Harrogate Herald - 8th August 1917

Dear Chaps,

Fortunately I am able to open my letter today with something pleasant. Private James Charlton was reported missing on the 23rd of April. News has just come that he is a prisoner at Limberg, Germany. He is the only son of Mr & Mrs Charlton, of 26 West Park. Mrs Charlton came and brought me the good news. She had been to see me before when in the midst of her trouble. I tried to instill help and faith in her at that time, and I am glad to know that she has never lost confidence and is now regarded. To show you how promptly these prisoners are looked after, she had a letter at once from the Central Prisoners of War Committee saying that they had already given orders for parcels to be sent to her boy. Now this is another message of hope for my friends who have not yet heard from their missing lads. Those who have friends and relatives, prisoners in Germany, will thrive surpassing satisfaction from the knowledge that the Central Committee is as prompt and alert to send parcels to the lads.

And now having fortified you with the above ray of sunshine, I can tell you that Lance Corporal George Simpson, of the 1st West Yorks, husband of Mrs Alice Simpson, 50 Butler Road, Bilton, fourth and youngest son of Mr & Mrs J Simpson, of High Street, Spofforth, has been wounded four times. I regret to say that he died in the Royal Infirmary, Manchester, on Tuesday, the 31st July. He had been 9 1/2 years in the Army and latterly nine months in hospital. Mrs Simpson came to see me the other day, and at her request I wrote to the depot at York asking for consent to a military funeral. As soon as my letter was received at the York Command I had a telephone message asking for further particulars. In order to trace him they needed his number, which I thought they would get quickest by telephone from the Manchester infirmary. I have no doubt that permission was promptly forthcoming. The Army number of a man is very important. In fact, it is the only means of identification, therefore in giving addresses and names of soldiers the number should not be omitted. You know this perfectly well, but as most of your friends at home read this letter I mention it here so that it will catch their eyes.

Mrs Hannah Vast called to see me to tell me that her husband, Private C Vast, 203549, West Yorks, son of Mrs Sam Vast, 3 Bothman's Yard, Hunslet Lane, Leeds, has died of gas poisoning. The wife received a telegram to this effect from the Record Office and brought it to me. She has five children, from 10 months to 10 years old. She has not seen her husband since December. Mrs Vast's address is 6 New Row, Bondend, Knaresborough. I need not say how sorry we are for her, the mother and the children. The remembrance of the heroic father will serve as a beacon light to keep the little ones straight and proud throughout life.

C J G Whitham, of the 2/6th West Yorks, has been out 21 months with the 1/5th. He came home to get his commission, and is now with the 2/6th. I should like him to know that we are sending the papers free. He offers to pay for them, but I ask him to accept them from me as a mark of our regard and appreciation.

Whitham tells a quaint story. he says : "We have not seen any 'civvies' for months, and last night we met a few. We were having something to eat at a French shop. A little girl of 17 was looking after us. One officer said to her, 'Good evening, mademoiselle'. She replied, 'Cheerio, old thing! How are you? Is your father still on munitions?' She uttered this in all seriousness and in very good English, evidently not understanding the nature of the remark. It sounded so funny from the earnest, serious-eyed French girl".

We also have had bad wet weather for some days. The rain, however, had not fallen in great quantities. Today is Saturday and the flag day for the concerts at the Front. The rain is falling greatly. Yesterday noon the weather cleared, and the rest of the day was beautifully warm and fine.

On Friday afternoon, Miss Lena Ashwell held her audition in my music room to select artistes to join the concerts at the Front parties. There was an excellent attendance and really good talent. Only one male artiste, and he was a tenor from Leeds, above military age. There were violinists, entertainers at the piano, singers and reciters.

An anonymous lady from a distance this (Saturday) morning sent me five shillings towards the fund. I slipped out my office and gave it to the lady who was selling flags in front of the buildings to put in her box. To keep myself right I took a receipt from her. You will be glad to know that whilst I was in front of the building the public were patronising the boxes cheerfully and numerously. It is 9.30 in the morning and still raining. I hope the weather will not interfere with the results of the collection. As Miss Ashwell is reciting in the Kursaal this afternoon I trust there will be a large audience. The event is to help the fund. If it happens to rain there will be an overflowing audience, as wet generally has this effect.

The Harrogate Company of Volunteers is camping out at Birk Crag over this week-end. Tomorrow at nine they have a drumhead service, when the drum and fife band play in the hymns. These have been specially arranged for the band.

I told you that there had been pilfering in the allotment gardens. After the Herald called attention to the fact it eased off a little, but still continued. In one set of allotment gardens this illicit enterprise grew bolder and bolder. A watch was kept. The man on amateur police duty happened to be very handy with his fists and presented the requisite strength and agility to back up his promise. This particular watcher caught the thief red-handed. He was an allotment holder in he very gardens. The watcher reasoned with himself that to bring the case before the Borough Court would probably punish the man's innocent wife and children; so he set to with his fists and gave him such a drubbing that his best friend would have to look twice to recognise him. As a climax the thief was deprived of his allotment and no doubt has come to the conclusion that after all "Honesty is the best policy".

In your time I have no doubt you have met cases where a fisherman has seemed to have had abnormal luck. The sizes of the fish were rather too big to swallow. And you will also remember that after a fruitless day a call at the fishmongers made up a presentable basket. I have heard parallel cases regarding vegetables from allotment gardens. I am told, but I cannot vouch for the truth, that certain proud samples shown had come from an open market. These incidents have caused considerable amusement, and as there has been nothing vicious in the incidents there was nothing left but for those who would enjoy a joke to laugh. I need hardly add that the rest of the crop hardly came up to sample.

It is Sunday morning. The drum and fife band and the Volunteers have just passed on their way to the drumhead service. The weather was very dull early in the morning, but as I speak to you the sun has got through threatening clouds which are held in subjection by the fairly steady breeze. If the wind holds we shall have a beautiful day. I do not think we have had so many visitors in Harrogate at the holiday time. The railway authorities have laid themselves out to meet an abnormal demand. Trains to most watering places, particularly those to the west coast, have gone out full, leaving many behind. Supplementary trains solved the difficulty.

I have just received a letter from Mrs J Tipling, of 17 Lanthorn Road, Frizinghall, Bradford, saying she has received a letter from her husband, Corporal Tipling, of the West Yorks, stating that he is in Passmore Edwards Hospital, London, suffering from the effects of gas, but is improving very nicely. He is the eldest son of Mrs Tipling, Roker Road, Harrogate, and brother of Sapper H Tipling, who is a prisoner of war in Germany. There seems to have been quite a number of gas cases recently. I wish you boys would keep a constant eye on your gas helmets. I shall not forget in a hurry that gas attack of December 19th, 1915, which caught so many of our brave lads. They were unprepared then, and one Harrogate boy in his haste to warn the others forgot his own helmet and died of gas poisoning. You could help each other a lot if you reminded those about you occasionally that there were such things as gas helmets and should always be within reach.

Since writing you on this subject, I hear that there was a splendid house at the Kursaal for the Concerts at the Front Fund. Miss Ashwell had eloquent tales to tell, some pathetic, some humorous, but all emphasising the needs of these concerts. Of course her recitations were gems of elocutionary art. The afternoon turned out fine, nevertheless the weather could not detract from the attendance. Later in the day there was a very sharp, brief shower. You have seen rabbits making for their runs. It was amusing to see the ladies in their holiday attire sprinting and the men forgetting for the moment their dignity.

Before I forget; a great many people remembered to offer a silent prayer wherever they happened to be at 12 o'clock on Saturday. The Chaplain of all the Forces has asked everybody to continue this at noon every day during the war. I think it is a very nice idea, all so simple and unpretentious. You lads will have long since discovered that a genuine appeal to your Maker needs no paraphernalia or outward aids.

You know that there has been a delay in granting men, unfit for further service, discharges. You will perhaps have noticed also public opinion has been much exercised over medical boards passing men in categories for which they are physically unfit. As a concession to public opinion civilian boards will in future examine, and men at the Front physically unfit are also to be more promptly discharged. We always get in the right thing at last. You will realise by this that public opinion has some force. But, remember, lads we must always be patient.

The other day a paper, which is not published in Harrogate, announced that a soldier named Clayton, said to be from Harrogate, was missing. A lady was good enough to come and tell me, having seen this announcement, that she had ascertained this particular Clayton was a prisoner in Germany. She desired to know the address of the man's mother, but I could not tell her. It turned out afterwards that Clayton was a Leeds man and not a Harrogate chap after all.

It is rather singular that I should have had a visit from another soldier named Clayton. It was Signaller A Clayton, son of Mrs G H Clayton, Wilton House, Devonshire Place, Harrogate. I told him how worried I had been about the missing Clayton and how pleased I was to find that he was not the man. Clayton was on leave after 19 months in France. Of course I knew him by name because he is one of my boys to whom I send the Herald. He looked exceedingly well, and I was proud to find in him such a fine fellow. He has the nicest manners - that kind which makes a conversation pleasant. I grieve to tell you that the day Signaller A Clayton came on leave his brother, G H Clayton, the second son, was killed in action. He did not learn of this until he arrived home.

You have many friends and it is a great delight to be able to introduce others to you. There are two in particular in my mind now to whom your best thanks are due. First, there is the Mayoress, who has taken upon herself the burden of all the flag days this summer, and I can assure you that is a great task, though probably she would not admit it. Then there is her graceful friend the Secretary of the Flag Day movement; Mrs W H Thompson, of Leaside, Lancaster Park Road, whose energy is untiring and whose time is more fully occupied by this work. I am sure you will not forget these two ladies, but bear them in mind always.

You will be glad to know that the thoughts and prayers of your many friends at home are with you ever. Particularly those of you who are in this great operation which is likely to last so long. I daresay when some of you were in training in this country you did not quite appreciate the necessity of the oft-repeated details tending to improve your alertness. Since you have been out, however, I am sure you must be thankful that so much pains had been spent over you by your drill inspectors. You know it is always the last man down who gets hit. The slow and deliberate man is handicapped. My lads, in this great offensive don't forget that you must be down first and first with the bayonet.

A letter has come from Herbert Tipling, son of Mrs Tipling, 11 Roker Road, Harrogate, who is a prisoner in Germany. He says he keeps getting the parcels sent by Mr Breare through the agency of the Royal Engineers. He asks for books. I am sorry that it will not be possible to send reading matter to Germany. If I should happen to find a way of doing so I will not forget Herbert Tipling, nor any of my friends, who are prisoners in Germany. By the way, I want to explain something. I am frequently asking for help fro prisoners in Germany, but in reality the fund is that of the Advertiser, and that paper should have credit for it. It is a great privilege, however, for me to do what I can to help that fund, and this I never cease to do.

If you do not happen to have heard you will be interested now to learn that things got into such a muddle in Russia through warring factions that Kerensky resigned the Premiership. The disputing parties, however, soon united in demanding Kerensky's resumption of office. The result is that Kerensky is to form a Government and will virtually be Dictator. That is good news for Russia and for the Allies.

Mr Gerard, the last American Minister in Berlin, has written a book giving his four years' experience there. On Monday morning the first article from that book was published in the Daily Telegraph and others will follow each day. I have read the initial one, and there are startling disclosures in it. When you write you might tell me whether you have read anything about it, and if you have not I will endeavour to summarise the points for you. A wire which the Kaiser wrote to the President of the United States was published for the first time in he article of Monday in the Daily Telegraph. One of the statements that the Kaiser makes is that the French were contemplating the invasion of Belgium and that, he says, is why the Germans violated that country. Mr Gerard was present when the Kaiser wrote this telegram and he has the forms showing the alteration of words the Kaiser made. The Kaiser originally wrote the "knowledge" of France's intention came to him. The thought "knowledge" was rather strong, so he crossed through that word and put "news", which rather gives him away. A facsimile of this telegram is to be published in the book of Mr Gerard's and will be reproduced in the Telegraph. In this telegram the Kaiser admits that Germany had to violate the neutrality of Belgium on strategic grounds. There is more which I will tell you later. It goes to show that the German stories do not agree.

A young Harrogate officer travelled home the other day in the same carriage as an Earl. They entered into conversation, and the nobleman on learning that the officer was going home to get married, expressed the intention of being present and bringing his Countess. The wedding was that of Lieutenant Geoffrey Astley Ingham and Dorothy Cartwright, daughter of Mr & Mrs Samuel Cartwright, of Gwespyr, Otley Road. Very charming of the Earl and Countess, was it not?

I told you that I had met my friend Mr R C Hamilton, who had spent so much time in America. With him them was his son, one of the proudest examples of young British manhood. Mr Hamilton has just called to tell me that this (Tuesday) morning he received a telegram from the War Office saying his son was killed in action on August 1st. Only on Saturday morning a field postcard from his boy, dated July 30th, announced that he was well. What a terrible blow to the dear parents and all of us. The loss of every boy comes to us as a shock, but when death approaches so near that we feel the chill draught from the dread wings, we are left prostrate. There is no time, however, to nurse our own griefs, they are submerged in the greater trial of the bereaved father and mother.

W H Breare