Welcome to The Bay Museum Website

The Bay Museum is a friendly museum situated on Canvey Island. Based in a degaussing station, it now offers a wealth of artefacts, books and displays focusing on both local and world military history focused on the First and Second World Wars. Open from 10am till mid-afternoon on Sundays, the museum is run by our volunteers who always warmly welcome visitors and are willing to impart their knowledge. They can also help you research your own family military histories and have extensive experience of visiting battlefields and cemeteries. Our website contains information about visiting the museum as well as archiving wartime records that we regularly transcribe online.

THE BAY MUSEUM AND RESEARCH FACILITY

CHARITY NUMBER 1204193

TRUSTEES

CHAIRMAN: D. THORNDIKE  VICE CHAIRS: J. HARRIS & A. REED  SECRETARY: G. BAKER  TREASURER: M. DANIELL

Letter from Bernard King to Harry & Ethel King dated 17th September 1916.

113rd Siege Battery R.G.A.

France 17th Sept 1916

Sunday

My Dear Harry & Ethel,

            I yesterday received your letters dated the 10th instant – last Sunday – and am very much obliged to you both.

            I am now having the time of my life as I am with our Ammunition Column and enjoying a good rest.  It is splendid here: we are camped in a field some miles from the firing line and can only just hear our own guns.  Everything is nice and clean and there are no shell holes about, the war except for the traffic up and down the roads has not made any mark just in the immediate neighbourhood, but the one time villages which are scattered about are very battered.  It is glorious to be living in a roomy tent after having been confined to pokey little dugouts.  I have had several runs on the motor lorries and it is wonderfully interesting behind the lines: one sees more of the War behind the lines in a couple of days than up in the lines during a couple of months.

            I saw yesterday’s “Continental Daily Mail” & was glad to see the War News continues very good.  Up to the present Alan has not been in this district & I hope he will not have to come here – it is not over healthy for any one.  Our Battery are having a busy time once again six words blue pencilled out. I wonder if you have seen the picture “The Battle of the Somme”: I notice that one house refused to show it as it was a place of amusement & not a chamber of horrors.  It is glorious weather and in the field we are in French women are gathering in the crops – after three months of guns, shells you cannot imagine how delightful it is.

            Yours with best love,

                        Bernard.

In On Active Service envelope addressed to Mr & Mrs Harry R King, Esq., Glen Hilda, Park Avenue, Worcester, England.

Ansd 24/9/16

Postmarked FIELD POST OFFICE R.5.  18 SP 16.  Hexagonal PASSED FIELD CENSOR 3624.  Signed F.L.K. Fletcher.

Notebooks of W. Allason.

All the notebooks were written on the right hand page and additions, photos, cartoons or other documents were added to the left hand page.

17 Sept. 1916.          It proved a fine day & the men soon had fairly good shelters constructed.  Timber from the refinery ruins was a great asset.  I went forward to reconnoitre Morval and Les Boeufs.  There was considerable shelling on the way but we had a magnificent view.

Notebooks of W. Allason.

All the notebooks were written on the right hand page and additions, photos, cartoons or other documents were added to the left hand page.

16th Sept. 1916.        At 3.20 a.m. we moved off halted at the Citadel for a couple of hours and then moved on to the Sugar refinery (Waterlot Farm).  We got there about 11 p.m. there was no cover for the men and it drizzled steadily.  We passed some tanks on the way.

Letter from Bernard King to Harry & Ethel King dated 12th September 1916.

France 12th September

Tuesday

My Dear Harry & Ethel,

            Thanks very much for your letter dated the 3rd instant which I received a couple of days ago but which I have been unable to reply to as we have been busy during the last few days – we expect to be busier during the next few.

            I was very glad to find you had got into a house of your own and hope by this time you feel at home.  Your address sounds charming and gives the impression of quite a nice place.  I shall be glad to get the books from you however quaint the colouring of the backs might be.  Send them by book post as then the postage is only four-pence & please send only one at a time.

            I had a long letter from Alan yesterday – with his usual good luck he has managed to fall on his feet a habit I hope he will cultivate.  Eight hours train journey does not as you appear to imagine mean a long distance out here.  It is always possible to get off the train, have a shave, and catch it up again.  A notice is posted up that it is dangerous and forbidden to lean out of the window but no objection appears to be taken to anyone walking the length of the train when in full motion by means of the footboard.  From his letter I don’t think the big town he is at is anywhere near this district.  He says it is rumoured that they are coming this way but he does not think there is any truth in the rumour.  I hope he does not as all the villages we come to are blown to atoms & it can hardly be called a healthy neighbourhood.

            I had a letter from Mother and was glad to know that she was having a few days at Clevedon.  I hope it will do her good there and that she will soon be paying you a visit.

I have not yet had my rest – I think it has again been washed out, but just at present it looks as though we have some busy days in front of us.

            As usual my letters are short but you must excuse me.  I can’t find news.

            With best wishes to you both

            Yours,

                        Bernard.

Ben King F.B.

In On Active Service envelope addressed to Harry R King, Esq., Glen Hilda, Park Avenue, Worcester, England.

Ansd 24/9/16

Postmarked FIELD POST OFFICE R.5.  16 SP 16.  Hexagonal PASSED FIELD CENSOR 3624.  Signed G. Cork.

Stamp of 10th (S) Battn R.W. Kent Regt

CERTIFIED that the application of 2/Lieut. B.T. COMMINS for transfer to the MACHINE GUN CORPS (H.B.) does not originate in any cause affecting the honour, character, or professional efficiency of this Officer.

S.H. Beattie

Major,

Commdg. 10th R.W. KENT REGT.

CERTIFIED that in the event of my being transferred to the MACHINE GUN CORPS (H.B.) it is my bona fide intention to join immediately and do duty for at least 12 months.

B.T. Comins 2/Lieut.

10th R.W. KENT REGT.

CERTIFIED that 2/LIEUT. B.T. COMINS is in a fit state of health to serve at the station where the unit he desires to join is stationed.

G. A. Johns,

Capt. R.A.M.C.

Letter from Alan King to Harry R King dated 11th September 1916

France

September 11th 1916

Monday

My dear Harry,

Thank you for your letter of the third and the previous one.  I am glad to hear you are settled in your new abode.  The furniture was rather unfortunate and reminded me of a man in the office who sent in a huge claim for damaged furniture & was allowed more than the removal fee.  French trains are fearfully slow and not at all consistent.  I think they go at the rate of fifteen miles an hour.  We left the “place near the big town” on the sixth & arrived here the following day – or rather a couple of miles away.  We had a rather stiff march, a few hours train journey & then another march.  I have enquired of all Bernard’s corps if his Battery is here and they say no so evidently he has moved.  You must let me know where he is now.  One evening at a café in the big town I was very amused at the French way of playing draughts.  We saw a game of cards which it was impossible to follow but which seemed to provoke plenty of amusement.  The picture cards have names of history people on them and there is no ace.  It is called “one”.  Draughts is very peculiar.  There are a hundred squares instead of sixty-four.  A piece can take forward or backward and a King can hop over a square, a man and then another square.  This part of the front is just what one would imagine it to be.  It is very busy indeed and seems like a bee-hive for miles.  It is very difficult from the old place.  I am reading “The First Hundred Thousand” by Ian Hay and if you have a chance do so as well as it almost relates our experiences.  There are one or two Canteens & a Y.M.C.A. hut not far off but they take some getting at.  To get inside the latter is a fearful job.  There is always a very long queue outside & we do not consider it worthwhile waiting.  If the army were suddenly taken away the country would be very barren for miles and miles.  There is a fine place to go swimming about a mile away.  It is just like a very long swimming bath, is about ten feet deep & has places to dive off on three sides.  We went yesterday and hope to go again today.  Our dwelling place now for these few days is built of ammunition boxes and a huge canvas sheet.  The boxes constitute the walls and the sheet is the roof.  It has been fine while we’ve been here thank goodness except for one fierce shower.  That shower however has taught us to appreciate fine weather in such abodes.  A big pole is in the middle to poke up the sheet so as to make the exterior appear more like a roof.  The transport has been playing all sorts of tricks lately and we are all receiving parcels & letters late & having several at a time.  Dickson had a parcel containing a cold (of course) chicken & as the parcel had taken ten days to come we decided to sneak off & open it far from the madding crowd in case it should hum.  We opened it & found it touched only in a couple of spots.  We eat a little leg, wing & breast & threw the rest in the incinerator.  The cakes &c were a little stale but quite all right otherwise.  One chap had a parcel once, the chicken went off very decidedly & the whole parcel was no good.  Three of our fellows went to hospital with sundry ailments & they seem to have had a flood of letters and parcels sent here.  I suppose it is always the way.  The guns are very active here & there is every indication of our having an opportunity of doing big things.  I am very well & feel very optimistic about the war soon being over.

Give my love to Ethel.  I am looking forward to long letters from you both next Wednesday – which is tomorrow of course.  Well I must now close, remaining,

            Yours as ever

                        Alan.

On Active Service envelope addressed to Harry R King, Esq., Glen Hilda, Park Avenue, Worcester.  Ansd 17/9/16

Postmarked FIELD POST OFFICE 124 13 SP 16.  Hexagonal Passed Field Censor 3274 cachet.  Signed GM Bevan

Notebooks of W. Allason.

All the notebooks were written on the right hand page and additions, photos, cartoons or other documents were added to the left hand page.

9th Sept. 1916.          We marched to Morlincourt passing the 8th Bn on the way.  Here we stayed until the 15th.  Some very indifferent drafts joined us and many gaps among the specialists had to be made up.