This is a letter that was included in the bundle of Harry's letters. As it is contemporaneous with Harry's and, clearly, has some link, I have included it. I believe that the writer was killed almost a year later.
No 11/1141, No 4 platoon
A Coy, B.E.F. France
May 30th 1917
Dear Sir,
You’re kind and welcome letter dated May 22 to hand and many thanks for your interest in me. It certainly set me thinking at first until I read further into it and then it became quite clear how you got in touch with me. I am trying to carry out my part in the contract and hope that I may be successful. Your very nice and cheering booklet of which I have had very similar copy I have passed on to a young friend private W. H. Adams who is in the same platoon and company as I am and he is very much taken up with it. He was delighted with it. I have had quite a considerable number of letters and textbooks and so on from the headquarters YMCA and must say here how the work of the above is appreciated by the boys in
I remain
yours sincerely
H. Bentley
"Newland" is, I believe, in Hull, Yorkshire. I think that this could well be the author of this letter. Any confirmation? I believe that Jack was attached to the Anglican Church there. Has anyone any record of John Lamin in Newland 1917.
5 comments:
The information that you are providing is facinating. I hope you are considering putting this all in book form. You write with such warmth and colour, I look forward to finding out more as the weeks go by!
Just a quick comment, in this entry you write "Harry mentioned it in his letter to Kate on 13th May." I wanted to look back at it, and read the letter about 10 times and couldn't find any remarks about it. It's actually mentioned in the letter to Jack that is below the one to Kate.
Thank you for sharing this!
I think this is a wonderful idea! I saw a story about your blog on the Toronto news here in Canada and so I've been reading! Fascinating!
I have a question - why would Harry have to put his address in the middle of the letter? He didn't seem to know either! :)
Thank you for all this!
Are there a lot of type-o's or is it just me? I also think that this information is astounding. I hope you keep doing what your doing.
About the middle-letter address:
I suppose it is to hide the location from the spying eye. A separate text of address at the end is more easily visible illuminating the letter. May be important as a general rule during war.
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