Letter to Kate Thursday 21st March 1918

March 21st/1918
32507/9 Batt York and Lanc Regt
C. Company
12 Platoon L.G.S
I.E.F
Dear Kate
Just a line to let you know that I am going on alright and I am pleased that you are keeping well. I have had a letter from Jack and one from Ethel, they are all going on alright except for the food problem which bothers them a bit. the weather here is grand very hot during the day but very cold at night. Jack is sending Willie a present for is birthday which is saturday. I have sent him and Connie a card or two I hope they like them. I am pleased that you write often as I am always glad of a letter from you. I think I shall get a leave sometime this summer if I have good luck. I will write again soon.
With Love from
Harry

7 comments:

Unknown 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....

Anonymous said...

I find it very interesting the striking differance 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.

Anonymous 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.

Anonymous said...

Harry seems to be in pretty good spirits; I guess that, especially compared to his time in France, Italy is comparitively 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.

-Gustav's great-granddaughter

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

Anonymous said...

March 21st would have been Friday....not Thursday. :)

Anonymous said...

Hello.My name is Emily Butcher. I came acroos 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 interestingabout how they would live in war time. Thankyou very much

Emily Butcher
age 13