Billy Draper (aged 101), of Haslinton, interviewed September 1996 by Grant Smith, recorded on VHS video. Draper was a private in 19th Company RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corps), a unit known as “The Whalley Pals”. 10.39 mins duration, chapter 3 of 11: Billy Draper recalls: message about the taking of prisoners being not necessary / to the front at the Somme / impress account and PRI account in admin, pay for soldiers / younger brother Fred Draper (only 16) in the East Lancs and then The Loyals and killed in Somme offensive - no known grave / units reformed, men re-mustered / the Whalley Pals / St John’s Ambulance / knowing a veteran who claimed to have been overseas - but actually only went across after the Armistice / leave to return home every 12 months / from Southampton to Le Havre, up river to Rouen / Cookson (and Bailey) quartermasters at Whalley / sleep in Queen Mary hospital ward (Whalley) in civilian clothes.

Oral history of Billy Draper