Reginald
was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, in 1896, the son of Harry Arthur Howgego,
a printer's compositor, and Laura Elizabeth (nee Gooding). He married
Olive E. Randall in 1924.
Reginald
Howgego's collection of papers & photos from WW1, were donated to
the India Office Library at the British Library after his death in the
mid 1970's.
The following is an extract from Simon Darvill's web site on the History of Industrial Railways in South East Asia.
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(Extract from Military Railways in India - Part One - Railways on the North Western Frontier 1880 to 1917)
One
valuable archive that I have been able to find is the papers of a
soldier who served on the North Western Frontier during WWI. They are
letters, magazines and other documents that were either written or
collected by a Lance Corporal Howgego who served in India with the
1/25st Battalion, The London Regiment between 1916 and 1919. From the
documents this Battalion was a Bicycle Battalion - any further
information anyone may have about this Battalion would be gratefully
received.
In the collection (which was donated
to the British Library by Howgego on his death in the late 1970s) is a
letter that was written from Howgego to his mother whilst he was on
rest and recuperation in Muree Hills, dated 11th September 1917. It is
a very long letter where he was
"At last I am able to give you a fairly full account of what I have
been through during the last 3 months…………….I wrote from Tank
twice………….Well we had a fortnight in Tank Railway Fort sleeping in
native huts and I can you it was not a pleasant time".
He goes on to give a detailed account of actions that they had
encountered whilst on manoeuvres around Tank. It is worth quoting the
next part of his letter verbatim
" We camped that night outside Zam Fort in a perimeter and moved off on
the last 6 miles to Tank. As soon as we arrived at the station we
unloaded the luggage etc on the platform and the pack animals were sent
to the depot, and I can tell you we were glad to see the back of them.
All baggage was packed onto the first train which was to leave at 7
o'clock that evening.
We then went into a rest camp out side the station for the rest of the
day. A and D companies were to leave by the first train and they got
aboard at 6 o'clock. Just before it was time to leave they had a
message to say the line had been breached midway between Tank and
Kalabagh, so of course we could not travel. Well we kipped in for the
night in the tents and A and D companies were kept on the train.
About 3 o'clock in the morning I woke up and felt that I was lying
water, so of course I shouted out to the rest of the fellows and
started to pack up, but the next moment a great wave of water about 18"
high swept right over everything and the only things I saved dry were
my toppee and a pair of putties. Everything else was of course soaked
through. We had the order to grab our rifles and equipment and to make
our way to the empty train. It was some job too, raining like the ----,
black as ink, about a 2 feet of water to wade through, barefooted and
tons of mud. We eventually got into the train and at day break we
started salvaging.
We got what kit we could of our own and laid it out to dry on the
platform and then got all the unclaimed stuff and made a dump of it.
You can imagine what it looked like and smelt like. A hot sun and a
battalion kit wet through with mud. We lay at Tank station 4 days while
they were repairing the line.
We left Tank alright at night and arrived at Kalahbagh the next
morning. We loaded the baggage on the ferry and went across the Maru
Indus. We had the day at the rest camp at Indus and left there at about
6 o'clock the same evening, and arrived at Jullunder about 3 o'clock
the next afternoon. They had a good spread ready for us in the mess and
it was good too, after bully beef and biscuits for 3 months.
From
other documents that Howgego donated it is possible to date the above
event. There is a copy of volume two of the Londoner which was the
Regimental magazine of the London Regiment. In it is a set of
photographs of the event which are stated to have been taken at Tank on
14th August 1917. There are five photographs, one of which shows good
views of coaches in the station platform.
There
are a couple of references in the papers, which give small glimpses of
the railways on the North Western Frontier. There is an official
document entitled Punjab Disturbances (2nd Edition). This was published
in April 1919 by the Lahore Civil & Military Gazette Press. On page
42 is a note about the effects of rioters had had on the railway at
Warizabad. On 14th August 1919 rioters burned sleepers, fencing and
telegraph communications. One or two signals pulled up. A party from
the Railway Miners and Sappers at Silakot was sent to repair the damage
to the railway.
However, the most interesting things donated by Howgego are his
photographs. There are two albums and a number of loose photos, which
were taken whilst on leave and on duty in India. There are some good
photos taken on the Kalka Simla Railway and some others taken on
railways in the south of India. However Howgego also took a photographs
whilst on manoeuvres around Tank. One of these shows one of the KBR
railway, depicting one of their North British 2-8-2 locos, number 13
taken at Pezu in Waziristan in 1917. Two other photos that were taken
whilst on manoeuvres on the KKTR, sadly undated. They show two of the
2-4-2T Bagnalls on KKTR. One of them is captioned on the rear stating
"KTR making tea at a way side station going up the line. B Company to
Afghanistan. Hot water from engine.
http://www.irfca.org/docs/locolists/industrial/display.php?file=Military.txt&title=Military%20Trains
My thanks to Simon Darvill for permission to use the
above text.
