Harrogate Herald - 21st November 1917

To Our Boys on Service

Dear Chaps,

I daresay you have often asked yourself why the Almighty has permitted this war. I will give you my impression : Before this calamity came upon the world, nations had arrived at the highest degree of prosperity. They had become degenerate, as instance the overwhelming love of pleasure which induces that indulgence resulting in selfishness - want of thought and heart for others. Extravagance had reached abnormal height. It was necessary the world should be reminded that wealth and pleasure were not the real goals of humanity. The spirit of brother and sisterhood had become weak. Then war came, and we knew suffering, privation, anxiety, and most of those trials which a large proportion of this successful world had already known, without receiving adequate sympathy from their successful brothers and sisters. We needed the lessons of this war, and I am glad to say that many are learning it. There are, however, so many marked exceptions that thoughtful men and women are deeply stirred. Degeneration is still to be observed in great and little things.

I am going to give you just two points illustrative of my conclusions. I had a letter this morning from a lady who has a relative a prisoner of war in Germany. As you know, the Advertiser has a Prisoner of War Fund. Many people come to me, however, to seek information and advice. This lady has written asking me what articles she could send in a Christmas parcel to her dear one in Germany. I referred her to the care committee of the regiment to which the man belonged. She has received an answer specifying what parcels of food may not be sent by individuals to prisoners of war in Germany as follows : "By the War Office regulations each prisoner may only receive the six standard parcels of food sent from his Regimental Care Committee. None of the articles in your letter may be sent with the exception of cigarettes. You may despatch these by securing a permit from the committee of the regiment to which the man belongs".

The lady has sent me this reply, and with it a letter in which she says : "I think it a great shame you cannot send parcels to the poor chaps, but of course they are only British soldiers, not the dear interned Huns, otherwise we should perhaps have been allowed to send".

This petulant, unjust observation has moved me to pain and disappointment. I can make allowance for the anxiety of the female mind, but I cannot find excuse for the temper and state of mind which prompted these words.

I know many mothers and wives have been filled with anxiety lest their boys should not receive sufficient food. I know also, as I have had a mother of a prisoner in to Say That her son writes that he is starving. I hope you boys have not been troubled with this subject, but less you have I will give you a few facts.

It is but a part of the German scheme of frightfulness to force prisoners to write to their mothers a tale of anguish such as shall make them cry out for peace at all costs. Do you suppose the German authorities would allow a letter so damaging to them were it not to fulfil a deep purpose of their own? That is all I shall say on this point.

Before the recent regulations about sending parcels to prisoners in Germany were adopted there was a terrible amount of overlapping. To some men were despatched a number of parcels whilst others got none. It was not likely the Germans would permit one man to have so much, therefore it was a waste to send them. The Government are alive to the necessity of feeding the prisoners in Germany. Every regiment has its care committee, and men who are prisoners receive adequate food, clothing and other things. Private generosity is largely employed in this work, and friends who have the means are permitted to contribute towards the fund or pay for their whole series of parcels. I know it is disappointing that mothers cannot send Christmas cake of their own baking, bread, and that sort of thing, but the food is so cut up in order to discover if there is any contraband therein that it is worthless when it arrives. There is no need for any poor woman, who cannot afford the expense, to send parcels at all to her son or husband, as he will be supplied with all that is essential.

We have never refused to include any Harrogate and district or other prisoner in our list to receive parcels. A cheque is sent to the Central Committee to cover the cost of all on that list . it is one of the sacrifices friends have to make that relations cannot themselves send everything their boys might fancy or they would wish. It matters not to a hungry prisoner of war where the food comes from so long as he has sufficient.

I can assure you that the authorities and many private agencies are doing everything possible to feed prisoners in Germany well. And now I hope the lady who has written that unkind sentence will consider these points and be sorry. I also trust that those mothers and wives of soldiers who have felt aggrieved will see the difficulties of the position and realise that their thanks are due to the generous private people who are contributing funds and to the Government and officials who are so severely criticised now and again.

Here is the second point : I know a chief officer of the transport service whose two ships he commanded have been sunk in a few months. The second ship went down in five minutes only a few days ago. That officer has had seven or nine years service in the mercantile marine and is now attached to our Navy, doing useful but dangerous work. On both occasions when his ship had been sunk he has had to come home to wait for re-equipment because (although not a life had been sacrificed) these sailor lads lost all their belongings on each occasion. They had to wait until they were transferred to another ship, which would absorb from three weeks to a month and because it takes the former period to settle up the insurance business. Would you believe it, on these two occasions of this officer being at home someone who has not learnt the lessons of the war has caused inquiries to be made as to why that officer was not on his ship. In this case police inquiries have even been made on one occasion and the recruiting authorities on the other. There is little doubt these inquisitions have arisen through spitefulness or resentment on the part of someone whose relatives have been compelled to join the Army.

I will give you now the detailed facts. Chief Officer F E Toogood, of the transport service (the officer in question), has had an exciting time within the last two months, two ships to which he was attached having been torpedoed and sunk in that period. Fortunately all on board on both occasions were saved. The first incident occurred in September, and the crew were able to take to the boats and later picked up by patrol boats. All their belongings were lost, and Chief Officer Toogood was sent home on a month's leave by the Admiralty, so that his insurance could be arranged and be allotted another ship. This second ship was torpedoed last Tuesday in the early morning, and sank within five minutes, but after about twenty minutes in the boats the sailors were saved by the patrol boats. Everything was lost again, and this necessitated a second visit home for re-equipment and allotment. Chief Officer Toogood, who is a member of the Imperial Merchant Service Guild, is the son of Mr G R Toogood, of Normanza House, King's Road, Harrogate. It is this officer who has again been hunted up as would be a man evading service in the Army. Do you wonder he found ordinary adjectives inadequate to denounce the busybodies who set the police in motion?

I think you will realise from these two cases, and I could give you more, that some people have not yet arrived at the state of mind when they deserve all the blessings Providence can heap upon us. I have hope yet that whilst so many hearts have swelled with sympathy, generosity and kindly feeling, those who lag will try to emulate the spirit shown by those noble examples which have come under your own personal observation. Again, let us keep on hoping!

Mrs Bramley, 14 Church Square, Harrogate, would be glad of information of her husband, Private Oliver W Bramley, Manchester Regiment, who has been posted as missing since November 10th, 1917.

I was sorry I was not in when Second Officer Harold Beevers, son of Mr and Mrs Beevers, Montpelier Gardens, called to see me. I am always working and very busy. I was not out on pleasure. Beevers is of the Auxiliary Fleet, a reserve which supplies the Fleet with ammunition, fuel and other things. Beevers is a smart looking officer and has cleverly passed all examinations resulting in his present position.

Last week I put the cart before the horse. I mentioned Corporal Sawbridge as calling on me, and referred to Noddings and Micky Dawson. It was Dawson who had been in hospital and was in France from December, 1916, until May. Noddings has not been out yet.

Private F E Clarkson, 200620, of the Scout Section of the West Yorks, was wounded in the arm on the 9th of October, and whilst on his way to the dressing station was again wounded, this time in the leg. Since then no information of him has been received. He is the son of Mr and Mrs Clarkson, Thirkill View, Pannal. The family had letters to this effect week ending November 10th, from the chaplain and his officer. Any information will be gratefully received.

Leading Seaman George Horner, son of Mrs B Horner, Valley Road, has been ten years in the Navy. For the last 4½ years he has been in China. He came to see me the other day, on 21 days' leave. Four years is a long time to be away from home, but he looked well and seemed very cheerful. He met Fred Young, an Oatlands boy, out in China. He has not seen his brother, Private John Horner, who is in France, for some years. The latter has been out 18 months and was home on leave six weeks ago. My visitor would very much like to have seen his brother whilst at home and consulted me as to leave, but as he has had been home on leave so recently as six weeks ago I thought it would not do to ask for another furlough so soon. I am sorry. It would have been nice could he have seen his brother.

I have told you how splendidly the women are taking to war work and business life. I think we can congratulate ourselves upon this, though of course there are varying degrees of success even amongst the women. The other day I was telephoning an important war telegram. On my list was a certain office. I rang up and asked for the proprietor when a girl answered me. I said "War telegram", feeling sure that it would be welcomed by everybody. For a minute or two there was no answer, and during this interval I could not help hearing the girl clerk say to a male clerk, "Here! You take this bally thing". I must confess I was rather disturbed that any British man or woman should consider a telegram containing vital news about the progress of a critical battle in which the lives of so many of our men were involved, only "a bally thing". It did not fill me with satisfaction, either, to hear a member of the sex, which we men revere, indulging in flippant slang. That is why I have said there are varying degrees of success.

You Harrogate boys will know very well Mr George W Byers, librarian of our Public Library. He is at the present time doing good work as Secretary of the Wounded Soldiers' Entertainment Committee. You will be deeply sorry to hear that his son, Gunner J T Byers, was admitted to hospital on the 10th instant suffering from shell wounds in the legs, side and left arm, and that he died the same day. Mr Byers received this sad news on Friday morning. Only the Friday before the father had been busy at the Spa Rooms seeing through a whist drive which his committee had arranged for the wounded soldiers. Mrs Byers, perhaps you will remember, died some little time ago, so that she is spared the great trouble which has come upon the husband and family. Amongst the pain of it all there is one beautiful thought and that is : the boy is now with his mother. Our concern is for the bereaved father and the gallant son who is in the Navy. I hope that both will find comfort in the knowledge that we all share their grief.

We have lately had a succession of dry, mild days of a character most unusual at this season of the year. I hope the weather conditions are equally favourable where you boys are.

Thirty-five letters are required to spell the one word which, in German, is the equivalent of the four-letter English "tank" or land battleship which has worked such havoc in the present war. The German word, as it appears in official despatches received, is "Schutsengrabenverdich??aumgautomobil", which freely translated is "a machine for suppressing shooting trenches"

I have received this gratifying letter :

All Saint Cross Hospital, Rugby.

November 18th, 1917.

Sir,

I beg to thank you for all your efforts through the Press to find my husband. He is here very ill, and had lost all means if identification in the shape of registration card, etc. he held a ticket from Liverpool to London.

I am, yours truly,

Mrs Wynne Matthias

I have further particulars of Gunner J T Byers. He was 19 years of age, and first tried to join when but 17, but was sent home on account of age. He then joined the VTC, finally entering the Army November 2nd, 1916. went to France May 3rd, 1917, three weeks before he was 19. he was gassed on July 10th, and in hospital in France for three weeks, but did not get home to England. He was educated at the Harrogate Secondary School, served his time with Messrs Shaw and Co., Harrogate, and was with Messrs Anderson and Mortimer, wholesale drapery warehouse, Leeds, when he joined the Army.

Seaman O W Dinsdale, son of Mrs K T Dinsdale, Kensington Square, called to see me whilst on 14 days' leave. He joined the Navy at 16 and has seen five and a half years service. He has been to see Wilson, whose father is at the Opera House and a familiar figure at the foot of the grand staircase. Before the war Dinsdale was telegraph messenger at the Post Office. He has all that rugged health and smartness associated with the Navy.

I had a few minutes with Private A E Yates, who had just been discharged from hospital, where he had been treated for a wound received on the 21st of September. He had been in Edmonton Hospital seven weeks. He is the son of Mr and Mrs J A Yates, of 166 King's Road. I was pleased to see Yates looking so well, and I should say it will not be long ere he joins his depot.

I had a gratifying telegram on Monday about 7 o'clock to say the Mr Lloyd George announced in the House that day that only on Saturday we had destroyed five German submarines.

You will get your Heralds all right, boys, in the future, for I am pleased to say that we have come to a satisfactory understanding with our printers. They will get their advance in pay for which they asked and which all the time we were willing to concede. You see there is nothing like hope and trust. Everything turns out right at the end. Some of our people at home are cast down by a successful spurt of our enemies, and there are those who cannot bear reverses. Things happen very quickly nowadays, and you may be sure that anything unpleasant will be reversed.

Many of you boys will remember Lance Corporal Ernest Harrison, 37097, 9th West Yorks, who was one of the secretaries to the old Rugby Club, and was employed by Mr Knowles, painter and decorator, Oxford Street. His wife had a letter from an officer of another regiment stating that he saw Lance Corporal Harrison wounded on the 10th November, made him comfortable, saw him put on a stretcher and taken to the dressing station. Later he heard the worst had happened. The news is so vague, however, Mrs Harrison would be glad of more definite information from anyone who had charge of the unfortunate soldier after he had been wounded. Any news will be gratefully received by Mrs Harrison, c/o Mrs Rickinson, 23 Devonshire Place, Harrogate, or at the Herald office.

Mrs B Clarkson, of Pannal, would be glad of any news regarding her son, F E Clarkson, who has been missing some six weeks or so.

W H Breare