locket

today i found a folder of letters written by my grandfather while he was serving in the trenches.  i spent the whole afternoon reading them and transcribing one to share.  the locket contains photographs of his parents to whom the letters were written.  by 1915 they had already lost their youngest son.

one of the letters made reference to the portrait of my great uncle which they had wanted to donate to the Academy where he trained, but it was refused.

he was a keen photographer and he was always asking for more film to be sent out.
the book he took with him to read in the trenches was The Pickwick Papers.  i have never read it, and now feel i ought to.

he also asked for morphine pills but no more chocolate or tobacco!  they seemed to get regular food parcels and once walked for miles to buy champagne.

page 1

page 2

page 3

the letters are all dated, and he even notes the time of writing on every one.  it was fascinating to make connections between the letters and his many trench photographs.  it's going to be quite a task to sort them all out.  there are a few here.

todays view