Harrogate Herald - 14th April 1915

Photos

Local Lads on Active Service

Private J Chapman, 10th West Yorks

Harrogate Herald - 1st December 1915

Private J J Chapman, 10th West Yorks, says : 

I am just writing these few lines in the hope of finding you in the best of health, as it leaves me at present. I am sorry to hear you have had some snow at Harrogate; it will make the roads muddy and heavy for walking. The weather out here is fine just now, but up to a week since the weather was very bad, and the camps behind the trenches in the centre, where we are, up to the knees in mud. The trenches are up to the waist in water, so you can tell what it is like out here just now, and the parapets are only up to our shoulders, so for safety we have to keep our backs bent day and night. Last time I was in the trenches I had a narrow escape from a German sniper. I just put my head above the parapet and a shot rang out and the bullet hit the sandbags just in front of me and a splinter cut my coat, jersey, and shirt, and just entered my arm in the muscle, but I had not the luck to get a Blighty, and the first-aid corporal said I was unearthly. Well, I will now conclude. Wishing you and your paper and the old town the best of luck.