Harrogate Herald - 31st January 1917

Bombardier G Easton says : 

I am writing you these few lines to thank you most heartily for sending me your paper, the Herald, whish I have received regularly for the past few weeks. I may say that I have lived in Harrogate this last ten years, and it is very interesting to me and four other Harrogate men in our battery to read about the doings of the old town. I am sorry to hear of the two Pinkneys being injured. I knew them well. I have now been out here eight weeks, and it has been a very wet time up to this week. The mud was knee-deep in places, and we always had wet feet. However, we keep smiling, and now I am glad to say the ground is frozen hard and covered with snow. It is cold but dry, and we all feel much better for the change. There has been some very fierce fighting here a few months ago, and it is heartbreaking to see the damage that has been done. There is nothing left but shell holes and heaps of bricks where villages once stood. Wishing you every success.

Harrogate Herald - 5th September 1917

Corporal G Easton says : 

There are letters in the Herald from someone I know every week, which keep one in touch with the old place. I was sorry to learn that two of my neighbours in Albert Road are in hospital, namely, E Stonehouse and H Johnson, and sincerely hope they will both make a speedy recovery. I knew them well, and remember doing a good few hours' drill alongside H Johnson in the Drill Hall, also on Roscoe's field, with the Volunteers. If either of them read this letter, no doubt hey will be pleased to know that I have had the good fortune to meet Dick Johnson (another neighbour) out here one night about a week ago. I have now been out nine months, and he is the first person whom I have met that I knew. Needless to say we were both delighted to see each other. he is quite well, and in the Motor Transport. I stayed with him most of the evening, and had a good talk. When I left I promised to look him up again, but going to the same place two evenings later I was disappointed to learn thy had moved. I hope you will forgive me for being so long in writing, but really we have been kept terribly busy delivering the goods over to Fritz, and it's been all sleep and work. However, we are getting it a bit easier just now, and the weather is good, quite a welcome change to the kind we had a week ago, when the mud in our gun pits was knee deep.

Harrogate Herald - 27th February 1918

Corporal G Easton writes : 

I noticed in the Harrogate Herald dated January 30th, a letter from my neighbour, Driver G A Read, telling you we had met out here. I knew he was in the vicinity, and tried to find him several times without success. You cam imagine my surprise when I came across him on Boxing Day. I have seen him once or twice since, but now I believe he is on leave (lucky bounder). I am pleased to say I am in good health. The weather is much better than a week ago, when we had to get out of bed every two hours to bail the water out of the dugout. Still, it's a jolly life, and we keep smiling. With all best wishes.