Language selection


Search veterans.gc.ca

They had a good business...oeufs and chips.

Heroes Remember

They had a good business...oeufs and chips.

Transcript
Well, I can recall one little episode. They took us out and we marched about, oh, what was it called? About 15- 20 kilometres and then we found ourselves in a large field. The large field, that was where we were going to spend our time for a holiday. And we had no shelter, nothing at all, absolutely squat, down in your own field. In the meantime, some of the boys, there was villages close to it. And they went to these villages and they come back with the only thing they could find for a covering for us, to keep us away from the sun, was the window curtains, they’d be like lace. I remember that because that was a joke. When we first went into France and in behind the line, there was a great call for the French women. They were very good to us. But they were making a little business of it - oeufs and chips. Oeufs and chips, which was a good thing for us, because I was, I was paid thirty pence, thirty pence a day. The average soldier got 25 pence a day, but seeing I had the mechanical part of the army service corps, that part of it, I was given five cents more than the other guys. There was a bone of contention. "How come we get twenty-five cents a day and he gets thirty?" But anyway, but I was going to go back to the French women, they were very good to us, very good. They made some good oeufs and chips. Eggs and chips, yeah.
Description

Mr. Savage describes an amusing remedy for lack of shelter while on leave, and discusses how friendly local women sold oeufs (eggs) and chips to the soldiers.

Septimus Savage

Septimus Savage was born in East Hartley, England on October 8, 1898. He was the youngest of seven sons. Mr. Savage left school at age fifteen. All of his brothers had enlisted and he felt pressured to do the same. Being too young for active service, he attempted to join his local army canteen committee in 1914, at the age of sixteen. Eventually, he joined the Young Soldiers Battalion in Staffordshire, England. Once old enough, he joined the 10th Yorkshire Battalion, with whom he served in Europe. Mr. Savage fought in the battle at the Somme and was later wounded at Albert. After the war, he immigrated to Canada, first working as a railroad section man and then as a dairy farmer near Edmonton. When the Second World War began, he mobilized with the 19th Alberta Dragoons as a recruit trainer at Camrose, Alberta. He held the highest non-commissioned rank of Regimental Sergeant Major, and later received his Captain’s commission. Mr. Savage married Edith Stanton in England on January 24th, 1920 and had one daughter. At the time of his interview, Mr. Savage was living in Sardis, British Columbia. He died June 17th, 2001.

Meta Data
Medium:
Video
Owner:
Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:
2:07
Person Interviewed:
Septimus Savage
War, Conflict or Mission:
First World War
Location/Theatre:
Europe
Battle/Campaign:
Somme
Branch:
Army
Units/Ship:
10th Yorkshire Regiment
Occupation:
Infantryman

Copyright / Permission to Reproduce

Related Videos

Date modified: