Letter to Kate 21st March 1918

Robert Lord said...How lucky we are, that you were the one that had these letters and was willing to share them with us. It's so unfortunate that things like this are simply thrown out.
I have about a dozen letters from the 1830 period written to a girl living in Adirondacks, hope to get them posted but the handwriting is difficult to read not anything as exacting as your material.
Thanks again for posting this for all of us. Bob
March 27, 2008

Anonymous said...Hello.My name is Emily Butcher. I came across this website when I was doing my history homework which was to do an interview for a ww1 newspaper with a soldier. This is very interesting about how they would live in war time. Thank you very much.
Emily Butcher age 13
March 26, 2008
School text book, based on the letters, currently being planned! BL

mad4books said...Nuisance Inspector? How COOL! My neighborhood could use an "Inspector of Nuisances" or two. lol
I'll bet Kate would soon set things right!
March 24, 2008
About Kate's certificate BL

Anonymous said...March 21st would have been Friday....not Thursday. :)
March 24, 2008
No. We lost a day in 1918 as it wasn't a leap year, unlike 2008. That's why I included the day on this post. March 21st 1918 was a Thursday. BL

bikerted said...Could it be that the road signs are still around giving the distances in kilometres and Harry is unable to convert them to miles?
I'm really enjoying reading a soldiers view of The War and urging Harry to make it home.
Like many people I've had a fascination of the Great War since doing it for O Level History back in the 1970s and have managed to visit Verdun and some of the battlegrounds in the area. When you see the mass graveyards and all the crosses, that's when the scale of the conflict hits home.
March 21, 2008

Anonymous said...My grandfather, Wilfred C. Howard, MM, Royal Field Artillery, died in WW1 in the battle of Arras May 6th 1917. We have very little that was his, my daughter has his medal, a couple of postcards & a letter. How I envy you your letters.
My daughter, sister & I were very fortunate in being able to visit his grave in France in 1995. We are the only family members lucky enough to do this. My grandmother & mother were never able to.
Thank you so much sharing,
Carolyn Saxon

Roger O'Keeffe said...Throughout WWI, armies moved mainly on foot, notably between the line and reserve and rest areas in the rear of the front, or when being redeployed to a new sector unless it was at a significant distance. Trains, and especially motor transport, were used sparingly. That's why route marches were an important part of training, so even when at rest, the soldiers continued to march. In this case Harry's unit was moving back up into the line after a period of rest and training.
March 20, 2008

erathwomen said... It's March and Harry is looking at leave in the summer, which means he's not expecting the war to end by then or even in the summer. I wish he had been able to say more. I know this letter is just a line to say he's ok, but I'd like to know just what he's going through....
March 20, 2008

Anonymous said...I find it very interesting the striking difference in the style of letters that Harry writes to Jack and the letters that he writes to Kate. I think he doesn't want to scare his sister with war details.
March 20, 2008

Julie said...The waiting and the boredom seems as though it is crushing him. If leave were granted, the temptation to scarper must have been immense - not just in Harry's case, but generally.
March 20, 2008

Gustav's great-granddaughter said...Harry seems to be in pretty good spirits; I guess that, especially compared to his time in France, Italy is comparatively quiet. (But from his letter to Jack, Harry also seems to have developed a poor opinion of the Italian soldiers!)

A thought about that card he sent Connie: he says in this letter that had 'sent Willie and Connie a card or two'; it seems to me that he wouldn't have needed to say that to Kate in this 21st March letter if he'd mailed that card directly to Kate. Perhaps he'd sent it in the envelope of a letter to Ethel (which would explain no mailing address on the card itself); and Ethel, knowing Connie was actually Kate's daughter, passed it on to Kate. -
March 20, 2008
There's no way of knowing which route the cards took. None are addressed so they must have been included with other letters. But, cards for Willie & Connie are most likely to have been posted to Ethel. BL