[78-L] Decca trench model

[BURNHAM]

I think Columbia gramophones were actually called “Graphophones” but I may be wrong!

Sent from my iPhone

> On Feb 4, 2020, at 19:40, Lloyd Davies <all_my_linx at yahoo.ca.invalid> wrote:
> 
> 
> In 2009, Tim Cook of the Canadian Military Museum had recently mounted an exhibition about the minutiae and ephemera of a soldier's life in WWI.  He produced a series of articles which became a book in 2018, "The Secret History of Soldiers: How Canadians Survived the Great War"
> 
> <<<
> There was also a proliferation of gramophones on which to play the latest hits; these were purchased by the men or their units, or loaned to fighting formations by the YMCA. Even in the front lines, an officers’ mess or a dugout might have a gramophone, with Decca creating a dedicated trench model.  These contraptions were not always appreciated by some of the older men. Colonel J.J. Creelman, the crusty commander of the 2nd Brigade, Canadian Field Artillery, wrote in his diary of a new "Columbia gramophone" that had been purchased collectively by the junior officers, and the "infernal thing is at present ripping out Humeresque."  A younger officer, Lieutenant Andrew Miller, was more in tune with the popular culture, writing to his "dearest Ruth" of a small party that he and fellow officers had in a dugout:
> 
> After dinner we had various selections on their gramophone . . . 
> to help to lend cheer to the occasion. . . .With your letter 
> coming and the music[,] even if it was only a gramaphone[,] and
> our concerted efforts accompanying it in songs we knew and the 
> company of fine fellows I think it was the happiest evening I 
> have ever had in France. . . . So you see it is not all shells
> and war and frightful things over here.
>>>> 
> My question is, can anyone point me to a Decca trench model?
> - Stephen in Calgary
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