Crest of the High Commissioner of

Union of South Africa.

32, VICTORIA STREET,

WESTMINSTER, S.W.

25^th July 1916

Dear Colonel Purcell,

            I have your letter & will be very pleased to arrange for the safe custody of the Flag & Shield presented to you last Friday, I can receive them whenever you send them up.

How splendidly our men have fought & borne themselves in the very kernel of the greatest battle of the war – yet how heavy the toll taken.  Delville Wood will be a proud & solemn name for ever in South African history.  It concerns me to learn that you expect to go over soon, knowing how you will be missed from your present responsible command.  If you go, you will add perk spirit & zeal to our small force, – small in numbers but in valour & purpose great; & you will have the earnest wishes of all South Africans with you & your officers & men.  I trust that a very high percentage of our recent casualties may prove to be not serious or ********** ***** but even so the losses are very heavy.

With best wishes & ****** regards

Yours sincerely

W.P. S*******

.

In envelope addressed to Lt. Col. Purcell, D.S.O.

South African Infantry

Bordon

Hants.

Postmarked LONDON OFFICIAL PAID but date unreadable.

At foot of envelope  HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA and the round cachet thereof.  In pencil on envelope “Flag & Shield”

and

Rubber and Connections being used in the trenches.

25.7.16

V. Lefebure

Capt RE

Note on back:- Sap 15 to Right Flank of Angres I will not be reoccupied until Lt Beesley has reported it clear to O.C. Right Company at the latter’s H.Q.

24^th July 1916.

ARMY ORDER.

VII. – LEAKAGE OF MILITARY INFORMATION. – There is reason to believe that information concerning operations is being conveyed by officers and men of the British Army in the Field to their relatives at home, either personally, by letter or by telegram, and that in some cases, a code has been elaborated to facilitate the communication of information which would otherwise be stopped by the Censors.

It is to be regretted that at this stage of the war it in necessary to explain to all ranks that the sole object of the field censorship and of all the other steps taken to prevent the leakage of military information is to secure substantial gains with the least possible loss.

Each officer or man who privately transmits information (even to those on whose discretion he may have the most complete reliance) inevitably facilitates the task of the enemy’s agents and indirectly sacrifices the lives of his comrades.

This fact should be impressed on all officers and men, so that all ranks may co-operate to ensure that the progress of the Army is not imperilled or rendered more costly by the criminal folly of a few individuals, who if discovered will be severely dealt with.

=======================

By Command of the Army Council.

(Signed) R.H. BRADE.

Note. – A copy of this Army Order will be issued to every officer serving in the Army, who will bring it continually to the notice of those serving under him.

France July 22^nd 1916

Saturday.

My Dear Harry & Ethel,

            Thanks very much for your two letters of the 16^th, which I hope you will excuse me answering together.  I am very glad you have no complaint against me now and that my letters are reaching you after a comparatively short interval.  I don’t know though when this will be despatched as we have been informed that no letters can be accepted for post for a couple of days.

            I have not yet received the parcel you sent me but expect it & look forward to it today.  It is very good of you all and from the description it seems ideal but I must insist on this being the last as I never intended tp put you to the trouble and expense of sending out parcels, and hope you will not do it again.  All I want you both to do is to write me regularly, and I shall be quite satisfied, at the same time don’t think I am ungrateful.  I will, no doubt at the end of this letter, be able to say I have received the parcel & to let you know the state it arrives in.  I shall be glad to get the book, and, if you do send out a book occasionally, if you send it by book post leaving the ends open the postage will only be 4^d.  The material for the refreshing drink will be very useful as we are getting very hot & thirsty weather and there is no opportunity of indulging in the French wines you write of.  Ever since we left our landing place in France I have not set eyes on a single civilian.

            I heard from Mother that Alan was at a Rest Camp & was glad of the news.  I hope he will remain there for some time.

            I am glad that you have at last got me and can only say that your surmises are all correct.  We have been busy!

            It is I suppose not surprising that you have not yet heard where your new appointment will take you, but progress is apparently being made as one man has been appointed to Lancaster.  I should think a place such as that would suit you both immensely.

            The dugout I previously told you about is no longer our home as we have as you can understand had to make a move.  The one I now occupy was apparently built by the French as when they build a dugout they use as many pit props as possible.  Ours for instance has five layers of props on the roof besides earth, the props in each layer touching each other.  They & the Germans build splendid dugouts, whereas ours appear to be built in a very casual manner.  Even the dugout we at present occupy is not proof against a 6’ or bigger shell, in fact I very much doubt from what I have seen if any dugout is.

            I yesterday read Mr. Asquith’s speech re August holidays and must say that people hear here all seem to agree that holidays at present are very much out of place.  It is impossible to imagine without being out here how munitions must be practically squandered to provide any good result.

            I also read Mr. Lloyd George’s speech which is good reading.

            I received Uncle Arthur’s parcel & am glad to say it arrived in good condition.  It is practically exhausted tho’ and I am therefore ready for yours.

            I am glad that none of my letters have been censored in anyway.  I try my hardest to write nothing that can be objected to, as censored letters usually read so disjointed.  It is however a very hard job.

            Well with love to Ada & best wishes, I will leave this letter for the present.

            Yours,

                        Bernard.

10’ pm Saturday

Have not yet received parcel but expect it tomorrow.  B.

Initialled D.W.K.

In envelope addressed to Mr & Mrs Harry R. King, Esq., Munmore, Zion Road, Rathgar, Dublin. Ireland.

Ans^d 30.7.16

Postmarked FIELD POST OFFICE T 37.  25 JY 16.  Hexagonal PASSED FIELD CENSOR 3447.  Signed D.W. Knight

France

July 19^th 1916.

My dear Harry,

Your letters of the sixteenth & seventeenth arrived today and are responsible for this one.  I can imagine how busy you must be on Sundays writing to mother and myself.  I always look forward to your letter and thought it was a day late.  Well we have had a spell at the trenches (supports) and are now “resting” once more.  During this rest things have been somewhat exhilarating.  A shell over a foot long & six inches high has paid a visit to a spot twenty yards away from our present dug-out.  It entered the ground, came out & went another twenty yards, then rested on the ground.  Fortunately it behaved and did not explode.  The shell is on view & has a notice about it’s not to be touched, but out of the many visitors to inspect it I haven’t seen many who care to go near it.  Tremendous lumps of earth were thrown beyond & over our abode and we were in our dug-outs in very little time.  Things have been more active lately.  As it says in the papers bombardments are taking place continually all along the line.  This morning the most popular & the cleverest sergeant major was killed.  We all feel very sorry.  There have been far more casualties here than in the trenches.  Yesterday & today we had to spend four hours in no-man’s land in the daytime working but there is no risk in my opinion.  The noise of the shells is terrific all the time & has made me forget several things I intended saying.  I think the advantage of “resting” is being able to visit the Canteen, which is patronised to a great extent!

Now, I’ll see if your letter suggests anything to say.  Bernard seems to be able to tell you anything he likes.  There is one thing.  It seems to me the artillery blaze away at their enemy all day.  They don’t suffer themselves though.  It is the poor infantry who get everything.  I am glad to see he is busy.  Of course he is partly responsible for the great advance, just as I am responsible to some extent from keeping the Germans from pinching Paris or Calais!  I don’t know which it is they desire mostly.  Don’t mention a week’s leave to me now please, let alone dropping in anywhere.  We are all very touchy on the score of leave.  The leave we want is a permanent leave quickly after the War is over & I am afraid that is all we are likely to get.  Very well I will drink a bottle of champagne (with aid) since you prefer it.  The food is getting quite good again.  Ah! As I have mentioned that I am reminded there is no butter or jam for tomorrow.  I should have touched wood I suppose.  It isn’t often we have to go without both.  We have had quite decent meals lately & sufficient bread On dit (hm!) that certain people responsible have been getting into a row.  Don’t mention shells &c to mother.  I have forgotten what home-made poetry was.  I am trying hard to remember it but it’s a failure.  Remember me to Ethel & give her my love.  Tell her that it is not a case of no letter from her no letter to her in spite.  Writing one letter is an effort but when she writes one I feel absolutely bound to reply whereas there is an excuse if she doesn’t.  You ought to see what your brother has done in the dug-out improvement scheme.  I have made a seat, table, mug-rack & plate ditto (and they say in sale catalogues) & floored the floor (naturally) with wood planks.  I had assistance in the last performance.  I also put a corrugated roof over the seat, table, racks &c.  I’m afraid when Mother had not heard from me it must have been through the post, her being at Ross & perhaps through being busy.  I have written a great deal lately.  A letter in a green envelope (now stopped) seems to have taken much longer than an ordinary one.  If you are to have this one soon I had better wind up.  Don’t forget to write me & see Ethel does.

            Yours as ever          

                        Alan.

The weather is glorious & cool & the country is lovely.

On Active Service envelope addressed to Harry R King, Munmore, Zion Road, Rathgar, Dublin. Ans^d 30.7.16.

Postmarked FIELD POST OFFICE T.41 dated 21 JY 16.  Hexagonal Passed Field Censor 3274 cachet.  Signed ** Shaw

1862 Driver Joseph James

1/5 Leicester Regt

Transport

Dear Sir,

            Just a few lines to say I am going on quite well at present, and I hope this will find you the same, i have seen a lot of the boys from Whitwick, that is in the first Leicesters and they are going on alright, we do not hear as no Church Belles our hear, it is so quiet, but we have the band to keep us alive, that is some-thing.  I read in the paper were there had been a lot of rain in Leicestershire, I expect it as stops the hay making, I don’t think it will be long befor i come and see you they have started leave, we are alright till those Jack Johnson’s came round us, then we have to fli I think this is all this time, so if you like to write back, get my address from my sister Vicarage Farm House.

With Best Love.

From Joseph James.

In green envelope addressed to The Rev T.W. Walters, Vicarage House, Leicester Rd, Whitwick, Leicestershire.  England.

Letter postmarked FIELD POST OFFICE T 45.  16 JY 15.

G.H.Q.

Egyptian E.F.

July 14^th 1916

Dear Moughli,

How is life at Osborne.  I suppose you are getting near the end of the term and wrestling with exam papers.  Are you going to Dartmouth next term?  If so I am afraid you may find it rather painful at first and full of memories.  Still there is always the feeling of pride in those who have gone and after all this life is so little a thing in comparison.

I don’t think there is much to tell you.  We are “enjoying” a heat-wave i.e. 114, 115^o & upwards in the shade but somehow it doesn’t appear to bother one.  It is part of the ordinary routine.  I had three very nice days in Cairo last week-end which included a trip to the Pyramids round which I rode on a milk white ass in peril of my life.  They are wonderful to see but their charm is absolutely ruined by the host of evil-smelling natives who worry you to death by trying to sell you things or act as guides etc.

I heard from Arthur a few days ago.  He is fairly near here and I am trying to get him over to dine one night as I don’t think I can get to him.  I’d love to see him again.

Denys wrote me sundry details of the Naval battle that he heard up North – inter alia a tale of one of the “snotties” who was picked up by a destroyer from the Queen Mary.  He at once asked the Commander in the middle of the fight whether he thought they would be back in harbour in time to catch the 2 o’clock train to London!  That was the only thing that worried him although he had just been blown up.

I hear that the language of a certain very exulted personage who was out here on the Staff for a bit was the limit.  Some of his expressions which were quoted to me by one who had a certain amount to do with him took even me aback.  He spent a great deal of his time trying to remember the end of a dirty Limerick, of which he could only remember the first two lines.  What would James Watt say?  You had better not tell him.

Things appear to be going well in France.  Here the Mohamadan fast of Ramadan is on which means that no food or drink passes the native’s lips from sunrise to sunset – i.e. 3-30 AM to 7 p.m.  Their suffering must be intense in this heat and you can see that at the end of the day they are absolutely done.  This lasts the whole of July.  It is too extraordinary in Cairo to see them rush off for refreshment the moment the sunset gun is fired.

There is very little work here still for me although I get more now as my Chief has gone on leave.  One day is just like another – and I am longing to taste fresh milk, butter & vegetables again.

How are the lads?  Give them all my love.

I hope to see them again some time.

Best of luck.

            Yours ever  Pat.

Pte E Cresswell No 22271

2^nd Coy 12^th Labour Batt Devon B.E.F.

France.

Thursday July 13^th 1916

Dear Sister & Brother

            Just a few lines hoping you are in the best of health as it leaves me at present I received your letter but  I am sorry over Mother Allowance I filled a form in when I was at Fort Bowder Nr Plymouth wishing to leave sixpence per day out of my pay and when we left there we had a pay book given us and its entered in to that that I shall only receive sixpence per day so there is some thing wrong some where then you say about Wigston when I was there they asked me about making any Allowance but was led to understand that I could not make one but cannot say about signing any form I think some one else must have signed that so I don’t know how you will go on but I hope to the Lord you will get it, it seems funny entering it in my pay book for me to only receive sixpence per day then not get so you will have to do your best wich I know you will I am alright up to now it was a bit warm were we was yesterday we don’t go out all together I have been going on at three o’clock in a morning till ten then there is another lot goes on we are putting a water main in we have seen one or two battles in the air and I have seen two machines brought down one dropped not many yards from us if you was here at night you would think they was going to blow the place up with the guns bursting away, thunder is nothink in it I hope you will remember me to Mrs & Mr Beckworth tell them I am in the pink I wrote to John but he has not answered it yet.  So this will be all this time from your Loving Brother XX

                        Keep smiling.

No envelope with this letter

Thursday

July 13^th 1916

My Dear Harry,

            I have just received your letter dated the 9^th and have been laughing ever since – I really never thought you were so dull before, and am afraid I will have to leave the explanation of the joke until some future date.

            It is very good of you to write me every Sunday and my rule is to reply to you as soon as I receive yours, but even then it is as you say impossible for letters to be passing evenly.  As you will notice your letter only took four days to reach me so it is improving.  My letters must take longer, as altho’ I am writing this on the 13^th it will not leave the Battery until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest.  I wrote you about a week and hope you have received it.

            I was very surprised to hear Lord Rhondda had bought our concern, and at first was a little bit anxious about the effect it would have on me, but now I don’t care much what happens as after all it is quite a small matter.  When I enlisted W Davis & Sons made certain promises and under the special circumstances, sale or not should not affect them.

            As you say it is hardly worth while sending papers out here as they are so old by the time they arrive.  Mother sends out a Cardiff weekly paper which gives some idea of what is happening.  Your news of the Western Front appeals to me very much for a special reason.

            We have been getting a lot more sleep recently, altho we are still very busy, but everything is working much more smoothly than when we came here first.  I am very glad to say that the deafness is leaving me now, altho’ there is still a ringing or buzzing noise continually in my head.  I am getting a lot more accustomed to the guns but even now if on the gun floor when the gun fires, and I have not my fingers to the ears, for a second it gives a most intense pain.

            I recently had an opportunity of examining a German dugout and it was a wonderful stronghold.  The roof was level with the ground and consisted of about 5 feet of concrete with girders interlaced; the sides were also of concrete and immensely thick, whilst the door consisted of steel.  It had however been fairly well done in by our guns & the steel doors were torn from their hinges and cut & ripped as though they were tin.  It certainly gives the impression that nothing is shellproof.  From the appearance of the interior (which when I saw it was in a very battered state) it must have been a very comfortable place, as there was a tier of bunks (spring mattresses made of wire netting) in one corner, and also a big tortoise style of stove and remnants of armchairs.  It is always easy to decide who occupied any trench out here: if the Germans there are numerous black bottles lying around, and if our men empty tins at one time containing butter, bully beef, jam etc.

            I am just going to drop Ethel a few lines so you must be content with four pages

            Yours,  Bernard.

In envelope addressed to Mr & Mrs Harry R. King, Esq., “Munmore”, Zion Road, Rathgar, Dublin. Ireland.  Ans^d 23.7.16

Postmarked FIELD POST OFFICE T.37.  19 JY 16.  Hexagonal PASSED FIELD CENSOR 3447.  Signed WD Samuels.

Thursday 13^th July 1916.

My Dear Ethel,

            Thanks very much for your last Sunday’s letter – about Wednesday in every week I begin to look forward to receiving one from Harry and yourself and it is very nice of you not to disappoint me.

            I am sorry to hear you are having such wet weather in Dublin, but don’t think you can justly blame our guns as being the cause, as here, where they certainly make themselves heard we are getting quite good weather.  In any case I hope they are doing something more than merely upsetting the weather.

            I didn’t say what I wanted most as I did not want to trouble you at all to send me parcels, but as one is I suppose now on the way, I will admit that I shall be delighted to get it.  We get splendid food considering the position and circumstances but there are times when something from home is just the thing, as of course our diet does not vary much.  I think also that I enjoy the excitement of a parcel almost as well as the contents – it is just like being back at school.  We are not badly off for butter as we occasionally have tinned butter served out which is splendid stuff, also tinned jam and marmalade.  I am sure however that your parcel will meet the case & from this day henceforth I shall worry the life out of the postman until I receive it.  I have just warned him to this effect.

            It is a great pity you are kept in suspense for such a time as to your destination.  I suppose one of these days Harry will get 24 hours notice, and that will mean a fearful rush.  You have all my prayers for a decent place.

            I am not certain but I believe that after we have been out here three months on duty leave is granted in batches to England or rather perhaps I should say leave is not granted until three months service here has been done.  There is a great difference, as some fellows have I understand been out ages without leave.  In these stirring times I expect all leave is stopped.

            If the officer in the R.G.A. you know is at the place you mention I expect he will be out here long before the date you name (Isn’t that paragraph the model of discretion, no names, places or dates).  It is one of the places that R.G.A. men go straight to the Front from.  I imagine he is bluffing his Mother as I tried to.

            I meant to warn Harry not to bustle you when you are writing me – dinner or no dinner – if the effect is to shorten your letters.  Fancy in bed till 11 o’clock on a Sunday morning, he can’t realise how much valuable time he is wasting.  It is an extraordinary thing but the best way to tell Sunday from a weekday here is by the amount of work.  The Sundays we have enjoyed (?) out here have been by far our hardest days – anything but a day of rest.

            Give my love to Ada and Susan and thank the former very much for the cake which is on the way – it is reassuring to know that this time it is not being made out of her head, altho’ I cannot remember any complaints.

            Yours with love

                        Bernard.

This letter was in the same envelope as Bernard’s letter to Harry of even date.