Food and drink
At the Front, Lance Corporal Ramage bemoaned the lack of proper provisions on several occasions.
There were very basic problems related to eating and drinking in the trenches that had to be resolved.
Tins of rations were difficult to open. When out of rations, food had to be found and the water, which was generally putrid, had to be boiled for tea. Fires for cooking were seldom permitted as they might attract the enemy.
Ramage records in his diary on 23 April 1915:
'One casualty last night — a Gordon sent for potatoes was killed by stray bullet while we, near the enemy, in the firing line, were comparatively safe. Have eaten nearly all my two days rations before my first breakfast — water of waterbottle done … Crawled out for canteen of water at clay mud hole — clay around it was spongey and scattered with dirty sandbags and empty tins just like the top of a town's rubbish heap — a grave at the edge of a green pool … have seen rats about this pool … as put in canteen bubbles of gas came up from bottom and a bullet whizzed past — this is the only water in the vicinity so it had to do for tea.'
