Yeah, the general consensus among those that knew him in the opening days of the war was that he had gone insane. He had managed to offend basically everyone, from the Governor-General (The Duke of Connaught) to the Toronto Humane Society (whose representative he bodily threw out of his office). When the Anglican Bishop of Montreal came to see him about the lack of Anglican chaplains for the CEF, Hughes response was loud and full of four letter words not generally used in addressing a Bishop. I don’t think his loss would be widely mourned.
A Better Rifle at Halloween
- Thread starter diesal
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- britwank rifles ww1 different
I think that the government would want to quietly brush this under the table. They don’t want any whiff of a trial to stir the scandal. The young soldier in question is as likely to be quietly released and sent to France with his mates as to face punishment
The Permanent Active Militia Mobilise
7:30 am 11th August 1914, Dublin.
Percy Ludgate was sitting in his parlour enjoying his breakfast, bacon, eggs and a potato farl. His copy of the Irish Times was spread out in front of him, he was reading with interest a small article on page 13 of the death of the Canadian minister of Militia, Samuel Hughes who had apparently died of misadventure during the testing of some experimental equipment. It was noted that the Minister would be given a State Funeral. There was a small comment by Sir Willoughby Gwatkin Chief of the General Staff Canadian Militia “Samuel Hughes was a great man, his death is a tragedy, but was an accident of war. His efforts to improve Canada’s militia will be long remembered, along with his service in the Boer War. To that end the full power of the Permanent Active Militia along with the Non Permanent Active Militia is to be mobilised, with all NPAM units called up for immediate service in Canada and potentially abroad, volunteers will be allocated for overseas service with the Active Militia units as trained.”
Percy Ludgate was sitting in his parlour enjoying his breakfast, bacon, eggs and a potato farl. His copy of the Irish Times was spread out in front of him, he was reading with interest a small article on page 13 of the death of the Canadian minister of Militia, Samuel Hughes who had apparently died of misadventure during the testing of some experimental equipment. It was noted that the Minister would be given a State Funeral. There was a small comment by Sir Willoughby Gwatkin Chief of the General Staff Canadian Militia “Samuel Hughes was a great man, his death is a tragedy, but was an accident of war. His efforts to improve Canada’s militia will be long remembered, along with his service in the Boer War. To that end the full power of the Permanent Active Militia along with the Non Permanent Active Militia is to be mobilised, with all NPAM units called up for immediate service in Canada and potentially abroad, volunteers will be allocated for overseas service with the Active Militia units as trained.”
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During WW II, Major Vladimir Peniakoff ("Popski") was tasked with scouting the German positions in SE Italy after the SLAPSTICK landing in Taranto. There were various Italian army posts in the area, which cooperated with him per the terms of Italy's surrender a few days earlier. He was talking to the officer in charge at some post about where the Germans were, and the man said "Wait, let me call my colleague at [some town] and find out if there are Germans there." Popski was astonished - but it worked - and Popski followed up by calling other towns and assembling a fairly extensive picture of German deployments.
I'd just like to say thank you for including Percy. One of my personal favourite 'What Ifs'. Hopefully the 'flu doesn't get him.
BTW, in 1914 the IT under Healy was staunchly Unionist; this tended to colour their coverage.
Overall, a very nice piece of work. Congratulations.
OK, I'm hooked on the "8,000 lemons in lieu of chewing gun".............
Something for later. Thanks.
Ludgate was Church of Ireland and so as likely to be a Unionist as a Home Rule supporter, his mother was English born and from his surname I would say his father was likely be either Anglo-Irish or English. Hence his reading The Irish Times also as a Corn Merchant he would have preferred its business pages.
Royal Mail Efficiency
2:00 pm 11th August 1914.
Professor Boys was sitting at his desk in his office, the administrative assistant had just given him a letter received in the afternoon post. Boys noticed it was postmarked Dublin, wondering who might have sent it, he opened the letter.
Dear Professor Boys
I have resolved to do all I can to demonstrate Irish Loyalty to the empire and to that end I wish to make available to the Government, my new Analytical Machine. Since we last corresponded, I have worked diligently on it, improving its function, and reducing the complexity.
It can now multiply a 10 digit number with another 10 digit number in mere seconds. I have enclosed updated plans for the Multiplier Accumulator. I am able to visit you in London to demonstrate the machine which I believe will be invaluable for a variety of purposes in the coming war. Should you wish to see the machine I can travel one week from today.
I remain Sir, your humble and obedient servant
Percyl Ludgate.
Boys was astounded, he had heard very little from Ludgate in the intervening period since the 1909 paper in Nature. He was pleased that he had continued with the project and impressed that he had resolved to build it on a smaller and more manageable scale in the first instance. That would both simplify transport and reduce manufacturing difficulties. Boys was aware that committees had been established to undertake research into technology which had military or naval applications, he knew members of both the Military Board it’s president being Sir J J Thomson, whilst the Navy Board had William Bragg and Geoffrey Ingram Taylor. He knew all of them from the Royal Society and thought that a direct approach to Thomson was the best one. He wrote up a telegram message to Ludgate which said “Letter received, prepare self, plans, equipment. Details to follow.” With that he went off to make a number of phone calls.
Professor Boys was sitting at his desk in his office, the administrative assistant had just given him a letter received in the afternoon post. Boys noticed it was postmarked Dublin, wondering who might have sent it, he opened the letter.
Dear Professor Boys
I have resolved to do all I can to demonstrate Irish Loyalty to the empire and to that end I wish to make available to the Government, my new Analytical Machine. Since we last corresponded, I have worked diligently on it, improving its function, and reducing the complexity.
It can now multiply a 10 digit number with another 10 digit number in mere seconds. I have enclosed updated plans for the Multiplier Accumulator. I am able to visit you in London to demonstrate the machine which I believe will be invaluable for a variety of purposes in the coming war. Should you wish to see the machine I can travel one week from today.
I remain Sir, your humble and obedient servant
Percyl Ludgate.
Boys was astounded, he had heard very little from Ludgate in the intervening period since the 1909 paper in Nature. He was pleased that he had continued with the project and impressed that he had resolved to build it on a smaller and more manageable scale in the first instance. That would both simplify transport and reduce manufacturing difficulties. Boys was aware that committees had been established to undertake research into technology which had military or naval applications, he knew members of both the Military Board it’s president being Sir J J Thomson, whilst the Navy Board had William Bragg and Geoffrey Ingram Taylor. He knew all of them from the Royal Society and thought that a direct approach to Thomson was the best one. He wrote up a telegram message to Ludgate which said “Letter received, prepare self, plans, equipment. Details to follow.” With that he went off to make a number of phone calls.
Demonstration
3:00pm 11th August 1914, Chipping Barnet.
Colonel Malcolm and Moubray Farquhar were both somewhat irritated though both men made every attempt to keep it suppressed, Malcolm for reasons of Military Decorum and Farquhar from commercial advantage. They along with the men of C company (The London Scottish) had been waiting for the arrival of Brigadier General F.J Heyworth, he had finally arrived. Bringing with him another Brigadier General The Hon. C.S. Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, the commander of 6 Brigade. Several minutes after the arrival of the two Brigadier Generals, another staff car with motor cycle escort arrived, the men of the London Scottish already drawn up for inspection by the brigade commanders were impassive as out of the staff car stepped Major General Francis Lloyd. who was the Major General Brigade of Guards and General Officer Commanding London District. With him was their own Divisional Commander Major General Thomas Morland. The four generals then inspected the men and officers. They then drew off to one side where a small pavilion had been set up, taking their seats they waited for the demonstration.
Colonel Malcolm spoke to them prior to the start of proceedings addressing General Lloyd directly. “Sir, as you are aware, we discovered the problem with the rifles on Saturday, they will not feed the new ammunition properly. As you are also no doubt aware Lord Wemyss, whose father was the commander of the London Scottish from its founding, is the owner of the land on which we are standing, he has provided it to us for training purposes.” Acknowledging Weymss he carried on “Lord Weymss happens to also know Lieutenant Colonel Farquhar, whose previous service with the Scottish horse I was unaware of until today.” “Lord Wemyss and Col Farquhar were discussing the issue of the Colonel’s rifle when Wemyss made the connection between my problem and Col Farquhar’s problem” saying “You have a problem with a rifle that won’t shoot and Farquhar has a problem with a rifle that hasn’t sold, I think together you and Farquhar can give that problem to the Kaiser”
“With that I would like to commence the demonstration, which will consist of one section firing at a time alternating between the SMLE Mk 1 and the Farquhar Hill Rifle. They will be undertaking the Practice Number 22 and aiming to achieve a qualifying score”
With that the demonstration began, the first section began shooting deliberately loading each round aiming and firing then ejecting the round before reloading. The senior officers present began muttering, clearly irritated that the men were firing deliberately. When the first section had finished and without any of the men achieving the minimum, General Lloyd was furious, saying “Malcolm, my time and that of these Gentlemen is precious, I didn’t come here to see individual fire your men have magazines, they should use them.” With that command the men disengaged the magazine cut off and began firing again, the results were poor multiple jams for each man with rates of fire even worse than before.
General Lloyd was still furious, “Dammed Territorials, can’t even use a rifle” With that Colonel Malcolm pointed to his RSM saying “Sir it was the RSM who first had the problem and he is as finest shot as any man in the army,” continuing “if I may request the second section to shoot” “Yes” snapped Lloyd.
With that the second section took positions to fire the practice.
The tempo of firing was completely different, what had been irregular hesitant and liable to whole seconds of silence was replaced by a crescendo of noise. With each man firing between 36 and 50 rounds in the space of one minute. The targets were recovered after the firing had ceased and presented to the senior officers. They were a testament to the improved rifle, almost all of the rounds fired by the Farquhar Hill Rifle were centred within the 24” ring of the second class figure target. The first sections efforts with the SMLE were substantially worse, even allowing for the fact that the targets had not been recovered between their two efforts, they had a wider spread of shots with many more outside the outer ring.
The Rifles were now inspected, the Generals were highly experienced officers and knew what to look for in a recently fired rifle. They had little to concern themselves with the Farquhar Hill rifle beyond noting it was slightly longer than the SMLE Mk 1, no fouling was visible beyond the little you, would expect with rifles that had fired 50 rounds without a pull through being run through the bore. They then inspected the SMLE’s, the problems with the magazines were evident to them with the rounds not presenting properly to be loaded.
A short discussion was held by the four senior officers, it was concluded when General Lloyd said, “I want to try this new rifle, I heard of your success at Bisley this year and I think this may be a solution.”
With that the four generals received a rifle each, a short brief by the RSM who was acting as the Range Officer was given and they proceeded to undertake the same firing practice as the Soldiers.
Senior Officers of the British Army in 1914 were almost all combat veterans, all four had seen service in Africa where the power of accurate rifle fire had been demonstrated. Both against an attacker such as at Omdurman but also on the receiving end such as against the Boers who armed with their Mausers had caused such problems in South Africa.
With that they then shot, the course of fire each. Each man managed to easily achieve the 15 round standard of the Practice 22, with all of them exceeding 24 rounds in the minute. Again their accuracy was impressive and they were genuinely pleased, General Lloyd was delighted, he had shot 45 rounds holding the vast majority inside the inner ring and most on the centre target. Moubray Farquhar who had been watching will considerable trepidation looked almost as happy as he saw the Generals face commenting “she is a fun rifle to shoot isn’t she.”
General Lloyd schooled his expression into the formality which was expected and replied “it is a fine rifle from what I have seen, however I should like to see how it performs over some time” with that he and the other three generals retired back to the pavilion to watch the remainder of the demonstration.
Colonel Malcolm and Moubray Farquhar were both somewhat irritated though both men made every attempt to keep it suppressed, Malcolm for reasons of Military Decorum and Farquhar from commercial advantage. They along with the men of C company (The London Scottish) had been waiting for the arrival of Brigadier General F.J Heyworth, he had finally arrived. Bringing with him another Brigadier General The Hon. C.S. Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, the commander of 6 Brigade. Several minutes after the arrival of the two Brigadier Generals, another staff car with motor cycle escort arrived, the men of the London Scottish already drawn up for inspection by the brigade commanders were impassive as out of the staff car stepped Major General Francis Lloyd. who was the Major General Brigade of Guards and General Officer Commanding London District. With him was their own Divisional Commander Major General Thomas Morland. The four generals then inspected the men and officers. They then drew off to one side where a small pavilion had been set up, taking their seats they waited for the demonstration.
Colonel Malcolm spoke to them prior to the start of proceedings addressing General Lloyd directly. “Sir, as you are aware, we discovered the problem with the rifles on Saturday, they will not feed the new ammunition properly. As you are also no doubt aware Lord Wemyss, whose father was the commander of the London Scottish from its founding, is the owner of the land on which we are standing, he has provided it to us for training purposes.” Acknowledging Weymss he carried on “Lord Weymss happens to also know Lieutenant Colonel Farquhar, whose previous service with the Scottish horse I was unaware of until today.” “Lord Wemyss and Col Farquhar were discussing the issue of the Colonel’s rifle when Wemyss made the connection between my problem and Col Farquhar’s problem” saying “You have a problem with a rifle that won’t shoot and Farquhar has a problem with a rifle that hasn’t sold, I think together you and Farquhar can give that problem to the Kaiser”
“With that I would like to commence the demonstration, which will consist of one section firing at a time alternating between the SMLE Mk 1 and the Farquhar Hill Rifle. They will be undertaking the Practice Number 22 and aiming to achieve a qualifying score”
With that the demonstration began, the first section began shooting deliberately loading each round aiming and firing then ejecting the round before reloading. The senior officers present began muttering, clearly irritated that the men were firing deliberately. When the first section had finished and without any of the men achieving the minimum, General Lloyd was furious, saying “Malcolm, my time and that of these Gentlemen is precious, I didn’t come here to see individual fire your men have magazines, they should use them.” With that command the men disengaged the magazine cut off and began firing again, the results were poor multiple jams for each man with rates of fire even worse than before.
General Lloyd was still furious, “Dammed Territorials, can’t even use a rifle” With that Colonel Malcolm pointed to his RSM saying “Sir it was the RSM who first had the problem and he is as finest shot as any man in the army,” continuing “if I may request the second section to shoot” “Yes” snapped Lloyd.
With that the second section took positions to fire the practice.
The tempo of firing was completely different, what had been irregular hesitant and liable to whole seconds of silence was replaced by a crescendo of noise. With each man firing between 36 and 50 rounds in the space of one minute. The targets were recovered after the firing had ceased and presented to the senior officers. They were a testament to the improved rifle, almost all of the rounds fired by the Farquhar Hill Rifle were centred within the 24” ring of the second class figure target. The first sections efforts with the SMLE were substantially worse, even allowing for the fact that the targets had not been recovered between their two efforts, they had a wider spread of shots with many more outside the outer ring.
The Rifles were now inspected, the Generals were highly experienced officers and knew what to look for in a recently fired rifle. They had little to concern themselves with the Farquhar Hill rifle beyond noting it was slightly longer than the SMLE Mk 1, no fouling was visible beyond the little you, would expect with rifles that had fired 50 rounds without a pull through being run through the bore. They then inspected the SMLE’s, the problems with the magazines were evident to them with the rounds not presenting properly to be loaded.
A short discussion was held by the four senior officers, it was concluded when General Lloyd said, “I want to try this new rifle, I heard of your success at Bisley this year and I think this may be a solution.”
With that the four generals received a rifle each, a short brief by the RSM who was acting as the Range Officer was given and they proceeded to undertake the same firing practice as the Soldiers.
Senior Officers of the British Army in 1914 were almost all combat veterans, all four had seen service in Africa where the power of accurate rifle fire had been demonstrated. Both against an attacker such as at Omdurman but also on the receiving end such as against the Boers who armed with their Mausers had caused such problems in South Africa.
With that they then shot, the course of fire each. Each man managed to easily achieve the 15 round standard of the Practice 22, with all of them exceeding 24 rounds in the minute. Again their accuracy was impressive and they were genuinely pleased, General Lloyd was delighted, he had shot 45 rounds holding the vast majority inside the inner ring and most on the centre target. Moubray Farquhar who had been watching will considerable trepidation looked almost as happy as he saw the Generals face commenting “she is a fun rifle to shoot isn’t she.”
General Lloyd schooled his expression into the formality which was expected and replied “it is a fine rifle from what I have seen, however I should like to see how it performs over some time” with that he and the other three generals retired back to the pavilion to watch the remainder of the demonstration.
Two Telegrams
6:00 pm 11th August 1914, Dublin.
Percy Ludgate had just arrived home to find two telegrams had been left for him, the first simply said “Letter received, prepare self, plans, equipment. Details to follow” the second, “Ticket booked, Train departs 7am 18th ticket at station, meet at Holyhead, bring engine and plan, letter to follow. Whilst the information was scant Percy was happy that he would showing his work to someone, his labours had been lonely and consumed much of his spare income. He expected he would receive the letter with more details in the next 2 or 3 days.
He went to speak to his brother saying, “off to London in a week, taking the engine to show the professor.” With that he returned to his workroom to begin sorting the most important documents which would need to go with him.
Percy Ludgate had just arrived home to find two telegrams had been left for him, the first simply said “Letter received, prepare self, plans, equipment. Details to follow” the second, “Ticket booked, Train departs 7am 18th ticket at station, meet at Holyhead, bring engine and plan, letter to follow. Whilst the information was scant Percy was happy that he would showing his work to someone, his labours had been lonely and consumed much of his spare income. He expected he would receive the letter with more details in the next 2 or 3 days.
He went to speak to his brother saying, “off to London in a week, taking the engine to show the professor.” With that he returned to his workroom to begin sorting the most important documents which would need to go with him.
Order Placed and a New Hire.
8pm 11th August 1914, London.
Malcolm and Farquhar were back in their club, by this stage they were becoming fast friends, they had agreed that the Battalion would purchase 1100 of the Farquhar Hill Rifles, for immediate delivery with a 20% discount on the original price but with as much ammunition as was available. The Brigadier was happy enough to have them to carry the equipment as it would allow the SMLE MK 1 Rifles, to be provided to another battalion of the London Regiment, which was still equipped with long Lee Enfield rifles, this would get him credit with the Divisional commander and GOC London. The additional ammunition over normal battalion allotment would be carried with brigade stores for resupply purposes, it was felt this would reduce the risk of carrying unique ammunition. The ammunition plant would be requested to work double shifts on production as well, this would be reinforced by a chit drawn on London District for authorisation and payment.
Farquhar had agreed with Hill on the need to have the factory work 2 shifts to increase production as well as hiring a William Morris and one of his engineers as consultants. Hill had met Morris at the talk given by Taylor on scientific management and could see that he was clearly a man who had what it took to achieve efficient production.
Malcolm and Farquhar were back in their club, by this stage they were becoming fast friends, they had agreed that the Battalion would purchase 1100 of the Farquhar Hill Rifles, for immediate delivery with a 20% discount on the original price but with as much ammunition as was available. The Brigadier was happy enough to have them to carry the equipment as it would allow the SMLE MK 1 Rifles, to be provided to another battalion of the London Regiment, which was still equipped with long Lee Enfield rifles, this would get him credit with the Divisional commander and GOC London. The additional ammunition over normal battalion allotment would be carried with brigade stores for resupply purposes, it was felt this would reduce the risk of carrying unique ammunition. The ammunition plant would be requested to work double shifts on production as well, this would be reinforced by a chit drawn on London District for authorisation and payment.
Farquhar had agreed with Hill on the need to have the factory work 2 shifts to increase production as well as hiring a William Morris and one of his engineers as consultants. Hill had met Morris at the talk given by Taylor on scientific management and could see that he was clearly a man who had what it took to achieve efficient production.
Definately good news, if the FQH Rifle's going to be deployed its going to need official support from the Government as well as the 'old boys club' that is various Generals and the like. At this rate it won't be accepted quickly but it should be showing up in 1914 - 1915 with any luck.
Also this device by Mr Ludgate, what was it and what did it do? Was it a mechanical calculator?
Also this device by Mr Ludgate, what was it and what did it do? Was it a mechanical calculator?
Mechanical computer. One of only two prior to the creation of electromechanical systems (the other being Babbage's machine from the 1830's) that was "Turing Complete". In very basic terms (And I am not an expert, so this may be off), it can not just calculate, but be programmed to calculate nearly anything you want.