Harrogate Herald - 20th January 1915

Private Reginald Thompson, of the MT, Army Service Corps, writes as follows :

15th January, 1915

Dear Editor, I am afraid I am rather late in sending you a letter thanking you for the mittens you very thoughtfully sent me. I find they make beautiful windproof wristlets for driving. As you will guess, we get very little time to ourselves, and we naturally have heaps of friends who are just as eager for the post as we are, but there is one thing I do appreciate, and that is the continual arrival of the Harrogate paper. I read every scrap of news. I see by your paper my friend Billy Bell is in Paris. I really must send him my address. He must have passed me in this town, as he was here for some time with a lorry. Yesterday we were on salvage work, getting a lorry out of a ditch six miles from the trenches and a mile and a half behind the guns. We are sent out on that sort of work practically every other day up and down the line, so you see we are at it day and night, consequently not much letter writing, especially when one is studying French in the spare time. I will send more news when possible.

Yours sincerely, Reginald Thompson.

Harrogate Herald - 20th January 1915

W H Breare letter

To Reginald Thompson : 

You will find Billy Bell's address in the list published today in the Harrogate Herald.

Harrogate Herald - 29th December 1915

W H Breare letter

Driver Harry W Dent is known at the Front as "the Major". He has borne this name for some time, in fact before he went out. He worked for Messrs Mackay and Sons, Motor Engineers, West Park, before the war, and it was there, I fancy, he got his promotion. He is the son of Mr R Dent, Mayfield Grove, and has been out nine months at the Front. He came in to see me on Friday, jolly and well. He came home on Thursday night and returned Boxing night. I elicited from him that he had been in the same locality as Reginald Thompson, son of Mr Thompson, Victoria Hall, likewise Nicholson, of the Prince of Wales in Spofforth, in fact, Nicholson is in his company. He is in "the pink", as Dent phrased it. Nicholson was sorry he had not time when on leave to look in and see me, and so was i. I want you boys to fully realise that, whilst I am delighted to see any of you when on leave, I quite understand that your time at home is fully occupied. Please don't feel bound to look in when you've so many other claims. When you can come, do so.

Claro Times - 4th June 1915

Private H W Dent, Mechanical Transport Section, Army Service Corps, writes :

"I have met Tommy Coy, of Starbeck, and Reggie Thompson, whose father keeps the big furniture shop in James Street. Today a young fellow came from Paris with a car, and he recognised me. He is called Haw, and used to work at Johnson's garage, and his people live in King Edward's Drive".