1918 Letters

Sketches of George and Evelyn on the back of George's envelope May 1917

Wednesday 15.5.18

 

My dearest George.

 

Many thanks for your letter which I was very glad to get.  I hope you will allow the bantam to sit out her eggs and see that no naughty dogs interfere with her. 

 

I hope you behaved well when you were at tea with Judge Parsons or else he may put you in prison. 

 

How is Evelyn getting on at the dancing class?  Do you go there to watch her.  I have not had a letter from Mummy since I left home so I was very glad to get yours.  I expect there will be quite a lot of them soon.  Have you got any more birds eggs for your collection?  It is very nice down here and the sea is quite close too, only about three miles away there is a little train that takes you there.  There are a lot of Americans, I helped to get them off the trains.  Give your Mummy a big kiss from me and ask her to give you and Evelyn some ginger beer for lunch.

 

Love to Don.  From Daddy.

 

 

Wednesday 15.5.18.

 

My dearest Evelyn.

 

Many thanks for your letter which I got this morning.  Your letter and George’s are the only ones I have received so far from home and I was very glad to get them indeed.  I am in a nice safe place at present and look like staying here for a bit, helping with the Americans.  We are quite close to the sea and can get plenty of shrimps and fish.  When the weather gets warm we shall be able to bathe perhaps.  I forget whether it is a centipede or a millipede which does good, I think it is the centipede but ask Miss Stokeo (?) to look it up in the Encyclopedia Britannica. 

 

How do you get on with your dancing, I expect you are quite good now.  Mind you do your best as you will like it when you grow up. 

 

With love from Daddy. I hope Peter is alright.

 

Monday 27.5.18.

 

Dear George

 

Thank you very much for your letter.  It will be nice for you to learn how to dance, it is very useful when you grow up, I never learnt properly and I always sorry about it after.  What a good thing it is that the doctor says you need not rest any more, you will be able to ride Peter now like Evelyn does and go for rides with Mummy on Molly.  I went to tea with a doctor Coronel yesterday, there were a lot of American nurses there and they all spoke American, but I know the language and understood them.  I wonder what the Maypole entertainment was like.  How are the young goldfish and is the water lily out yet.  Give Mummy three big kisses and ask her for some ginger beer.

 

Your affectionate Daddy

 

 

Monday June 3rd 1918.

 

Dear Evelyn and George

 

Many thanks for welcome letters received yesterday dated the 30th.  So pleased to hear that George can run about again for I suppose you miss him Evelyn when you’re out playing.  I do hope George you remain in good health for health is the main point in nowadays.

 

Well Evelyn yes I’m pleased to say I am with your Daddy again having quite a nice time with the Americans hoping we stay in the town where we are at present for duration it’s quite a change to be away from the noyes of the guns. 

 

Well George I’m very pleased you enjoyed yourself on Empire day I suppose you enjoyed yourself that much that you are anxiously waiting for the next one to come aren’t you.

 

Well Evelyn and George I will close with heaps of love.

 

Your truly

Jones EK

 

 

 Thurday 6.6.18.

 

My dearest Evelyn

 

Many thanks for your letter, which I was very glad to get.  Has the bantam hen hatched out yet, it should nearly be time now. Your Mother tells me you ride Peter nearly every day now, has George started to ride again? I hope he will.  Do you drive Peter in the cart to fetch the washing?  One of the offices here has a dog called Hector, at least he thinks it is a dog, it is the ugliest I have ever seen.  It was born on a field kitchen and looks like all the breeds of dogs mixed with one. We are having a nice peaceful time here but I don’t think it will last much longer.  I have got a very nice horse lent me to ride now. 

 

Jones wrote you a letter yesterday, at least it was addressed to George.  I wonder what he said.  Give Mummy a big kiss from me.

 

Your loving Father

 

 

Thursday 6.6.18.

 

My dearest George

 

Thank you very much for your nice letter.  I am glad you are learning to dance and hope you will like it.  We must give a party when I come home next and dance to the gramophone in the hall.  This is a very quiet place and quite safe.  It would suit you well, you could play on the beach the whole time and there are plenty of shrimps and crabs to catch. Are you riding Peter again, I do hope you will learn to ride when you are young, you will find it so hard if ever you have to learn when you grow up.  We are having lovely weather here and I hear you are having the same.  There is a large family of young wrens in this garden, they are just out of the nest and are learning to fly.  Give your Mummy plenty of big kisses from me.

 

Your affectionate Daddy

 

 

Friday 21.6.18.

 

My dearest Evelyn

 

Thank you so much for your letter which I got this morning.  I think this will be quite a good name for the new Jersey cow, shall we call the calf Narcissus?  Does Peter go well in the cart?  Can you drive him yet?  We have come to a new place about thirty miles from where Aunt Evie is I will go to see her soon.  I am going to another Battalion soon, but I don’t know where it is.  You will not see me at home for some time as they are not giving much leave at present.  We have a very good billet here, there is a pianola which I can play.  Give Don a pat from me and give Mummy a big kiss.

 

Your loving Daddy

 

 

Friday 21.6.18.

 

My dearest George

 

Many thanks for your letter.  I am glad to hear you are better now.  The hen was quite right to fly at Don if he went too near her ducklings.  Are you playing cricket now and who do you play with?  How is your house in the nut walk getting on and have you found any more birds eggs.  Are there any cherries this year, we get plenty over here, also strawberries and cream.  There is more food here than at home.  You and Evelyn must help Mummy in the garden and on the farm.  Give Mummy a big kiss from me.

 

Your loving Daddy

 

 

Sunday 30.6.18.

 

Dear Don.

 

Many thanks for your letter which was short but sweet.  I wonder when you learnt to write.  Tell those young monkeys Evelyn and George that I saw their Aunt Evie last Sunday and took her out to lunch on Monday she was very good and ate everything I told her to. Do you allow the monkeys in your nursery still, it is very good of you if you do as I know how trying they are.  I wish you were out here because there is a horrid dog called Hector which you might claw up for me.  He is about as big as you but such a coward, he is a black and white mongrel.  I hope you are making those young imps (E and G) work in the hay, if they do not eat all their dinners do punish them. How is your cousin Ranee and Mrs Top?  I hope you are looking well after the house while I am away.  Are there any wild rabbits about Sibbersfield it is about time someone shot them for the pot, if any men come to the house tell them about the rook rifle in the cupboard but ask them to clean it afterwards, I hope we shall get a little shooting together this autumn like we did last year.

 

Lick the Oddities well from me.  With many pats.

 

Your affectionate Master

 

P D Holt

 

Monday 15.7.18.

 

My dearest Evelyn

 

Thanks very much for your letter, which I was very glad to get.  Mummy tells me that you have made an enormous haystack you must have all worked very hard. You can have a rest now until the corn is ready to cut.  What will George do with a new canary, there will not be room in the cage for it.  Mummy tells me the hens have been eating all their own eggs, why did you let them, you ought to have taken them away as fast as they were laid. 

 

Love and pats to Don. 

 

Your affectionate Daddy

 

 

Monday 15.7.18.

 

Dearest George.

 

What a pity Primrose is too big for anything but the mowing machine.  You must get to work and make a bigger cart for her.

 

We are near a town here where there are lots of windmills, it is on a hill and the Germans shell it sometimes, but they do not shell us. 

 

I am going to have a camp soon with lots of tents and I shall live in a tent by myself, it will be quite nice if it does not rain too much.  We are having a lot of rain here now but it is doing good.

 

Your affectionate Daddy

 

 

Monday 29 JY 18 (post card below)

 

Dearest Evelyn.

 

Many thanks for your letter.  It must have been very nice on the river, do you go often.  How would you like to hear this big gun go off.

 

Daddy

 

 

 

Monday 29 JY 18 (postcard below)

 

Dear George.

 

Thanks for your letter.  How would you like to live in a house like these soldiers?  How is your rheumatism?  You will have to give up port and beer.

 

Daddy

Wednesday 21.8.18.

 

My dearest Evelyn.

 

Hope you got the postcards I sent you alright last week, and that you like them.  I have joined a new Battalion now but I do not know if I am going to stay with them or not as I hope to go back to my old Division again.  Are you having your holidays now.  I was sorry to hear that you and George had both been ill, and I hope you are alright again now.  Have you been very busy with the harvest, I suppose you have been working hard. 

 

There are two little French girls in the house where I live, they are seven and six years old and have dirty faces always.  I don’t think their Mother ever washes them as their faces are dirty when they go to bed and when they get up.  I gave them some chocolate yesterday and their faces were dirtier than ever.

 

We are beating the Germans now and the war may be over before you grow up.  It will be funny to live in England when there is no war, whatever shall we talk about?  It is very hot here today much too hot to fight, there have been a lot of German prisoners coming through this village today, they looked very dirty and tired.  Give Mummy a big kiss from me and pat Don.

 

Your affectionate Daddy

 

 

Wednesday 21.8.18.

 

Dear George.

 

How are you today?  I hear you have been frightening your Mother by pretending to be ill, if I was her I would smack you well and put you to bed in a room full of frogs and toadses.  What have you been doing in your holidays?  How about the mushrooms now Alice Venables is away you ought to have a good chance of finding a few.  Have the bees stung you yet?  If not try stirring them up in the hive with a stick, it is a very good way of getting stung.  I am living in a village near where I was when we first came out to France, it is not much of a place, Farndon would be a great town in comparison.  There are quite a lot of birds in the garden of this house including a beautiful cock redstart, I suppose they have started to go South again, which shoes that the winter is coming on soon.  Next month there will be a lot of hawks on their way south following the little birds.  The Huns are going back now so I suppose we shall have to spend the winter in mud and ruins, however we are killing a lot of them and taking prisoners.

 

Give Mummy a big kiss and a hug from me and give Don a bone.

 

Your affectionate Daddy

 

 

Fiday 4.10.18.

 

My darling Evelyn.

 

I hope you will have a very happy birthday and that this letter reaches you in time to wish you many happy returns.  Only think you are nine years old now, it seems such a short time ago that you were a little baby sitting on your Mummy’s knee and a dear little baby you were too.  Next birthday I hope I shall be at home and then we will have great celebrations fireworks perhaps and a party.  What a pity Mummy has a bad ankle, but perhaps it will be better by the time you get this letter. Write and let me know all about it.  I was very pleased to get a letter from both George and you, tell George I will write to him soon. 

 

We are beating the Germans now and hope soon that the war will be over, when I shall be able to come home for good, won’t that be nice.  I hope I shall be able to come home soon on leave, perhaps at the end of this month or next month, it is such a long time since I have seen you that I have almost forgotten what you are like.  Give Mummy and George a big kiss from me.

 

Your affectionate Daddy

 

Monday 11.11.18 Armistice Day The last day of the war. * 

  

Tuesday 12.11.18.

 

My dearest Evelyn.

 

Many thanks for your nice letter which I was very glad to get.  I am sorry about Evie’s ankle, I hope it will get well soon.  Are not you glad that the war is over and that I shall be coming home for good soon, perhaps in time for Christmas, we will have a great big turkey and a plum pudding and plenty of crackers.  All the poor people that the Germans took away are beginning to come back to their homes, it is very sad for them seeing the way their houses have been knocked about.  How do you like Mummy’s new necklace?  Give her a big kiss from me.  Love to Don.

 

Your affectionate Daddy

 

 

Tuesday 12.11.18.

 

My dearest George.

 

Many thanks for your nice letter which I was very glad to get.  It is a pity the young sow is ill, I hope she gets better, though probably she will die like the bull. 

 

We have not much to do now that there is an Armistice and we all hope to come home soon.  Perhaps I shall be back before Xmas and then we will have a jolly time together at Sibbersfield.  Some German prisoners came through here today and all the French women threw mud at them, serve the dirty beasts right. 

 

I have got a pony called “Jimmy” now, he is quite a good one.  Give your Mummy a big kiss from me.

 

Your affectionate Daddy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 * Monday 1th November 1918

 

The last day of World War One was November 11th 1918, known as Armistice Day. Despite November 11th being the last day of the war, on many parts of the Western Front fighting continued as normal. This meant, of course, that casualties occurred even as the people of Paris, London and New York were celebrating the end of the fighting.

 

After three days of intense negotiations in a rail siding just outside of Compiegne (see photo), the German delegation that had been brought to the personal carriage of Marshall Ferdinand Foch was ordered by its government in Berlin to sign any terms put on the table by the Allies. Potentially serious social upheaval had forced the government in Berlin into giving out this instruction as people had taken to the streets as a result of chronic food shortages caused by the British naval blockade. Therefore, the German delegation led by Matthias Erzberger signed the terms of the Armistice.

 

This was done at 05.10 on November 11th. However, the actual ceasefire would not start until 11.00 to allow the information to travel to the many parts of the Western Front. Technology allowed the news to go to capital cities by 05.40 and celebrations began before very many soldiers knew about the Armistice. In London, Big Ben was rung for the first time since the start of the war in August 1914. In Paris, gas lamps were lit for the first time in four years. But on the Western Front, many tens of thousands of soldiers assumed that it was just another day in the war and officers ordered their men into combat.

 

Quite a number of the final casualties were at Mons in Belgium – ironically one of the first major battles of the war in 1914. In a cemetery just outside of Mons in the village of Nouvelle, there are nine graves of British soldiers. Five are from August 1914 while four are dated November 11th 1918.

 

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) states that their records show that 863 Commonwealth soldiers died on November 11th1918 – though this figure also includes those who died on that day but of wounds received prior to November 11th.

 

In particular, the Americans took heavy casualties on the last day of the war. This was because their commander, General John Pershing, believed that the Germans had to be severely defeated at a military level to effectively ‘teach them a lesson’. Pershing saw the terms of the Armistice as being soft on the Germans. Therefore, he supported those commanders who wanted to be pro-active in attacking German positions – even though he knew that an Armistice had been signed. In particular, the Americans suffered heavy casualties attempting to cross the River Meuse on the night of the 10th/11thwith the US Marines taking over 1,100 casualties alone. However, if they had waited until 11.00, they could have crossed the river unhindered and with no casualties. The 89th US Division was ordered to attack and take the town of Stenay on the morning of November 11th. Stenay was the last town captured on the Western Front but at a cost of 300 casualties.

 

The CWGC records that the last British soldier killed in World War One was Private George Edwin Ellison of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers. He was killed at Mons (where he had also fought in 1914) at 09.30, just 90 minutes before the ceasefire.

 

The last French soldier to die was Augustin Trebuchon from the 415thInfantry Regiment. He was a runner and was in the process of taking a message to his colleagues at the front informing them of the ceasefire. He was hit by a single shot and killed at 10.50. In total, 75 French soldiers were killed on November 11th but their graves state November 10th. Two theories have been forwarded for this discrepancy. The first is that by stating that they died on November 10th before the war had ended, there could be no question about their family’s entitlement to a war pension. The other theory, is that the French government wanted to avoid any form of embarrassment or political scandal should it ever become known that so many died on the last day of the war.

 

The last Canadian to die was Private George Lawrence Price of the Canadian Infantry (2nd Canadian Division) who was killed at Mons at 10.58. Officially, Price was the last Commonwealth soldier to be killed in World War One.

 

The last American soldier killed was Private Henry Gunter who was killed at 10.59. Officially, Gunter was the last man to die in World War One. His unit had been ordered to advance and take a German machine gun post. It is said that even the Germans – who knew that they were literally minutes away from a ceasefire – tried to stop the Americans attacking. But when it became obvious that this had failed, they fired on their attackers and Gunter was killed. His divisional record stated:

 

“Almost as he fell, the gunfire died away and an appalling silence prevailed.”

 

Information about German casualties is more difficult to ascertain. However, it may well be the case that the last casualty of World War One was a junior German officer called Tomas who approached some Americans to tell them that the war was over and that they could have the house he and his men were just vacating. However, no one had told the Americans that the war had finished because of a communications breakdown and Tomas was shot as he approached them after 11.00.

 

Officially over 10,000 men were killed, wounded or went missing on November 11th 1918. The Americans alone suffered over 3,000 casualties. When these losses became public knowledge, such was the anger at home that Congress held a hearing regarding the matter. In November 1919, Pershing faced a House of Representatives Committee on Military Affairs that examined whether senior army commanders had acted accordingly in the last few days of the war. However, no one was ever charged with negligence and Pershing remained unapologetic, remaining convinced that the Germans had got off lightly with the terms of the Armistice. He also stated that although he knew about the timing of the Armistice, he simply did not trust the Germans to carry out their obligations. He therefore, as commander in chief, ordered the army to carry on as it would normally do as any “judicious commander” would have done. Pershing also pointed out that he was merely carrying out the orders of the Allies Supreme Commander, Marshall Ferdinand Foch, that were to “pursue the field greys (Germans) until the last minute”