A louse named Charlie
Many aspects of trench life were unpleasant – the mud and squalor, the monotony and drudgery, the abysmal diet, malnutrition and dysentery, the constant threat of death from enemy fire, and to top it off the discomfort – lice. The troops were crawling with them, almost to a man. In this excerpt from a 1981 radio documentary, George Lee recalls advice he got from a ‘lousy’ trench mate named Jack Saunders.
Year:1918 (Recorded 1981)
Location:Western Front
A louse named Charlie
Many aspects of trench life were unpleasant – the mud and squalor, the monotony and drudgery, the abysmal diet, malnutrition and dysentery, the constant threat of death from enemy fire, and to top it off the discomfort – lice. The troops were crawling with them, almost to a man. In this excerpt from a 1981 radio documentary, George Lee recalls advice he got from a ‘lousy’ trench mate named Jack Saunders.
Year: 1918 (Recorded 1981)
Length: 1:16
Production Company: Radio New Zealand
Credits: Producer: Jack Perkins
Source: Radio New Zealand Collection, Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
Catalogue Reference: Spectrum 383/384, Career by the King’s shilling
People: George Lee, Jack Saunders, Jack Perkins
Location: Western Front
Image Title: The body of a male louse
Image Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/The_male_body_louse_%28Pediculus_humanus_humanus%29._Pen_and_ink_Wellcome_V0022602EL.jpg
New Zealander George Lee was born in Canada and served in World War I with the British Army. He was among the later reinforcements, shipped to the trenches near Antwerp in April 1918. In this excerpt he talks about one of the most joked about blights on trench life – lice.
They infested the seams of clothing, particularly the warm moist areas at the crotch and armpits as well as the men’s body hair. Their bites caused terrible itching and red marks, but also had the potential for much worse.
Although not understood at the time, trench fever was caused by a bacterium transmitted by the lice. Trench fever caused sudden fever, headaches, skin rash, dizziness, pain in the eyeballs, muscle aches and constant pain in the shins. “Infection occurred when a louse carrying the bacterium defecated whilst feeding. If the host scratched, the bacterium-infected feces would be spread across, and into, the small wound. Thus, the host became infected.”[1] Recovery was slow and the infection could recur years later.
Yet the men still found silver linings in their afflictions. The word ‘chatting’ comes from a slang term for lice – ‘chats’. The men would sit around ‘chatting,’ i.e. delousing their clothing while gossiping at the same time.[2] Lice were also a great equalizer; everyone was affected, from the officers to the lowliest private. And, as Jack Saunders demonstrates, they were also a source of humour.
[1] Judith Hancock: ‘Trench fever and lice in World War 1’, URL: https://owlcation.com/humanities/Trench-Fever-in-World-War-1, (Owlcation), updated 12 August 2016.
[2] John Simkin: ‘Lice in the First World War’, URL: http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWlice.htm, (Spartacus Educational), updated January 2015.