OSE WWI Transcriptions from the Archives

St Edward’s School - Letters from the First World War

The St Edwards School Archives holds a collection of letters written to John Millington Sing, Warden from 1904 – 1913, and his sister Edith Sing, known as Miss Sing. Throughout the War they kept correspondence with staff and OSE on the front lines, in POW camps, on ships, in overseas postings, in hospitals and within the UK. The letters are an insight into the brutality of WW1, but also show the deep connection the men had to St Edwards School, their teachers, and friends. The transcribed letters are a small selection of the full collection. They have been transcribed with editorial notes in square brackets and corrections to grammar where possible.

Contents

Page

Definitions

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01 – Bailey, Bernard Francis (1128)

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02 – Bird, Christopher Lennard (1291)

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03 – Bleaden, Cyril Leith (1182)

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04 – 05 Bush, James Cromwell (1184) – KIA 07/10/1917

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06 – 07 Bussell, John Garrat (972) (Master) – KIA 28/06/1915

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08 – Cass, Leonard Francis (Master) – KIA 13/12/1915

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09 – Cholmley, Roger James (597) – KIA 16/08/1919

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10 – Dawson, Ernest Gendall (1389)

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11 – Estcourt, Sidney Basil Howit (1343)

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12 – 13 Eyres, Laurence Edwin (1256)

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14 – Harding, Kenneth (1189)

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15 – Herbertson, James (Master)

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16 – Hobbs, Thomas Godwin (1088) – KIA 23/08/1918

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17 – Hudson, Noel Barong (1145)

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18 – Hunt, Aubrey Noel Carew (1224) – KIA 06/06/1916

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19 – Jeffries, Hugh Stephen (1146)

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20 – Jenner, Charles Herbert (1158)

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21 – Norton, E.

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22 – Paget, George Howard (1274) – KIA 11/09/1921

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23 – 24 Prior, Charles Christopher (1238)

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25 – Rawlence, Claude Vivian (789)

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26 – Seymour, Lewis Thierry (1290) – KIA 13/08/1916

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27 – Somerset, Noel Henry Plantagenet (1052) – KIA 07/09/1921

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28 – Stonex, Edwin Allan Pring (1351)

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29 – Strange, Louis Arbon (1215)

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30 – Thompson, Brian Stewart (966)

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31 – Tweed, John Reginald Howard (1255)

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Defini�ons • B.E.F. – Bri�sh Expedi�onary Force: Bri�sh and Commonwealth military effort on the Western Front • R.N.D. – Royal Naval Division: A Navy infantry division. • R.N.V.R. – Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve • Lieut – Lieutenant: Army and Navy Officer Rank • R.F.C. – Royal Flying Corps: Army flying corps, precursor to Royal Air Forc e • A.D.C. – Aide-de- campe: Assistant to a high-ranking officer • B.N.C. – Brasenose College, Oxford University • R.A.M.C. – Royal Army Medical Corps • Regt – Regiment: A permanent unit of an army, below the Batalion • Company/Coy – Third smallest unit within an army • Curé – French: A parish priest • Maxims – Machine guns • Guns – Generally used to describe larger weaponry, such as ar�llery • Billets – A soldier’s temporary lodgings, o�en in a civilian’s house • Bivouac – A temporary camp without tents, using improvised cover • Batalion/B n / Bat – A permanent unit of an army, below the Brigade • Bosche/Hun/Fritz – Names used for the German’s • Mine – A tunnel dug under a trench, then filled with explosives. O�en used at the beginning of an atack • Brigade – Largest permanent unit of an army • G.E.A. – German East Africa • Column/Col – Logis�cs units, normally linked to a par�cular offensive or theatre • Division/Div – A non- permanent military unit. May contain mul�ple regiments or brigades • Pte – Rank of Private. The lowest rank in th e Bri�sh Army • Intelligence/Intell – Military intelligence. At every level down to Company, there would be a specific intelligence officer • Brigadier/Bde r – Brigadier General. Lowest ‘General’ rank. Would command a Brigade • Captain/Capt. – Army: Junior Officer rank, would command a Company. Navy: Senior Officer rank, would command a ship • L.M.S.S.A. – License in Medicine and Surgery of the Society of Apothecaries • R.N. – Royal Navy • L.I. – Light Infantry. Infantry supported by less heavy weaponry or ar�llery. • H.E. – High Explosive shell • G.H.Q. – General Headquarters • H.M.M.D. – His Majes�es Motor Dri�er: Patrol boats hired by the Admiralty • A.S.C. – Army Service Corps: Logis�cs, catering, etc. Now the RLC, Royal Logis�cs Corps • E.E.F. – Egyp�an Expedi�onary Corps • Adjutant – Staff Officer, deals with administra�on of a unit • NCO – Non- Commissioned Officers: Corporal, Sergeant, Staff/Colour/Flight Sergeant, Warrant Officer. These differ in the Navy

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01 : B. F. Bailey – 1 st Royal Bucks, B.E.F. – 27 Dec 1916 Dear Mr Sing,

Thank you so much for your kind letter, I should have written earlier but your letter arrived on the eve of the Beaumont – Hamel show and when it was over they gave me 10 days special leave to go and see my son and heir – it was rather strange, he was born the very hour and day that our battalion left the parapet to attack (Nov 14 th ), so I am having him christened “John David Beaumont Bailey”, he is a fine little fellow, and weighed over 8lbs when he was born and is gaining weight rapidly; ¾lb a week. But the object of this letter is not only to thank you for yours, but to ask if you will be a Godfather to my little son John; it’s like my impudence to ask you, I know, but still I am a father now, and I can only say that I could wish him no better friend or adviser, it will be a great comfort to me if I hear from you that you are able to give your consent and will help me to lick him into shape! Margot is staying with Mrs Davis, Darrick Wood, Orpington, Kent. If your answer is ‘yes’, would you let her know, and if you are in town and able to get down for the christening Jan : 11 th , Margot would be delighted. If you let her know that you are coming for lunch all will be ready, and she would send a conveyance to meet your train. The padre of my regiment will be home on leave and is going to officiate for us. E.P. S t John and I am asking my brother Cuthbert to be as Godfather too. We are all anxious that 1917 should see an allied peace, but we must see it properly through so that little John and his generation don’t have a repetition of this struggle. With best wishes, Ever yours Bernard Bailey

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02: C. L. Bird – H.M.S. Worcester, Greenhithe – 1914 Dear Sir,

It is, I am afraid, some time since you have heard from me. And since you last heard many things have happened. At the time the war broke out I was on board S.S. Chulmleigh in the Mediterranean, and we had the pleasure of an interview with the Goeben. Of course, you are not supposed to know this! She fired 4 shots at us, two passing overhead, and one bursting under the stern was had [which hit] the poop, and the fourth burst on the poop; carried away the hand sterring [steering] gear of the boby hatch, the rails and a samson post. A piece of mettle [metal] flying from the explosion caught one apprentice and so his head joined the happy party going overboard. I was really too frightened to take a photo of her but I [it] did not occur to me until too late. However, I took a photo of the French flag ship which rescued us. Well, it seems funny, but having had a narrow escape there, when I got to port I was feeling fit, so of course I had to have a rough with an Arab boat man; he tried to hit me on the head with an oar. Well, since I have been on the Worcester, I have learnt boxing so I dogded [dodged] the oar and let him have one on tow. He immediately he had [sic] recovered from being winded got out a knife and had a jog at me. I had had enough then, so I jumped out of the boat into the canal, but his knife just caught my shoulder as I went. However, I was picked by Dowrie’s motor boat (Dowrie is the Port Said engineer) none the worse. I hope to get in the RNR in July. From yours truly, Christopher L. Bird.

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03: C. L. Bleaden – Fourth Army School of Instruction – 5 May 16 My dear Warden,

Thank you for your letter of Feb 29 th – rather a long time ago. I have just been appointed Lieut [Lieutenant] and AOG, and have been sent here on a course which is delightful and comes as a great treat, a relief from most of the responsibilities and a great rest; moreover I am very lucky, Noel Hudson [OSE] is on the same course which is splendid, and we often ramble about in the odd half hours: I do not think there is much chance of my getting my second leave, though it is overdue now, things apparently are not conducive to leave just at present. I met Fairweather [OSE] about a week before he was killed, his regiment relieved ours, I did not recognise him, or rather could not put a name to him, he was very small when I left school. Reckitt [OSE] is still going strong or was when I left him about a fortnight ago. Yes, it is quite true my brother is now a Roman Catholic, I am rather glad as he had given up most things after my father’s death. It is just time for mess, a civilised meal in a large French Chateau, almost more civilised than when we were [first] trained at home. Please remember to Miss Sing. Yours affectionately, Cyril, L. Bleaden

My brother is at present with the R.N.D. [Royal Naval Division] at Blandford, Dorset, he transferred from R.N.V.R. [Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve] in hopes of getting to Serbia, but just too late.

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04: J. C. Bush – H.Q. 53 rd Welsh R.F.A., Egypt – 20 April c.1915-1916 My dear Warden, I have been meaning to write to you for some time but have been pretty busy since I came out that I have really hardly had time for anything. I have been out now over 6 weeks and am getting on very well, my General (General Short) is awfully nice and a very good soldier, and a perfect glutton for work, which suits me because when I am working, I like to be thoroughly busy. Practically all my work is done riding, I have 2 very decent horses and am in the saddle all day long and am wonderfully fit as well. We are under canvas in the Dihyah desert about 7 miles from the cultivation but quite near a station and only 1 ½ hours run from Cairo, I have been in once or twice, on business chiefly, but have managed to see the pyramids, museum, and a mosque or two. I came away from the pyramids feeling very young and insignificant – they are simply stupendous, and one can’t grasp their age, but of course you have seen them. This is really quite a nice spot and we have an unlimited supply of excellent water, which is the thing after all. I have been about 7 or 8 miles out into the desert on various jobs, and I must say it grows on one, and now has a most tremendous fascination for me; the unlimited space, silence, and deadness of it is so extraordinary and the sunsets simply defy description. The weather too is simply perfect, hot by day and quite cold by night; however, we had last week an idea of what it can do, in a 2 days sandstorm and of all meteorological phenomena, it is quite the most appalling. You could comfortably lose a man 100 yards away and it gets into everything and is very painful. It has one saving grace in that it is clean and one’s clothes and bedding only want shaking. I can’t help thinking that the plague of darkness was nothing more or less than a terrific sandstorm. We are very peaceful here, our nominal foe is the Senussi, and he lurks anything up to 200 miles out, and I think is about finished. I believe we are here really more to impress the native, who is rather inclined to get above himself. Everyone seems to think the War won’t last much longer; the Hun has taken a horrid knock at Verdun, all our outlying campaigns are being gradually cleared up, and the big offensive East and West simultaneously ought to move him; and I am quite convinced the Turk has had enough of it. I have not come across any O.S.E. yet out here but I believe Sholto Douglas [OSE] is somewhere in Cairo, I must try and find him. Raywell [OSE] has transferred himself to the Flying Corps and I believe at Reading learning the art, he was awfully fit Mother said in her last letter and has now been home on leave. I saw Mr Lebat in Salisbury before I came out, he was looking awfully fit and not a day older than he used to do. They have just made me a Captain antedated to August 11 so now I have got about as far as I shall get. I have put in for a permanent commission and think it will be alright, I hope so as I really believe I have at last found my métier. I don’t think I have anything more of interest to tell you and should like to hear from you to see ones name on an envelope thousands of miles from home means a good deal. Kindest regards to Miss Sing and yourself. Yours very sincerely, J. Cromwell Bush

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05: J. C. Bush – No. 22 Squadron, R.F.C. – 08 Aug c.1916-1917 My dear Warden,

I have been meaning to write to you for some time but never seem somehow to have bought it off. I don’t know if you know I chucked my A.D.C. [aide-de-campe] job in Egypt after 6 months. I couldn’t stand doing nothing any longer and felt I wasn’t earning my pay, so came home to start flying in September last year. I only got my wings in April, nowadays it is a very long and strenuous course, and one really has to work hard as apart from the actual flying there is a tremendous lot to be learnt – aerial fighting and formation flying being comparatively new subjects. I had 5 weeks technical course at Oxford, I was living at B.N.C. [Brasenose College], it seemed very incongruous to be learning the theory of flight etc. at B.N.C.. I went up to school nearly every Sunday evening and used to enjoy it awfully, Mr Ferguson [Warden, 1913-1925] was always very kind. I had one bad smash while I was learning and was removed on a stretcher from beneath the debris, however after 10 days in hospital and a month’s leave, I carried on the leave [which] included Christmas, which was rather nice. Raywell [OSE], by an extraordinary coincidence, arrived the same day as I did having been torpedoed en route from Egypt. I am afraid he is in rather a bad way, permanently unfit for flying and indefinitely unfit for general service; at present he is on the instructional staff at Oxford and is kept pretty busy. I ran across Hughes [OSE] and C. L. Bleaden [OSE] at Oxford, and K. Harding [OSE] and Beaumont [OSE], mi that was in Town the day before I came out, the latter had just qualified and was joining the R.A.M.C. [Royal Army Medical Corps]. One of the greatest blows I’ve had was the death of Charlie Bridson he was my best and oldest friend, and a man I had an immense admiration for. I met Mr Bridson in Oxford although they’ve left, he was wonderfully cheery considering he has lost 2 sons. I was very sorry to see L. C. Blencome [OSE] has gone West, that’s both of them, isn’t it? Sometimes one feels one has really no business to be alive! Oliver is still out here and is the proud father of a daughter, it makes one feel quite ancient having gone up a generation! I have been out here now 3 months and am enjoying life immensely. This is the game, and we make war like gentlemen. We have just been reequipped with the very latest 2 seater fighting machine and I and my observer have had many a glorious mad 10 mins. Our old machines were out of date although they had been out here longer than any other and had put up a finer show and we did lots of good work on them but now, thank goodness, we can attack instead of waiting to be attacked! There is no doubt the Hun has a very wholesome respect for us. All our scrapping is done over on their side as we generally chase them out of the sky. All our work is done between 10,000 and 14,000 feet although during a fight we very often get down to 5000 or even 3000. Their Archie is wonderfully accurate, and one always comes home shot about a good deal. We have the speed and climb of, I think, any Hun in the sky, and can out dive them, we can dive at something over 200 miles per hour, the hour the excitement and exhilaration of these long swoops to Earth beggar description, especially if you are sitting on a Hun’s tail and see him go to pieces in the air. I have had my usual wonderful luck and have not had to leave a formation through any damage. We live very comfortably, here we are in huts in an Orchard as there is an occupied farm just by where we can get butter, eggs, and milk, etc., the 3 things one misses so awfully when one can’t get them. The spot we were in when I just got out was too depressing. Everything ruined for miles around but one store or another in the villages, the country [is] in fact nothing but a nasty mess! I can’t speak too highly of the courage of the French peasant they were beginning to come back and live in the ruins of their old homes and had already started cultivating the law again. They can teach us a lesson in industry. I expect you knew that Father has at last got his heart’s desire and taken a living in North Wilts at Seend. It is a most beautiful spot, and it has taken years off his life he has always longed to have his own show to run. We were of course all very sorry to leave Salisbury, it having been home all our lives. I don’t think I have any more news now.

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Please give my kindest regards to Miss Sing if she is still with you and my kindest regards to yourself.

Yours very sincerely, J. C. Bush

By the way, I have got a regular commission in the Dorset Regt [Regiment] and think I have at last discovered my métier in life, after numerous false starts, soldiering suits me down [to] the ground and I think after the war it will have to be made possible to live on ones pay.

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06: J. G. Bussell – Folkestone, Kent – 22 Jan 1915 Dear Sing, Your letter was very welcome – I am glad you and Miss Sing continue to enjoy Winchester; one deserves credit for enjoying anything these days – that is to try if one does it, and at the same time does not forget. These rather bitter reflections are perhaps this result of the fact that I am in bed with water on the knee and my hands bandaged up. My horse took it into its head to fall down in the road yesterday and squashed my leg – not serious. I shall be [fit] for duty again on Monday I expect. I have quite a lot to do now. For four months I was second in command of a Company, and had little to do, and felt I had made rather a useless sacrifice of other things, but now I am in command it seems so much more worth while and I am happier. I got 3 days (part of my Xmas leave) at Marlborough and saw my sister, and very pleasant she was to see. Dorothea is coming down tomorrow to stay here a week or so. Your letter is on the chimney piece, and I cannot get out of bed to get it! So, excuse please if I fail to respond to anything therein. My regards to both. Yours affect [affectionately] J. G. B.

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07 : J.G. Bussell – Front Line – 16 Jun 1915 Dear Sing,

Some news came to Winchester after all. I should like to have seen you. Life is good out here and I do not for a moment want to be anywhere else. A week ago, I was in Ploeg Steert Wood – merely exploring on my own – and found Ronny Poulter’s grave. This at the back of the wood wh[ere] shells have not visibly profaned; as Mike Furse who buried him remarked it is like Oxford Woods, and I heard a Cuckoo, and Nightingales, and Wood Pigeons. But shells do come over all the time and Ploeg Steert village is a strange sight. I climbed up the shattered church tower guided by the Curé [Parish Priest] and every house one saw seemed shattered. The people – those still there – are pathetic. They cling to their broken homes and belongings – sleep in the village and go out at dawn for fear of shells and come back again at night. Since then, we’ve had two days and three nights in the trenches, nothing doing except a certain amount of aimless shooting with rifles, and maxims, and occasionally guns [artillery] at one another’s parapets. Slightly ludicrous I thought it. In that sector it is entirely a policy of reprisals. If you indulge in rapid fire or bombs or shells then they reply in kind only a little more so, and vice versa, and so it goes on. So that both sides think twice before being over frightful! Sniping is causing many casualties and we had a few. Two things stand out, first going out in front of the parapet at night to see my wire party – the Saxons are 300 yards away there, but I did not like it much – and secondly the curious fact that you can bathe, a real good swim in a river from a diving board up in the trench line. The Germans are 300 yards away and it is made possible by a ruined house and a high sandbag barrier, and the curved bank of the river itself, but it is not safe to swim right across and I got sniped at the second time. They shelled us in our billets in the town, but without much result, and I think that is the total of our excitements. We are back out of it now, resting, bivouacked round a pleasant farm, and waiting to be told to go somewhere. My love please to Miss Sing. Yrs affect. J.G.B.

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08: L. F. Cass – Belgium – 13 Jul 1915 Dear Mr Sing, Many thanks for your letter - I am glad you liked the photo.

I know how grieved you must have been to have heard of Bussell’s death. It was sad work and a terribly unlucky bullet. He had so much to do out here and had his Coy [Company] in such fine form. I am so sorry for Mrs Bussell. I have had to take over his company. We have not been in anything big yet, but I expect our turn will come soon. Things out here are extraordinary – utterly different from anything I expected. Periods of ease and quiet – very slightly different from a huge pic-nic, and then times of intense work with scarcely any sleep. Thank goodness the weather has been excellent. I sincerely hope we shall not be here in the winter. I have had several letters from St Edward’s, and they have been most generous, and are sending a splendid lot of periscopes. These are quite invulnerable when you are as close as 24 yards from the German guns, as we were for 8 days. I was very sorry to see that Bussell had been killed - he was a fine man. I have heard from Herbertson [OSE]. He would like a commission in this B n [Battalion], but I fear we are full up. It is good of you wishing to do harvesting. I hope there may be such a crop in England as there is out here – it is magnificent. Please remember me to Miss Sing. Yours very sincerely, L. F. Cass

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09: R. J. Cholmley - 3 rd Southern General Hospital, Somerville College, Oxford – 21 May c.1915-1916 My dear Sing, The Dirty dog of Bosche blew up a mine on my trench on May 2 and in the argument that followed I got in the way of a rifle grenade and collected half a dozen wounds – none serious and all healing quickly now except one that caught me first under the ear and is giving some trouble. I’m afraid I shall be out of the hunt for a couple of months or so, but it ought not to be longer than that with any luck. We were on the now famous Vimy Ridge when this happened – an unpleasant bit of the line where the Bosche amused himself by springing 5 mines in six days, and spent the rest of the time amusing us not a little with heavy minenwerfers and other disagreeable stuff- : we shall have to oust him completely from the ridge before it’s at all healthy, and a good beginning seems to have been made by our brigade (to which that Batt. of the Lanc Inf[antry]. And L North Lancs who retook the craters the other day belong). I haven’t heard what part the Cheshires played in that – it’s very sickening to be put out of it just when a good honest attack begins. I was sent over from France on May 11 (from Havre) here at my own request, so as to be near the wife, and old Oxford friends. Let me hear from you when you’ve time. Yours sincerely, R. J. Cholmley

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10 : E. G. Dawson – Expeditionary Force, E. Africa – 30 Dec 1917

Dear Mr Sing, Would it be too great a favour to ask you to let me have a certificate or document showing that I have attained a fair standard of education. I ask you for the above as I am applying for a Regular Commission and it’s necessary to enclose some evidence. In another fortnight here I shall have completed six months service out here. There are now no more German forces in the field in G. E. A. [German East Africa]. Von Lettow[-Vorbeck] the German general managed to get into Portuguese East Africa with about five double companies. Some of our unit I think are chasing him. Five months ago, things didn’t look as if they would turn out as well as they have done. The last time I was in action was on Nov 9 th . Till about the fifth of this month I was trotting about the country with different units. Now however I am attached to the Lindi Army Col [column] and am at present sitting down in camp awaiting the rains, which ought to be starting sometime next month. There is practically nil to do in the way of work and as there is a good deal of game round here, we spent a good deal of time out shooting for our Xmas, which was fairly quiet, we managed to get a partridge which came in very handy. Generally speaking, our luck hasn’t been very good. On the whole on this column, we haven’t come off too badly though once we got down to half rations. As for the fighting and marching it hasn’t been so very bad, though in the former we bumped it heavily two or three times of the latter we have done a good deal and over sandy roads which makes the going rather heavy and very dusty. At first, I was with the 13 pounders and our only means of transport was porters, it was very slow and tiring work going any distance. As a matter of fact, we did have motor lorries to tow the guns, but it was too sandy to enable them to get along by themselves, let alone pulling a gun or carrying ammunition. We only used them once. At the end out [of] October I went to a howitzer Battery as the 13 pous [pounders] were taken over by S. African gunners. I was only with them three weeks when I was posted to acting Staff Officer to the C. R. A. after that I came to the Army Col. So, I have had hopes of going with the Battery but that’s off now of course. I had a go of fever about a month after I got out but since then have been feeling and keeping quite fit. On Boxing Day, I even played a game of football, not rugger unfortunately. No [one] out here seem to play it now, I suppose they are mostly fed up with the show. On Xmas evening the motor ambulance gave quite a good concert which rather helped to liven things up some what. The weather here at present is rather showery and the roads are getting pretty bad in places, though the road corps and pioneers are hard at work bridging damages and repairing the road generally. Hoping that you and Miss Sing are well. Yours very sincerely, Ernest G. Dawson

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11: S. B. H. Estcourt – Blandford, Dorset – 13 Oct 1918 Dear Mr Sing,

Thank you very much for your letter; the application came through O.K. and I was interviewed by the C.O. of the Wing, and last Friday by the General Commanding the Depot; everything has gone very smoothly, as the whole thing was just a matter of form, seeing that I was accepted for this job, by the Chief of the Photography dept. at the Air Ministry, 6 weeks ago; but was told that, the whole thing would have to go through the regulation channels. I note what you say i.e., Col. Strange [OSE], I did not know we had such a big man in the Air Force. Nethersole [OSE] I know has done very well; and Withington [OSE] I met down in Hastings, while at a Cadet Brigade there, also his people. No, I don’t think I need any help yet; but after I am posted to the school of Photography South Farnborough, I am going to make a fight for having my commission pre-dated to early in April last, seeing that I came over and joined the R.F.C. [Royal Flying Corps] on conditions I was gazetted upon passing my final examination at a school of military aviation; which I did at Durham; and then this Royal Air Force came into being and gazetted people only after they had obtained their ‘wings’ at a flying Squadron. Perhaps Col. Strange might be able to assist me then. All South Africans are at present being gazetted from an S.M.A. I shall try and get down to Winchester, while I am at Farnborough; I know the county just round there very well, considering I was educated for 5 years up to the age of 14 at Twyford School in Winchester. Perhaps you may have met the previous Head of that Preparatory School, the Rev. C. T. Wickham, he still resides at Twyford old Rectory, and a dear old man he is too. The present Head H. C. McDonell is also a great friend of mine; he initiated me into the art of cricket, with good results as you may remember at St Edwards. I must close now, with best of wishes. From yours sincerely, S. Basil H. Estcourt (Flight Cdt)

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12 : L. E. Eyres – Ras-El-Ain, Turkey– 13 Jun 1917 Will you send me four lines of news, and that volume of Grote (Weyman ed’) which covers 490-470? Are Hunt [OSE], Bickley [OSE] and the Hudson family safe and well? And other contemporaries? I have a staff job and am quite comfortable. Books scarce. Reading Gibbon. L.E.E

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13: L.E. Eyres – Tel-Hadi, Nissibin, Turkey – 29 Aug 1918 My dear Warden, As I am suffering a mild attack of malaria and jaundice together with an equally unpleasant though less describable, complaint. I am afraid I shall not make a very good correspondent, but I do not see that I deserve to get any better so long as my long intended letter to you remains unwritten. I can only plead in extenuation that the heat and sweat of the day makes writing a very sticky and uncomfortable business, and in the evening our escapes from stuffy rooms and enjoy an hour [or] two of comparative coolness in the moonlight or starlight. But my gratitude for the books has been none the less genuine for being unexpressed. They turned up about two months ago – Herodotus, three volumes of Grote, Locke, Hume’s Essays, and translations of Herodotus, Thucydides, The Republic, The Ethics. Until I got [a] fever I worked fairly diligently at the Herodotus and read four books and a half. In the last fortnight texts of the Republic, New Testament and Eudemian Ethics have reached me from Germany. The Herodotus, I blush to say, is unbroken ground, and is a great joy. But the Republic is an old favourite. The other day when I was in bed with fever and wanted a book to pass the time, I tried Scott’s Abbot, but found Plato the lighter reading of the two. (I have no hesitation in telling you these things now that school days are over). I don’t know why they sent me the Eudemian Ethics from Germany. I was hoping that a text of the Nicomachean might elucidate the translation which I confess puzzles me very badly though I have read the Ethics at least once and been to lectures and written essays on it – But this is enough shop. I hope you and Miss Sing are enjoying yourselves at Winchester. But if your travels have only whetted your appetite, I’m afraid you must chafe at times against the routine. Still, I have no doubt you meet it with the same cheerful face with which England in general seems to be meeting her troubles. My news is of course all four or five months old. My brother [H. T. Eyres, OSE, KIA 09/11/1918] was still training when I last heard. I wonder if you have met Skaife yet? He is back at Trinity reading medicine (one of ten undergraduates). I delight in the prospect of him as a brother-in-law. Did you know that Micklem, a nephew of Lady Powell’s, married a cousin of mine, Agatha Silcock? Life here goes on very smoothly. They have been building stone houses here all the summer, and I share a little room with another chap. The Hospital work keeps me busy these days, as there is a lot of malaria about especially among the Indians. Besides that, I am storekeeper for all the food and clothes which come from the Spanish consul at Aleppo. He looks after us very well, but never sends us any books. Capt. Newcomb however gets a fair number from home. I read Queed, the City of Beautiful Nonsense, and the Abbot recently and hope soon to read Vanity Fair for the third time. Long ago Aubrey Hunt [OSE] and I came to the conclusion (independently) that The Picture of Dorian Grey was the most revolting book we had ever read, I read enough yesterday to realize that I had not changed my opinion. He also has Merivale History of Rome which should be useful. Noel Hudson [OSE] hasn’t written to me for a long time. I hope he is too busy covering himself in glory. Seymour [OSE] tho’ was safely stowed away in India when I heard of him last. Strange [OSE] should be a Colonel by now if he is still distinguishing himself as he did at the beginning of the War. Have you news of any other of my contemporaries – those that are left? I have heard no news at all of Sherwell [OSE] or Goldingham [OSE], and nothing of Withington [OSE] since he was wounded with Hunt [OSE]. What about Wareing [OSE], Douglas [OSE], Nethersole [OSE], Estcourt [OSE], Cyril Bleaden [OSE], or anybody else that I might be interested in? I think I have about reached the space-limit, and it is past bed-time. Thank you very very much for the books – Even if I had given up all hope of Greats they would be a constant joy, but as it is they have a great practical value as well. Please don’t mention my various diseases to my people. They are all slight, but you know how parental anxiety magnifies these things. With love to you and Miss Sing, Laurence E. Eyres

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14: H K. Harding – St Thomas’ Hospital, Blackheath – 13 Oct 1916 Dear Mr Sing,

Thank you very much for your letter. I have not actually lost my hand, but it will never be any good as all the tendons have cut and the whole palm was lacerated. I also had 2 rather nasty ones in the forearm. M a [Master] Gillett [OSE] promised last July he would write to you and said you would probably come see me in St Thomas Hospital when you came to town. I was hit on July 8 th . I hope to fix up to Cambridge soon. My mother forms me in kindest regards. Yours affec [affectionately], Kenneth Harding

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15: J. Herbertson – Belgium – 13 Aug 15 Dear Miss Sing.

I was so glad to get your letter; the cigarettes and chocolate arrived with it. Thank you very much indeed. It is so very good of you to send me luxuries, and this morning I received them with quite a feeling of shame, for I am no longer in the firing line, but am enjoying what Tommy would call a ‘cushie’ job. The last week of our long-promised rest was taken from us and on the very day that the regiment went again into Hamen, I was called to Divisional HQ to do intelligence work. I had been called up just previously to question some prisoners and what led to my present, I hope permanent, position. My work is very interesting; I am unofficial (still a Pte [Private] - at if a day! [sic]) assistant to the Div Intell [Divisional Intelligence] Staff Officer. I could tell you very much more of the organisation position (were I permitted) of the German army than I could of the English forces. No, I don’t disguise myself and cross the lines, thank you for the thought, but if things someday wake up in a proper fashion – will they ever do that? – then intelligence work occasionally becomes exciting. At present I have a table to work at, a batman who ‘does’ for me and other staff clerks, a straw mattress to sleep on and opportunity to wash every day. No doubt you read all about our famous action in July the 16 th when we held on to those trenches at Hooge. It was rather good that our first serious action was a successful one. My commission form now lies with the Brigadier, having passed the Colonel. The Bde r [Brigadier General] has become loath to sign any more commission forms, he wants to keep us at good strength as a fighting unit; regiments with experience are not so very common now and we rank now, tho’ I say it as shouldn’t, as a first class regiment. I put on my form Intell Dept. or 7 Royal Sussex preferred, but Capt. Cass in a letter told me there were too many officers waiting in England to get into the 7 th for me to get in. I cannot say how sorry I felt when I heard of Capt. Bussell’s death. Had anyone a cheerier laugh? If one searched the German army, one could not shoot his equal [and] make things level. Cass has taken over his Coy [Company]. Two men with whom I rowed in eights last summer have been killed and another Jesus man in the regiment was killed on the 16 th by a shell while carrying a stretcher; he could have gone home for his commission the day before but preferred to see his Coy through the action. I hope Mr Sing is well; It would be a great pleasure to come and see you at Winchester, but the war must finish first. The officer whose second brain I am, has promised me my five days but when those five days are coming is very doubtful. My address is now a very simple one, just Headquarters III Division, British Exp. [Expeditionary] Force. The weather has just broken again here with a storm of rain; I hope you will have at least some good weather in the Lakes. Please remember me very kindly to Mr Sing,

Believe me, Yours very sincerely, James Herbertson

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16: T.G. Hobbs – Woodcote Park, Epsom – 23 Nov 1915 Dear Mr Sing, I was very pleased to hear from you this morning and hasten to reply. I hope to be able to avail myself of your kind offer to put me up for a night later on, as I shall very likely be in the south of England for my leave. I joined the Canadian Infantry and am a private in the 8 th Canadian Battalion. I was 3 months at the front went through the attack at Festubert last may, also at Givenchy in June, and at Ploeg Streete [Ploegsteert] July with out a scratch but July 10 th I went down with a bad attack of malaria, it seems very hard to shake off however I feel more myself now and hope to make a complete recovery. My mother and father are staying at Epsom so I see them every day. Eric [Hobbs] [OSE], my young brother is at the front now doing his bit. I hope he comes to no harm, but it is very dangerous work. I see by the papers that a number of OSE boys have lost their lives. Tommy Hudson [OSE] is missing too, I hear; he and I were great friends at St Edward’s. I trust he will turn up, but it is a slender hope. The weather is very damp and cold here, but we are in good quarters. I will surely come to see you if I get down to Gosport. Trusting this will find you in the best of health. Yours sincerely, T. Godwin Hobbs

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17: N. B. Hudson – B.E.F. [British Expeditionary Force], France – 05 Apr 1916 My Dear Mr Sing, It seems ages since I last wrote to you. I hope you will forgive me. I have really been rather bust lately. We have moved out of our last trenches and are now the southernmost of the British Army. Culham [OSE] and I have at last met some people, with whom we were at school. We went to hear Father Waffet, who is chaplain to a neighbouring brigade, preach the other Sunday, and met the most recent Hobb[s] [Eric, OSE]. I cannot quite place him, but I think I was at school with him. Of course, he at once thought I was Eric, and that Arthur was Tom. He told us Bernard Driver [OSE] was transport officer to his Batt [Battalion]: so next day we went and had tea with him. It was really great meeting some people from school, especially as there are so many out here, and we have never met them up to now. Our trenches run thru’ a village and in the graveyard is the grave of Dr E.E.A. Collison. I wonder if that is the fellow who was at school. I have an idea it is. Perhaps you could tell me. I suppose you saw the death of Standen [OSE] and Fairweather [OSE]. I was very sick indeed about [their deaths]. They were both most excellent fellows. I have – owing to casualties etc. – now been transferred to another Company, of which for the last month I have been in charge. As I only have two officers it makes pretty hard work. Of course, I don’t see so much of Arthur, which I miss very much, tho’ I can always see a certain amount of him. This name has gone in for Captaincy, but if, or when, I shall get it I really don’t know, and honestly don’t care. Tho’ of course the money side is always a consideration! We are having a pretty quiet time except that half an hour ago 10 heavy shells burst round my dugout, which was extremely unpleasant!! A man has just been brought in suffering from shell shock. He was “all of a shake, sir”!! As a matter of fact, I think it was a genuine case! I must stop and have dinner. Please write soon. My kindest regards to Miss Sing, please. Yours affectionately, Noel B. Hudson

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1 8: A. N. Carew Hunt – 2 nd Oxf. & Bucks Light Infantry – 26 Jun 1915 Dear Warden,

I’m afraid that after the letters from the front you have had already this will seem very humdrum as I have been out here a month without having any exciting adventures or narrow escapes. And here this shaky writing is not due to the shrieking of shells as much as to the vileness of the pen I am using. At the moment, shells are not shrieking because the enemy are not firing them, and our own are so close that we only hear the report when they are fired, and that, I admit, is nearly deafening. We are [redacted by censors] behind the line and [redacted by censors] to the trenches tomorrow (Sunday). At present we are merely furnishing digging parties, and I am glad to say that I have been missed out as my platoon went in 2 sergeants parties. Apparently, it is not amenable for an officer to walk about with less than 50 men. To which convention I owe three extremely slack days in succession. It ought to be very dangerous here, but it isn’t as the Germans aren’t shelling. There was a thunderstorm yesterday and we stood a chance of dying in our beds, as it were, by being struck by lightning. However, we were spared. But as we are all billeted in roofless houses it was very unpleasant and we spent the afternoon and evening in sweeping water out of the door and in lighting an enormous wood fire to dry the place up. My room was like a shower basin while the rain lasted. I have been only 6 days in the trenches so far and all I object to here is lack of sleep. It has been cold at night which keeps one awake and it is seldom possible to get more than 2 hours at a time. In fact, in trenches, you never appear to sleep or to wash. You do both as a matter of fact, but it comes as a surprise. Otherwise, when not in trenches we have been billeted usually very comfortably. This place is the worst we have been in. At another place we had an empty house which had been occupied by the French R.A.M.C and left in a state of undescribable [indescribable] filth. The people are generally very good, and you would suppose they would have more sterling qualities as they continue to live within a mile or so of the line constantly exposed to shell fire. Shells, I must say, I dislike very much, and I can’t quite say which I dislike more the kind that arrive unannounced or the kind that you have whistling as they come. The former give more of a shock but the latter give you all the pleasure of anticipation. I’m glad to say I’ve not had many of either – only about 20 in all having fallen near enough to be alarming. But a regular bombardment must be dreadful, and I find that I prepare to have a pipe in my mouth when even 4 or 5 are arriving. One knows all the time that the Germans have the exact range and can turn their guns on when they like. That doesn’t matter if the guns are silent but if they begin at one and this time makes one feel nervous. Still, I have had nothing to speak of yet and a trench is very good protection unless from shell fire when the shell drops right into it. Even then its effect is more felt between two trenches. However, I suppose the 2 nd division will begin an attack sooner or later and then I can write you one of those blood and thunder letters expected from people who are at the front. We have only had one officer casualty at present and that has been Withington [OSE]. You need not be alarmed as it is very slight. He was in a trench watching the bomb throwers practice and as he didn’t keep his head down, he saw too much. He got a bit of bomb in the forehead which gave him a nasty cut but tho’ he goes about with a kind of phylactery it has made no difference to him. I see a lot of him as he commands no. 3 and I no. 4 platoon. We generally share a dug out or a billet. This is a dull letter I’m afraid but the next shall be more exciting. Please remember me to Miss Sing. Yours very sincerely, A. N. Carew Hunt

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19: H. S. Jeffries – [Ascension Island] – Undated Dear Mr Sing,

I was immensely pleased to get a letter from you the other day sending us all manner of good wishes and congratulations on hearing of our little daughter. It was indeed very good of you, and it is a great pleasure to think that you were so interested. The babe is a lovely creature and has brought a heap of new interests into our lives : I had no idea how very engrossing a baby so young could be, but speech by no means is a gauge of intelligence – in fact it is frequently a disguise – and I think there is not the slightest doubt that this youngster has quite a number of ideas for the she appears to seize upon all manner of small points that she was not supposed to have noticed, and later used them to her advantage in a disconcerting kind of way. I feel I owe you an apology especially after your very kind letter now, for not having written to you before but at the same time life moved so fast before I [The top of the page is missing, possibly torn by censors]. At the outbreak of the war I rushed enthusiastically to Scotland and built a hospital there – that is to say I enlisted as unqualified Doctor and was sent to the R.N. Hospital Rosyth which, however, was non-existent at that time; by our united efforts we made quite a respectable asylum for the sick of H.M. fleet at sea and were immediately dispensed with so that we would qualify as doctors and rejoin at an increased value. After a purple 9 months I pulled off, so to speak, the degree L.M.S.S.A. [License in Medicine and Surgery of the Society of Apothecaries] which is the Diploma of the Apothecaries Hall and entered the Navy as “Surgeon R.N.” [Royal Navy] (!) a couple of days later. I remained at the London Hospital – according to the routine line they adopted with all newly-qualifieds – until the end of 1915. At the beginning of 1916 I went to Haslar Hospital, and it was then that it struck me that I ought to get married. True, I had only got my prospects for my capital, and no job – being only temporarily in the Navy, but I was on the verge of any adventure on land or sea and at any rate there was scarcely any chance of seeing my betrothed for at least a year. Well, since the outlook was separation, we agreed that it would be more palatable to be fixed in a definite relationship – so that Jess could say if I perished “He belonged to me”, and do so on, it is a longish story. We left just enough time to call out the Banns, then I got 4 days leave and we married at Trantham (my wife’s old home) and spent the rest of my leave in London. After that we went down together to live in digs handy by Haslar in the village of Alverstoke until I should be appointed to a ship. We arrived on a Sunday; my appointment came down the next Saturday and we left on Monday and sailed together for this remarkable island on the following Saturday. Just imagine the change that had come about in that small fortnight; to my mind it is one of the most wonderful stories I have yet heard of in this war. To begin with it was the merest toss up whether I went into the R.A.M.C. [Royal Army Medical Corps] or Navy and it just happened to be the time when so many men were giving up their commissions after a years’ service because they were tired of having nothing to do, and I was of course fearfully keen on the Navy; tho’ 2 or 3 months later I should not have hesitated to join the Army because they were calling for men so badly, so that many who had fallen out rejoined. Then secondly, we might very easily not have married, in which case this billet would have been a very different life. Thirdly this appointment must stand alone I should think, tho’ the fact that we could live together anywhere would have seemed wonderful enough, but here from so many points of view we have reason to be most profoundly thankful. Everything seems to have been worked together to bring about this result, and this too at a time when so many lives are being apparently spoiled and horridly mangled. I have felt at times that it is hardly right for me to be here not only safe but happy, but one can only do what one is told, and a man can no more choose a good billet than a bad one. All of which is a longish story, and I can only hope that it is legible enough for you to read without much difficulty. Now I must tell you something of our home and life; I scarcely dare say more of the family without wearing a species of handcuff worked on a time-fuse to safe-guard you from the new-born father!

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We live, then, in a bungalow on a volcano almost on the equator: the bungalow is extremely homey and we rather delight in a Robinson Crusoe manner of living, having set out at only 3 days’ notice with no knowledge of the place (for it took much permission and time to get permission to bring Jess here, since they did not know that I was married), and having no gear for a proper house at all. Our pictures are either photographs or illustrations on magazine covers and some of the so-called furniture is home-made. Please forgive the magazine covers, they are not really so bad. The volcano is very clearly in evidence, in fact there is scarcely anything that is not volcanic on the island; that is to say there is no grass, nor yet a tree, neither herb, nor flower – except in our gardens, watered assiduously with much-used bathwater! Everywhere there is clinker. Great cliffs of it, boulders of it, lumps, nobbles, dust of it; there is in fact nothing but it, and clinker is the most indescribable shapeless, jagged, rent and torn jumble of untidiness that exists – at least I hope so. It looks exactly as if some monumental accident had happened – which without doubt is the case, but what I mean is that it looks like it. There are only two roads, but a number of tracks, without which it is pretty nearly impossible to cross the clinker; no mere walking will do it, it is a matter of desperate climbing. Then there is the Equator I mentioned; a warm place I hear. Now as a matter of fact the climate here is delightful; it is always beautifully sunny and there is always a lovely strong, steady, and not gusty S.E. Trade wind, with the result that we are really quite cool and being isolated from the world there must be only 3 or 4 (million) attenuated microbes on the island. It is a very good place for children anyway. And yet my work is not so dead flat as this suggests; I have had at time quite a number of cases and besides all manner of side issues fall to our department which I should not have got in a ship to the same extent – such as sanitation, ventilation, water supply and consumption, and also veterinary work quite a lot. Still with an eye on the workhouse on our return I am doing some heavy reading on my own account and got out the current medical literature to try to keep abreast of the day, for medical wheels are revolving these days. But it is difficult; I find I forget the A.B.C. of the game because I don’t get practical use for it, and I haven’t time to read everything. I had an idea of reading up for the Fellowship exam, but the general knowledge takes such a lot of keeping up that I think I must let that drop – that is to say I am making no progress whatever with it at present. I did not tell you in the earlier volumes of the letter that I was able to get my B.M. Oxon. before I left England, for which I cannot be too devoutly thankful now; my life would be ruined with that sort of Damocles hanging over me. As it is I am really fearfully happy; my wife and the brat are extremely well and both perfectly charming. The daughter is still, I regret to say, a heathen, for we have no clergy here, but are content – I mean are forced to be content – with a visit from the Bishop of St Helena every 6 months for ten days or so. When he pays us his next visit the child will be baptised and named Christine Joan. At present she goes by Baby Jane Tuppence or in fact ‘Hi! or any loud cry’. A remarkable thing happened a month or two ago: with the words “a gentleman to see you; looks like a parson”, I was hauled off the worst golf-links in the world and returned home to find Reynolds [OSE] major sitting there smoking a pipe. He was travelling to the Transvaal to take on the parish of Roodepoort – his address is The Vicarage – and found it to be convenient to choose a ship that touched here because he saw in some paper that I had got this appointment. Particularly genial I thought it was, and I was very glad indeed to see someone I knew, he was also able to tell me considerable news about O.S.E. I heard from Mr. Gillett [OSE] – C.S.G. I’m allowed to call him now – the other day; he was very interesting but told me little about himself; I gathered that he was working for the National Mission rather hard. My brother Cuthbert [OSE] is still in France, a Sergeant in the Artists Rifles and was home on leave immediately before Christmas after a 2 nd year out there. My brother-in-law Bernard Bailey [OSE] won the Military Cross for very – I’m sorry I remember you told me that yourself! I don’t know any further details that the papers gave. Do you know he has a son?

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