Harrogate Herald - 30th May 1917

Private J Gibson says : 

I have pleasure in thanking you for the pouch and cards, also the pencil, with which I am writing these lines. We are at present in a ruined village, blown to blazes by the Germans, where the people left all the belongings behind them; in fact, we came across a shop which had once been a shoemaker's abode. He was doing his little "bit" for the villagers to have dry feet, but when the Germans came he left everything behind him, because we found his lasts and tools amongst the ruins and his machine a few yards away. I think the Germans would have taken it away if they had had time. You see we are on the heels of the Germans, giving them no rest night or day, for the guns are roaring and lights going up, but I would sooner be at Knaresborough Carnival. But we are winning.