous group is itself a fallacy. Each army was composed of men from
various demographics, be they rural or urban, young or old, working,
middle or upper-class, northern or southern. Britain, France, and the
USA each claimed a unity of purpose and mind at the outbreak of their
wars, but each was also riven by internal feuds which festered below the
surface. Many of those in power within Britain had expected military
action in Ireland rather than Europe before August 1914. France was
still emerging from the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War and politi-
cal scandals, such as the Dreyfus Affair had laid bare the political factions
within the Third Republic. Meanwhile, the USA had only become the
United States once again after the end of the Civil War in 1865. Whilst
the Confederacy may have been defeated, the racial and economic ten-
sions that had brought it into being had not. Further to these issues,
both Britain and France would also have to administer and call upon the
men of their empires to support the military effort. Before the signing of
the armistice in 1918, all of these issues would re-emerge in one form or
another to cause turmoil within the members of the Entente alliance.
What becomes particularly apparent when examining the experiences
of British, French, and American soldiers is how often certain situations
replicate themselves across the war. This is particularly true of British
and American experiences upon arriving in France. When British soldiers
arrived in France during 1914 and 1915 they found themselves confused
by the nature of the French in general and their colonial troops in par-
ticular. They would write at length about the supposed barbarity and
fearsomeness of these men fighting under the French flag, based upon
existing notions of race. Later, when advancing through recently liber-
ated territory, they would grow to fear that the French civilians around
them were potential spies and treat them with suspicion as a result.
These experiences were then replicated in 1917 and 1918 by arriving
Americans. Furthermore, both the British and the Americans would
express their surprise at the tendency of French soldiers to form unoffi-
cial truces with the Germans in quiet sections of the line. For their part,
8 C. KEMPSHALL

the same French soldiers would have their own concerns that the arriv-
ing allied soldiers would not understand the nature and necessity of these
truces and stir up trouble. The circular nature of these wartime experi-
ences gives an indication as to the cultural and experiential similarities of
men from the USA and Britain upon arriving in a country that they did
not understand.
What is also noticeable is how the relations between the men of these
three countries evolved around notions of military education and cultural
learning. The men of the BEF in 1914 did not believe they had much
to learn from the French who, for their part, did not have the time to
teach them. This dynamic changes in 1916 with inexperienced British
soldiers looking to their French counterparts in order to understand
the war. These French soldiers, partially out of an interest to appear as
good hosts, began to give the British a learning experience based upon
exposure rather than direct instruction. Many British soldiers write about
being invited to French trenches where they were then presented with an
up-close view of how the French orchestrated their defences, went about
their daily lives, and dealt with artillery bombardments. This exposure
then transmitted itself back through the battalions and regiments of the
British army alongside the French. In 1917 and 1918, the British and
French gave direct training to US soldiers. But, particularly in the case
of French units, many of the beneficial lessons for the Americans again
came when given prolonged exposure to French methods of warfare
whilst US units were embedded alongside the French army.
Relationships between the soldiers of the Entente allies would evolve
and change over time, but they largely fit into three defined periods of
time and of success. These periods are mirrored in this book’s structure.
The first part, ‘Confusion’, contains chapters which examine the rela-
tionship between Britain and France from the period after the defeat of
Napoleon up until mid-1915. The first of these chapters focuses on the
pre-war period, focusing in particular on relations between Britain and
France, the portrayals of each nation within national presses and con-
sciousness, and also the make-up of their armed forces. Of particular
focus in this chapter will be the movement towards a structured alliance
from the original signing of the Entente Cordiale through the ‘military
conversations’ between the two nations after 1906. The second chapter
examines the early months of the war up until mid to late-1915, and cov-
ers the opening months of the war to the middle of 1915, when British
and French soldiers attempted to understand each other whilst the events
 INTRODUCTION: ‘LIBERTY AND UNION …’ 9

of the war made such attempts extremely difficult. As discussed above,

circumstances conspired to prevent a good working relationship between
the British and French armies at the outset of the war, but it must also be
acknowledged that there were clear deficits in the planning and prepara-
tion for the BEF to fight alongside French forces in Europe.
Part II covers the period of ‘Cooperation’. The first chapter here is
primarily concerned with the change in relations between British and
French soldiers, particularly around the Somme, following the arrival of
Kitchener’s New Armies. During this time, men from both armies began
building grass-roots working relationships with each other. By fighting
side by side at the Somme, British and French soldiers were able to begin
a process of cultural and military knowledge exchange which greatly
benefited the forming of a workable relationship. The second chapter
then expands upon this to examine the allied attempts to draw the USA
into the alliance, and reaction of both the British and French armies to
the American arrival in 1917. In many ways, this period is the crucial
moment in relations between these allied soldiers. The relationships built
up between French and British soldiers around the Somme in 1916, and
then the warm feelings between French and American soldiers in 1917,
produced an environment where military experience could be easily
shared and, most importantly, trust could be built up between the men
of the three nations. Perhaps crucially, they also lifted the level of rela-
tionship between the three armies up to a point where they could survive
a catastrophic rupture.
The final year of the war also provides both the final stage in this
evolution and the aforementioned moment of rupture: ‘Collapse’. The
first chapter in this part examines the events of 1918 where the German
Spring Offensive and the subsequent allied retreat placed huge strain on
the links between Britain and France, whilst the suspicion that President
Woodrow Wilson was going to cheat France of its victory swiftly soured
relations with US soldiers. In many places, the relationships which
had been nurtured since 1916 descended completely into angry bit-
ter recrimination that was only beginning to heal by the time of the
Armistice. The final chapter examines the state of allied relations from
the Armistice up to the Treaty of Versailles negotiations and beyond into
the inter-war years.
Whilst this study of the oscillating nature of these alliances draws
upon records and evidence from each of them, it is important to under-
stand that there is often not an equal power dynamic at play during these
10 C. KEMPSHALL

events. Often the experiences and actions of a single nation will have a
profound effect on the experiences of the other two. It is not as simple as
dividing up the focus evenly between all three, for often it is a process of
action and then reaction that drives the evolution. For example, to fully
understand the nature of the alliance in chapter two, covering 1914 into
1915, it is the British soldiers who are the main focus. As a small army
thrust into an expanding war, the experiences of the BEF in France and
Belgium are crucial in understanding how they came to understand the
French and how the French then reacted to their replacements in 1916.
Similarly, the collapse of allied relations in 1918 can be principally under-
stood through the eyes of the French. It is they who became filled with
recriminations for the British after the latter retreated in March, and then
similarly rebelled at the notion of a US president stealing their moment
of victory through diplomacy. Meanwhile, to fully grasp the difficult rela-
tionships between British and US soldiers it is necessary to examine those
on both sides to see where the animosity came from and which snubs and
insults appear to have been intentional and which were accidental.
Whilst the French army held the largest portion of the Western Front
and supplied by far the most men, it is also the more difficult army about
which to find substantial information relating to inter-allied contact.
This is principally because, whilst French soldiers were numerous, the
geography of the Western Front meant that many had only limited con-
tact at times with their British and US allies. It was far more common
for British and US soldiers, in a much smaller army and surrounded by
Frenchmen, to come into contact with allied nations.6 Therefore, whilst
records for British and US soldiers have often been drawn directly from
personal accounts such as diaries and letters, much of the French content
for this study has been drawn from the collections of the Commissions
de contrôle postal for the French army during the war.7 Whilst a familiar

6 This is something also noted by: Franziska Heimburger, ‘Mésentente cordiale? Langues

et coalition alliée sur le front de l’ouest de la Grande Guerre’ (EHESS, 2014), p. 238.
7 The Commissions de contrôle postal would be instituted only in 1916 by the French, but,

disappointingly, were not replicated in other armies. For a full history and background of
the Commissions, see: Jean-Noël Jeanneney, ‘Les Archives Des Commissions de Controle
Postal Aux Armées (1916–1918). Une Source Précieuse Pour l’histoire Contemporaine de
l’opinion et Des Mentalités’, Revue d’histoire Moderne et Contemporaine (1954–) 15, no. 1
(1968): 209–33; and Greenhalgh, ‘“Parade Ground Soldiers”: French Army Assessments
of the British on the Somme in 1916’, pp. 287–90.
 INTRODUCTION: ‘LIBERTY AND UNION …’ 11

source for other studies of the French army, it is perhaps under-utilised

as a method of surveying popular opinion within the French armies dur-
ing the war.8 Entire sections of the censor reports are given over to dis-
cussions of interactions with the allies, and they provide a crucial insight
into how the Poilus viewed their comrades.
The war, the alliance itself, and victory all meant very different things
to the soldiers who made up the armies of Britain, France, and the USA.
The issues of 1914 and the collapse of 1918 prove this. However, the
cooperation of 1916 and 1917 allowed the alliance to survive these col-
lapses and made it possible for the men who made up these armies to
secure the victories necessary to bring the war to an end. This was not
easily achieved and nor was it a guarantee. Britain, France, and the USA
each had very different attitudes towards Europe and each other in the
years leading up to 1914. These views were a mix of institutionalised
memory and selected historical prejudices. For all the eventual success
they would find in defeating Germany in 1918, at the start of 1914, the
trio did not appear to be a successful alliance-in-waiting.
Whilst the soldiers of the British, French, and US armies did bring
their own views and experiences to relations with each other, and these
differences have to be understood, there are common trends that appear
across time periods and nationalities. The primary criteria that influenced
and produced good relations between soldiers of different nationalities
has been previously established by Elizabeth Greenhalgh as ‘proximity’
and ‘success’. In essence, this model outlines how the proximity between
soldiers of different nations and their ability to distinguish and appreciate
their comrades’ successes allowed these soldiers the opportunity for both
first-hand contact and activity that could be verified and appreciated by
their own eyes rather than through rumour or second-hand accounts. As
chapters three and five in particular will show, close proximity between
British and French soldiers around the Somme and then US soldiers
embedded alongside the French and the British (particularly the former)

8 As noted by Greenhalgh, the Commissions have been useful to some specific studies

in the past but none tackling the entire war in detail: Jean Nicot, ‘Perceptions Des Allies
Par Les Combattants En 1918 d’apres Les Archives Du Contrôle Postal’, Revue Historique
Des Armées, no. 3 (1988): 45–53; Annick Cochet, ‘L’opinion et le moral des soldats en
1916 d’après les archives du contrôle postal’ (Paris X Nanterre, 1986); and as cited by
Greenhalgh, ‘“Parade Ground Soldiers”: French Army Assessments of the British on the
Somme in 1916’, p. 284.
12 C. KEMPSHALL

in 1918 would assist in breaking down barriers that would not have been
as easily navigated had that proximity not been there. Distances between
soldiers of different nationalities could cause a form of detached friction
which was further exacerbated by a system or rumours, myths, and para-
noia on both sides. Rumours and stories would often spread between the
armies of the Western Front and rapidly metamorphose into a particu-
lar form of truth. This is especially in evidence amongst French soldiers
within armies that were furthest from the Somme. These men were often
the most scathing of the British efforts based upon second-hand stories
about their deficiencies which had spread across the front.9
Proximity by itself was not enough to secure good relations. Being
close enough to a foreign army to watch it repeatedly fail in battle was
not a recipe for success. British evaluations of their Portuguese allies
prove this point. Winning the war was, after all, the primary objective
for the various soldiers, and living next door to an army that wasn’t capa-
ble of bringing about that victory would cause negative encounters not
positive ones. Understanding the nature of their allies’ successes and fail-
ures was important for each nation in evaluating their military worth and
potential. The French in particular proved highly adept at not just rec-
ognising successes and improved performance in their allies but also in
rationalising whether a failure was due to errors by their fellow soldiers
or by the command and direction of the battle itself. This is clearly evi-
dent both in 1916 with the British army on the Somme and in their time
alongside the Americans in 1918.
However, focusing simply on proximity between soldiers of dif-
ferent nations and their observable military performance does not
account for all of the relations and evaluations that occurred. These
men brought their own beliefs, stereotypes, and predispositions to war
with them. Sometimes what these soldiers saw and what they believed
would become conflicted. At times they would base their understandings
on beliefs that were in no way verifiable and actually ran counter to the
realities of the war. Once the Russians dropped out, the French turned
very strongly against their former ally. However, before this, when
the Russians were still involved but contact with them was minimal,
the French seemed to base their opinions of them upon more popular

9 Greenhalgh, ‘“Parade Ground Soldiers”: French Army Assessments of the British on

the Somme in 1916’.

Another random document with
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he had been the only son and inherited a large fortune as well as the
lucrative and old-established business. It would not have been
difficult for him, in such a position, to have made a brilliant marriage;
had he so chosen, he might have entered the ranks of the
aristocracy, for more than one dowerless Belgravian maiden would
have welcomed him as a suitor.
But although he had plenty of business ambitions, he was not very
ambitious socially, considering his vast wealth. He had no desire to
enter a proud and impoverished family who might think they were
condescending when they allowed him to mate with their blue-
blooded daughter. For rich as he was, he had come of homely stock,
the founder of the great business having been a poor man of humble
origin who had begun on the lowest rung of the ladder.
So he followed his own inclinations. He went abroad for a long
holiday and returned with a wife, much to the astonishment of his
friends and acquaintances. And not very much was vouchsafed
about the antecedents of the lady who had become the wife of the
much-sought-after banker. The world was given to understand that
she was a woman of good family, but no very full details were given
until the arrival of Sir George Clayton-Brookes upon the scene, when
it was announced that a younger brother of his had married her
sister.
The long conversation between Archie Brookes and his aunt came
to an end presently, and then the young man took his departure. Like
Sir George, he was not greatly interested in this kind of function. He
did not belong to the exclusive clubs which opened their doors to his
fashionable uncle, but there were less pretentious establishments
which welcomed him. Like his relative, he was addicted to cards and
betting, and was only really happy when in the society of kindred
spirits.
Rosabelle and young Croxton spent some time together, while the
uncle and nephew had been discussing them, and Archie Brookes
had held that long conversation with his aunt. When young people
have got much to say to each other, it takes a long time to consume
an ice.
 As they came back to the crowded rooms, the first person they
met was Rupert Morrice himself. He was a fine-looking, grey-
bearded man, carrying his fifty-five years well. The face was a little
hard, perhaps, the clear blue eyes were very keen, but the tones of
his voice showed that there was a very tender strain in his
composition. He gave a kindly glance to his niece, and addressed
the young man.
“I hope we shan’t be kept up too late, Dick; we have to be astir
betimes to-morrow, to open that safe.”
Rosabelle smiled her sunny smile. “That wonderful safe, uncle, of
which nobody but you and Dick knows the secret.”
The great financier indulged in a satisfied chuckle. “Yes, young
lady, you may smile, but I am very proud of it. It is ‘some’ safe, as the
Yankees would say, I can tell you.”
 CHAPTER II
THE RIFLED SAFE

L ATER on, in the small hours, the young couple had a further tête-
à-tête. The members of the family had done their duty by their
several guests, and were at leisure to follow their own inclinations for
a while.
A celebrated violinist played the opening notes of a wailing melody
—the best of its kind was always a feature of the entertainments at
Deanery Street—and at the sound, Richard exchanged a meaning
glance with his sweetheart. Quietly they stole away to a secluded
corner where they could whisper away to their hearts’ content, and
were safe from interruption.
“Do you find it so difficult to screw up your courage to the sticking
point, you silly old Dick?” asked the girl presently in a low voice,
pursuing a conversation that had been proceeding for some little
time.
The young man smiled; the smile was a little rueful and apologetic.
“To tell the truth, my darling, I do. When I think of it in cold blood, it
seems such a daring thing to do.”
“‘Faint heart’—you know the rest,” said the girl, in a bantering
voice. “Well, Dick, if you can’t manage it, I shall have to throw my
maidenly modesty to the winds, and undertake it myself. I am not
afraid of my uncle, if you are.”
“But from my point of view, dear, you must admit it wants a lot of
pluck. A poor devil of a fellow with a couple of hundred a year of his
own, asking a millionaire to consent to a marriage with a niece whom
he is going to make his heiress. Wouldn’t ninety-nine men out of a
hundred kick me out of the house in double quick time?”
The smile on Rosabelle’s charming face grew sunnier than ever.
“But first of all, we will say, and it is the truth, that he is the
hundredth, not one of the ninety-nine. And then, it isn’t as if he didn’t
know. I don’t think we have kept our little secret very much to
ourselves, have we, Dick?”
“I am not so sure that he does know,” answered the still doubting
lover. “He is always so frightfully absorbed in his business, I think it
uses up all his faculties. We know we are in love with each other, but
I doubt if the fact is so patent to everybody as you think, my darling.”
“Rubbish!” cried the girl pertly. “Don’t you make any mistake about
Uncle Rupert being so wrapt up in business that he doesn’t observe
anything outside. Why, those keen eyes of his never let the most
trivial thing escape them. And I have often seen them resting on us
with a very intelligent expression. Take my word for it, Dick, he
knows what is going on, and he approves. You know how swiftly he
puts his foot down when he has a mind to. If he disapproved, he
would soon give me a very strong hint, or if he did not care to speak
to me himself, I should soon have a serious warning from auntie.”
Young Croxton was greatly encouraged by these words. He had a
firm belief in his sweetheart’s judgment and powers of penetration.
“That settles it then,” he said, speaking in a much more confident
tone. “I will tackle him to-morrow. I want to get it settled before we go
away to Mürren. Oh, my darling, if it is all right, as you think, shan’t
we have a lovely holiday?”
She gave his arm an affectionate squeeze. “And, as for all that
nonsense about having no money, why, I have no money either to
speak of. You have two hundred a year of your own, I have a
hundred. Well, Dick, if we were very wilful, I daresay we might be
brave enough to start on that, even if the worst were to happen. But
there, don’t let us think of that; I tell you it is going to be all right.”
He returned the affectionate squeeze she had given him with
interest. “By Jove, you do put courage into a fellow, little girl.”
“Not so little, if you please, Dick. I am rather above the average
height, you know. And if he is going to make me his heiress, as you
think, he doesn’t intend to leave you in the cold. He has treated you
like a son from the day you first came into the house. Everybody
knows how he worshipped your mother, and kept single all those
years because of her. I do not say he is not fond of auntie in a
steady, quiet way. But his other love was the sort that comes once in
a lifetime, and never again.” She bent her head very close and
whispered shyly in his ear. “He loved your mother, Dick, in the way
that you and I love each other, and of course he loves her son for her
sake.”
And after such a declaration, it is small wonder that these devoted
young lovers, knowing they were safe from observation, testified
their affection for each other in a long caress.
Later on, when the last car had rolled away, and the somewhat
weary host and hostess were alone, a brief conversation took place
between them on the subject of the young couple. It was begun by
Mrs. Morrice.
“You still approve of it, Rupert?” It was evident from these words
that the matter had been discussed between them before.
“Remember that Rosabelle is a very pretty girl, as well as a charming
one, and will have plenty of lovers in time.”
By these remarks it might be inferred that if Mrs. Morrice did not
offer actual opposition, she was quite ready to take a neutral attitude
in the matter.
Her husband did not beat about the bush in the least, he was
always a man who spoke out his mind unhesitatingly.
“Yes, I have thought it well out. If he is the man of Rosabelle’s
fancy, and everything points that way, I am quite willing he should
marry her. The moment he asks for my consent he shall have it.”
Mrs. Morrice heaved a gentle little sigh. “I know how fond you are
of Richard, that you could hardly be fonder of him if he were your
own son. Well, I own I am just a little sorry that her choice did not fall
upon Archie. It is not to be wondered at, for he is to me what Richard
Croxton is to you.”
Mr. Morrice frowned ever so slightly at the suggestion, but he
turned away his face quickly so that his wife should not see it. He
had wasted his heart upon Richard’s mother, and he could never
give another woman what he had given to her. But he was fond of
his wife, he appreciated her charm, her good qualities, the help she
gave him in the social side of his life, and he would not have pained
her for the world.
“If Rosabelle had set her heart upon Archie,” he said gravely, “I
cannot say for certain what my attitude would have been. I should
have hated to make her miserable, and yet—and yet I could not
have approved. I am glad that things are as they are. Archie has his
good qualities, no doubt; he is pleasant and amiable; I daresay he
would make a good husband. But, forgive me if I speak a little too
plainly, he is an incurable idler, and much too fond of pleasure—I
could not bear to see her married to a man of that stamp.”
There was a little quiver in the wife’s voice as she replied: “Are you
not just a little too hard upon poor Archie, Rupert? Remember, he
has not had the advantages of Richard’s training. If he had had you
for a tutor, how different he would have been. My brother-in-law is
not an ideal guardian of youth. An idler himself by the accident of
birth, and I fear by inclination, he does not see the necessity for work
in others.”
The great financier, whose life was one long strenuous working
day, from choice not necessity, shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, his uncle will leave him his money, that seems understood,
and therefore Archie has no need to work for a subsistence. But I
should think better of him if he took up some occupation, if only as a
hobby. Nothing saps a man’s character like the idle loafing life he is
leading now.”
There was a note of bitterness in Mrs. Morrice’s voice as she
replied to those uncompromising remarks.
“It is not at all certain that some day Archie will not have to work
for a living.”
Morrice looked at his wife in some surprise. “But Sir George is
credited with being a well-off man. You have told me the same
yourself.”
 “He is well off perhaps now. But whether he dies rich or not will
depend upon what the gaming table and the race-course have left
him.”
Mr. Morrice pursed his lips, and his face grew very hard. It wore
the look that some of those who knew him in business dreaded to
see. Upright and of iron resolution himself, he had small pity for the
weak and self-indulgent. Above all, he loathed men who had made
ducks and drakes of their money, who threw it away in unprofitable
enterprises.
“I own that I have heard some rumours of this, that he bets too
highly, that he plays for too big stakes,” he said presently. “Well, it
would be a good thing if Master Archie could be removed from such
a corrupting influence.”
“Would to heaven that he could be.” There was a note of almost
anguish in the woman’s voice as she spoke, then she recovered
herself quickly, and added in a calmer tone: “But it is too late. His
uncle worships him, and he is devoted to his uncle.”

The morning came. Mr. Morrice was not going to his business
house; a client was calling on him in Deanery Street, and after that
visit had been paid, he was going to a jeweller’s in the West End for
a certain purpose. He had lately purchased some very fine and
expensive diamonds, which he had put away in readiness for an
important event—the birthday of his wife falling a week hence. He
was going to have these made up into a necklace and present it to
her upon the happy occasion. Like most women, she was
passionately fond of jewels, and though she already had plenty, he
knew she would be delighted to add to her store.
The client who was paying him a visit was coming to receive a
large sum of money, a million francs, which the financier had put for
safe custody in that wonderful safe to which allusion has been made.
 Morrice and Richard breakfasted alone that morning at an early
hour, while the ladies stayed in bed to recover from the fatigue of the
previous evening.
Neither of the men spoke much during the progress of the meal.
The financier’s busy brain was at work upon his various schemes,
and he had almost forgotten that conversation a few hours earlier
with his wife concerning her brother-in-law and Archie Brookes.
Young Croxton was very preoccupied too. This was the day on
which, fortified by the encouraging counsels of his sweetheart, he
had resolved to screw up his courage and ask Morrice’s consent to
his betrothal to Rosabelle.
The two men from time to time looked at their watches, and at last
the elder rose with a quick, alert movement.
“It wants five minutes, Dick. Let us be going.” They went into
Morrice’s study, a spacious room, solidly furnished. In a corner stood
a big safe, from which, when the actual time arrived, they were going
to take the packet of French notes and the loose diamonds. Two
days previously they had shifted them to an easily accessible spot.
They stood before the formidable-looking receptacle, watches in
hand, and then with a simultaneous exclamation of “Now!” from
each, Morrice and his confidential secretary inserted their two
separate keys. The heavy door swung back, the financier advanced
his hand to the spot where the articles had been placed, and drew
back with a cry of dismay.
The packet of French notes, the canvas bag containing the loose
diamonds, had been removed from their hiding place, also a parcel
of private papers containing important secrets.
 CHAPTER III
RICHARD IS DISMISSED

F OR an instant the two men stared at each other in blank

amazement as they stood in front of the big safe, the door of
which had been unlocked with such startling results.
The elder man recovered himself first. His was a strong, resolute
character, and it was always said of him by those who knew him
intimately, that no man could grasp the bearings of an unexpected
situation more readily. Croxton seemed dazed and stupefied beyond
the power of speech.
“But they were there, all of them, when we shifted them the other
morning, the packet of notes, the bag of diamonds, the parcel of
papers. You saw them, we both saw them.”
The young man’s voice was trembling as he answered: “We both
saw them, as you say, sir. They were there, right enough.”
The big financier took a great interest in the mechanism of safes; it
had always been one of his hobbies. He had tried half a dozen
different kinds during his business career, and in the present one he
was confident he had found the latest thing in ingenuity and safety.
In truth it was a marvel, and there was nothing else like it in all the
world. He had availed himself to the full of the resources of the
locksmith’s art, and had contributed a few practical suggestions as to
the actual mechanism himself. It had a marvellous time lock, the
secret of which was only known to himself and his secretary. The
time when the safe could be opened was automatically controlled by
the day of the month.
For example, if it was secretly set to open at nine o’clock on June
the twelfth, it would not open before nine plus six (the sixth month of
the year), plus twelve (the day of the month). Therefore, it would be
twenty-seven minutes past nine before the two keys could be
inserted, and then only for one minute. If that time passed, the safe
could not be opened till next day, and then not one minute but two
minutes later.
There was a long pause in which both men were thinking furiously.
Richard Croxton, recovering slowly from the shock, was beginning to
realize the awkwardness of the situation with regard to himself, and
to anticipate the thoughts that were forming themselves in the mind
of the man who had, up to the present, treated him more like a father
than an employer.
Gradually over Morrice’s countenance came that hard, grim look
which Richard had seen a few times during their association
together; notably in the early days when some gross act of
carelessness or inattention had aroused dissatisfaction and
subsequent anger.
“Well, what have you to say about it?” thundered the banker at
length. When he had once come to a conclusion he never beat about
the bush, but went to the point as straight as an arrow.
The unfortunate young man moistened his dry lips with his tongue.
It was an agonizing moment for him, and, engrossed as he was with
the terrible aspect of the situation, he could not help thinking of
Rosabelle and her heartening words uttered a few hours previously.
This was the day on which he had resolved to confess to her uncle
his love for the charming girl, and beg his consent to their betrothal.
In a few seconds this roseate prospect had been blotted out, and he
was confronting, not a kindly master and friend, but a stern and
angry judge.
“I have nothing to say, sir, except that I am innocent, and that
statement you do not look as if you were inclined to believe.”
The elder man emitted an angry exclamation, and the grim
expression grew grimmer as he gazed searchingly at the pale and
shaken young man.
“Richard Croxton, you are no fool, you can see the situation as it
presents itself to me, as it would present itself to anybody who knew
the circumstances. The secret of that safe is known only to us two,
you and I alone have access to it with our separate keys. Even
supposing for a moment, and it is a most wild supposition, that some
third party could have gained temporary possession of your key and
mine, and, after taking impressions of them, had duplicates made,
how was he to know the secret of the mechanism, the time at which
the safe would open. We saw the articles here two days ago; they
have been taken between yesterday and this morning.” He paused
and added significantly: “At that time when the safe could be
opened, I had left the house early, and was in my private room in the
city. You had work to finish here, and were to come down to me with
the report you were preparing at twelve o’clock.”
It was difficult for Croxton to preserve his faculties of thought as
the damning evidence grew and accumulated on him. But a ray of
light seemed to pierce suddenly through his benumbed brain.
“We breakfasted together at eight o’clock, sir, and you left directly
you had finished. After you had gone, I went up to my own room, and
remained till it was time for me to leave to join you in the city. I never
during that time entered this apartment. To that I am ready to swear;
I will take any solemn oath you care to dictate to me.”
Morrice seemed just a little staggered by the solemnity with which
these words were uttered, and for a second the hard, stern look
melted, but only for a second. His keen, logical mind at once
prompted the question.
“You say that you were in your own room practically all the time
you were alone. Is there any evidence you can bring forward to
corroborate this statement? Did Mrs. Morrice, Rosabelle, any of the
servants look in upon you during that period?”
The young man made a despairing gesture: “Alas, no. It is very
rarely that either Mrs. Morrice or Rosabelle pays me a visit when I
am at work. The servants are hardly ever about the house at that
time. And I know from what they said that both the ladies were out
very early on a shopping expedition. I don’t suppose that anybody
knew for certain whether I was here or in my own room. I have
nothing to offer you, sir, but my bare word, my solemn oath, if you
choose to accept it. But if I am what you appear to think me, my oath
would carry no more weight than my word. Again I say, much as
appearances are against me, inexplicable and astounding as the
whole thing is, before heaven I am not the thief who has stolen your
property.”
“Then if you are not the thief, I must be,” cried the irate financier
with bitter sarcasm, “though, I take it, the most suspicious detective
in the world would hardly dare to suspect me of purloining my own
money and diamonds.”
There was another long pause. Morrice walked up and down the
spacious room with long strides, the stern frown on his face now
deepening, now clearing a little, as his conflicting thoughts raced
through his brain. No doubt to him the brazen effrontery of the young
man seemed incredible, in view of the damning facts of the situation.
And that seemingly feeble excuse that he had been in his own room
during the time of the burglary, during the whole period between
breakfast and the moment when he left the house—did it hold water?
Was it a lie invented on the spur of the moment, or had it been
thought out beforehand to be produced at the moment of discovery.
And yet, if Richard were a cunning criminal, would he not have taken
precautions to secure some sort of alibi? The theft from the safe
would not have taken more than a minute, the articles were all
together, their removal would have taken no time. He could have
gone back to his room, rung the bell three or four times to summon a
servant on one pretext or another. It might not have been convincing
proof, for the robbery could have been accomplished so quickly, but
it would have been better than no proof at all.
But then the cleverest criminals made often very stupid mistakes,
and he could not believe the young man to be a hardened
malefactor. He had some secret vices that had never been
suspected, he had got into money difficulties; in his perplexity he had
taken advantage of the trust reposed in him, and yielded to a sudden
temptation.
And then, in the midst of his anger and disappointment, came
softening thoughts of the dead mother whom he had loved with such
a passionate devotion. Could he act towards her child as if he were a
stranger between whom there had been no tie save that between
employer and employed. The stern look melted away; he came up to
the stricken Richard and laid his hand upon his shoulder.
“Listen to me, Dick. You are the son of the woman whom I would
have given up everything else to make my wife, had she not
preferred your father to me. When you were left to the tender
mercies of the world, an orphan cast aside by your own family, with a
small pittance, enough to keep you from actual want, I came to your
rescue. I took you into my business; I took you into my house. I have
not perhaps told you very definitely of my future intentions, but you
can guess what they were likely to be. In a year or two I proposed to
give you a share of my business. I have noticed the attachment
between you and Rosabelle, who is very dear to me. I should have
put no obstacles in your way.”
The bitter irony of it all! But for this disastrous happening, what a
fair and golden future! The unhappy young man could not speak, but
inwardly he was suffering tortures. Those beautiful dreams of an
honourable and prosperous career, of a happy wedded life with the
charming girl he loved so dearly—all had vanished in those hateful
few moments!
“Listen to me, Dick,” went on the deep, resonant voice, and the
tone was now one more of sorrow than anger. “Abandon this
stubborn attitude of pretended innocence. Don’t regard me as the
stern and inflexible judge, ready to mete out deserved punishment,
but one who will incline to mercy, the mercy that all of us may stand
in need of some day. Your mother’s son cannot be naturally
dishonest, it is impossible. You have got into difficulties that I have
never suspected; in an evil hour your better instincts yielded to your
pressing needs, your fear of disgrace; and you did this base thing.
Confess your fault, make restitution if you can, if it is not too late, and
I will help you as I vowed to your mother I always would.”
A dreadful groan escaped from the tortured Richard. “You are one
of the best and kindest men on God’s earth; my mother whom you
so loved always told me so. If I were the guilty wretch you believe
me to be I would go on my knees and implore your pardon. But I am
not a thief, and I cannot restore what I have never taken.”
But Morrice, more than ever convinced of his obduracy, continued
to urge him, in tones that were almost pleading.
“There must of course be something between us that can never be
quite blotted out, in spite of repentance on the one side and
forgiveness on the other. I could never again put you in a position of
trust, for that fatal weakness might come over you once more. But I
would give you a post where temptation could not assail you. You
have spoken of your mother, so dear to us both. I implore you by the
memory of that beloved woman who, for aught we know, is even now
watching us from afar, to quit this stubborn attitude and confess the
truth.”
No reply came from the accused man, and the hard, stern look
came back to the banker’s face. At that moment the door of the room
slowly opened, and the charming vision of Rosabelle, looking her
sweetest and daintiest, stood framed in the opening.
“May I come in?” she cried in her fresh, girlish voice.
“Come in, my poor child,” was her uncle’s answer. “Come in;
something has happened that you will have to know sooner or later,
although I fear the knowledge may break your heart.”
White as death at these ominous words, she advanced into the
room, closing the door, her troubled glance changing from the stern,
set face of her uncle to the pallid countenance of her lover, the two
men who were the dearest to her in the world, loving the one with a
filial devotion that could not have been surpassed by a daughter, the
other with all the fervour of her ardent youth.
It was a painful scene. In a few trenchant words, the more weighty
from the cold, judicial tone in which they were uttered, Morrice
explained to her what had happened. She learned to a certain extent
the secret of that wonderful safe, about the protecting properties of
which she had so often laughingly rallied its owner, this wretched
safe which had worked the ruin of Richard, and now menaced her
own happiness.
 She was too much dazed by the sudden and tragic happening to
do much more than grasp a few salient facts. The safe was opened
by two keys, one carried by each of the two men. They alone of all
the inmates of the house knew of its mechanism. That safe had been
opened, and certain valuable property extracted.
“But how could it be opened by one person, if it requires two
keys?” she cried, grasping at the first difficulty that presented itself to
her in her distress.
Mr. Morrice did not mince matters. “If I had a duplicate key of the
one carried by the other man, I could open it alone, and vice versa,”
he explained.
She understood the horrible suggestion, but her heart refused to
credit it. Of course she realized that her uncle would not steal his
own property, that would be a surmise altogether too ridiculous. But
it was equally impossible to believe that Richard, the man in whom
the great financier had placed such implicit trust, to whom her whole
soul went out in pity and yearning, should stoop to such a dastardly
act, with all the long and sinister preparations for its execution.
She stretched her hands out imploringly to her lover. “Richard, you
are no thief, nothing shall ever convince me of it,” she cried in a
voice of agony. “Deny it, deny it to us both. Say something that will
persuade him of the falseness of the accusation, of the injustice he is
doing you.”
The miserable young man was hardly less moved than herself. “I
have denied it, Rosabelle; I have offered to swear it, to take any oath
he may dictate to me. But he refuses to believe either word or oath. I
can do no more. Thank heaven, black as appearances are, you
believe that I am an honest man.”
“Oh yes, oh yes,” she cried brokenly. “I do not care a straw for
appearances, if they were twice as strong against you as they are. I
know you so well, my heart tells me that you have not done this
horrible thing.”
And then Morrice delivered his sentence. Incensed as he was at
what he considered the obstinacy of Croxton, he could not fail to be
moved by the girl’s passionate vindication of her lover.
“Richard Croxton, needless to say that from this day forth we are
strangers; my house can no longer give you shelter. For the sake of
one whose memory I shall always revere, I shall take no steps.
Nobody but Rosabelle and my wife will know the real reasons of your
departure. I am now going to the city to get money to replace that
which has been stolen. I shall go there and return here as quickly as
possible. I have no heart for any other business to-day. When I
return, let me find you gone. Later on I will invent some plausible
explanation of the severance of our relations, and give it out to those
who are interested.”
He turned on his heel without vouchsafing another glance at the
miserable man upon whom, up to the present, he had lavished
kindness and affection, strode through the hall, and a minute later he
had left the house.
The two wretched lovers were left alone, and when the door had
closed, the poor girl broke down, and threw herself into Richard’s
arms, sobbing bitterly.
 CHAPTER IV
GIDEON LANE TAKES A HAND

“W HAT an awful day!” she cried when Richard had calmed her
a little, not that he was in much of a mood to administer
consolation to others. “And last night, when we talked of our future,
and I told you to pluck up your courage, I felt so gay and light-
hearted. Oh, Dick dear, it will kill me; but no, I must not let it do that.
We must both be brave, and strain every nerve to prove your
innocence.”
“It is indeed a tragic day,” corroborated her lover. “And, my darling,
but for this inexplicable mystery, it would all have been such plain-
sailing. In the midst of his reproaches, he paused to tell me that he
knew of our love for each other, and that he would have put no
obstacles in the way.”
The poor girl sobbed afresh at this. To have the cup of happiness
dashed down when it was so near her lips—could there be a more
poignant disappointment? But presently, she rallied and dried her
tears, and inquired his plans for the future. Morrice had ordered him
to quit the house before he returned to it. There could be no
disobeying that command.
“I have often spoken to you of the dear old soul who was first my
mother’s nurse and then mine. My grandfather left her a small
annuity as reward for her faithful services to his family. She has a
tiny little cottage at Petersham, near Richmond. She will take me in
until I have collected my thoughts sufficiently to decide upon my
future.”
“And I shall come and see you there, Dick,” cried the girl eagerly,
“even though you are forbidden this house.”
“My darling, you must not do anything without your uncle’s
sanction. In certain moods, he is a stern and hard man.”
 Richard felt that life, in a way, was over for him, but for this brilliant
young creature it was only just beginning. Touched as he was by her
faith in him, he knew that it would be folly for her to cling to a man
over whom hung the shadow of disgrace. As yet, he could not wound
her feelings by telling her so. But presently, when he had recovered
himself sufficiently to think and plan, he would pass quietly out of her
life.
“He may be stern and hard at times, but he is always just,” said
Rosabelle. “He will not think the less of me because I refuse to
believe you guilty. Why, Dick, I know you so well,” she added
impetuously. “I would not credit the evidence of my own eyes against
your word. If these things had been found in your pockets and you
had denied you stole them, I would have believed you, and known
the real thief had put them there for the purpose of incriminating
you.”
Young Croxton smiled a wan smile at his sweetheart’s
vehemence. Can anything equal the blind faith of a woman in the
man she loves? It is one of those qualities amongst many which they
must surely derive from a divine source.
“He is sore and angry over his loss now,” went on the beautiful girl.
“In a day or two he will calm down, and see that he has been too
hasty in his judgment.”
“I have never known him angry over losses, and hardly a year
goes by that he does not make heavy ones,” answered Richard
sadly. “No, to do him justice, what has cut him to the quick is the
supposed discovery of my unworthiness.”
Half an hour later, Richard Croxton had left the familiar house in
Deanery Street which had sheltered him so long. His sweetheart
bade him a tearful farewell, and Mrs. Morrice, to whom the young
couple explained the terrible happenings of the morning, showed
considerable emotion. In her heart, she would have preferred her
nephew, Archie Brookes, as a husband for Rosabelle, but she had
always been very fond of Richard, and stoutly expressed her belief in
his innocence.
 A taxi bore him swiftly to the neat little ivy-covered cottage at
Petersham, where he received a hearty welcome from his old nurse,
a comely old woman verging upon her seventieth year, but hale and
vigorous for her age. To her he did not explain the actual truth, but
simply stated that circumstances had suddenly arisen which
rendered necessary the severing of his connection with Mr. Morrice.
The good, simple old soul said little, but she was very upset at the
news. She knew very well that the great financier had treated him
like a son, and that this sudden separation meant the ruin of his
bright prospects.
“And Miss Rosabelle?” she inquired anxiously. Hitherto he had
kept few secrets from the faithful and sympathetic old woman, who
had long ago learned the history of his love affair.
“She will come and see me, dear old nurse, that is to say, if her
uncle does not expressly forbid her.”
Mrs. Hart, such was the name of this faithful old servant, made no
comment upon this significant remark. It crossed her mind that it was
more than probable Richard’s departure had been caused by this
very love-affair; that fond as he was of him, the wealthy financier had
resented his attentions to his niece, who, in the course of time, would
be a considerable heiress.
It may be observed in passing that the same opinion was held in
the servants’ hall at Deanery Street, where the young man’s sudden
exit had naturally aroused a tremendous amount of interest. It had
also occurred to Morrice, desirous of keeping the true facts to
himself, more perhaps from respect for the dead than tenderness to
the living, that he might get his wife to give some hints which would
produce the same impression amongst their acquaintances.
True to her promise, in a few days Rosabelle arrived at the ivy-
covered cottage, having warned her lover, in a letter received by the
first post in the morning, of her visit.
He noticed that she drove up in a taxi, not, as was usual, in one of
her uncle’s cars. He was, of course, overwhelmed with joy at seeing
her so soon, but he was very anxious that the fidelity to himself
should not entail disastrous consequences to her own fortunes. So
the first question he asked was whether Mr. Morrice knew of her
visit.
“Everything is straight and above-board, dear Dick,” was the girl’s
answer. “I had a long talk with him yesterday morning at his early
breakfast. I got up early myself in order to seize a chance of finding
him alone. He seemed very sad and preoccupied, but he was not as
stern and harsh as on that dreadful day. I told him a lot of things as
they came into my head, how dearly we loved each other, how we
had fallen in love from the first day we met—that no matter if all the
world turned against you, I should still be faithful, that my one great
object was that you should take steps to get yourself cleared and
discover the real criminal.”
“And what did he say to all this?” asked the young man eagerly. “I
can guess, my darling, that you pleaded very well.”
“He listened very attentively, and was very quiet for a long time.
When I had finished, he asked me if I wished him to send for
detectives from Scotland Yard. I hastily said that I did, and that I was
sure you would wish it too. ‘My poor child, you don’t know what you
are talking about,’ was his answer. ‘The certain result of that would
be that the man in whom you believe would be arrested, and once
having taken the case up, I could not drop it, I should be bound to
prosecute.’ That scared me dreadfully, you may be sure. His final
words were spoken in a very sad voice. ‘Let sleeping dogs lie, my
poor wronged Rosabelle. Richard Croxton through his own act has
passed away from my life, as he must pass away from yours. You
are young, and in time your grief will heal, and some day you will
meet a man worthy of your love.’”
The young man’s head sunk on his breast. Yes, Mr. Morrice was
right. Appearances were too black against him; if the authorities
were called in, arrest would be sure to follow.
The girl went on in a low, tearful voice. “I told him that the day to
which he looked forward would never come, that if I could not marry
you, no other man should be my husband. And then, Dick, I ended
with the boldest thing I had said yet—I am pretty brave as a rule but I