• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Letter From The Front

B

BernardR

Guest
Sorry for the quality but it was written in pencil and has been folded up for many a year. I will try to do a transcript as soon as possible and append it. Please readit by reference to the page numbers.

Letter_From_Bill_1.jpg




Letter_From_Bill_2.jpg
 
Well this is good stuff; I am finding it quite hard to make out all of the words, perhaps 60% or so, but it is very interesting. I was wondering if anyone could transcribe it and post it here?

Bernie D'Boult - Are you able to tell us anything about this person, did he get back safely, are there any family photos.

Regards
 
This is my effort of transcribing



1/ ............4/5/16
Dear Mother and Father, very plese to hear that you are in the very best of health and .......Family?.....
Mother I suppose you are having good weather at home it is alright out here
Now I wrote a letter to Our Fred and he wrote back saying that he is in very best
2/ of health. I see some of the West Yorks out here but they was the 1(8?)th Battalion. Well I should think it was time Our Fred had a Furlough (?) and truth.. (?) because some men go home with 3 months out here Mother. Well our first Battalion goes in the trenches tonight, they have lost
3/ the Colonel and 4 (?) officers as well. it is a very hot shop where they are indeed. Were I ham it is about 6 mile from the fireing line stationed in a wood we have plenty of work to do as well working Sundays as well and dont get sleep every night on account of Air Craft Guns. well Mother shall be very glad when it
4/ is all over wont you, because it is all for nothing at tall. Well Mother I think this is all at present Our battalion goes in the trenches to night May 4/5/16 for 9 weeks or more Well Mother so long for now same address as usual.
I remain your loving son Bill xxxxxxxxxxxx
 
You littledevil Lindy but thank you. I will copy and past that and build upon it - I didnot spend 30 plus years in the Motor Industry without learning a trick or two -as I have the benefit of the original. Incidentally what you are seeing is onlyas readable as it is following quite a bit of tweaking - the next has actualholes in it down to degradation due to contamination or simply age and notbeing archived effectively.
 
Morturn - Fred certainly survived as I recall him at the age of 70 cycling to my In Laws from Warstock (about 2 1/2 miles). Not sure about Bill but may have more next week. Incidentally only of the borthers actualaly moved away fromBirmingham and he went to Nottingham - name next week if relevant.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
This is my effort of transcribing
Click to expand...

Lindyloo that is lovely, thank you.

Bernard, was one of the pictures you posted on the other topic Fred?

If so can you pop a copy here to, so we can see both together please.
 
Bernie...little devil..Moi ?? :angel:

Morturn..my pleasure :peaceful:

Re the letter, there is a part of it that puzzles me....as per the medal card info that I already sent you Bernie, showing that Bill (John William T) was definitely a private in the West Yorkshire regiment ...the way he writes "I see some of the West Yorks out here"... makes it sound like it was Fred who was in the WY's...and not Bill ?? might just be me reading to much into the way he wrote though ???
 
One seems to have been in the W Yorks and the other in the 'Seaforth Highlanders'. Watch out for more photos and a letter. I will take another look and fill in what I can but it is definitely furlough.
 
might just be me reading to much into the way he wrote though ???
Click to expand...

Excellent....It is very easy for the same two people to witness the same historical event differently, and family stories can get distorted through time. Therefore it is always worthwhile just taking a second to look again, and ask, you never know.
 
This completes the letters I have:
Letter_From_Front_Aug_20_1916_P1.jpg






Letter_From_Front_Aug_20_1916_P2~0.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
My offering of transcribing....

August 20 1916
Dear Mother and father, Just a word. Hoping all the family are in the very best of health as it leaves me at present. Well Mother I surprise you. I am think-ing that our Fred will never have his Fur-lough, Well Mother I don't think he will be long now.
I had a field post card from him the other day and he is going on allright Thank God for that. Well Mother keep on worring(?) (war office ?) about Arthurs (?) age
Well Mother my old battalion as been through the mill since I left them, they have been very badly cut up indeed Well Mother I don't think it will last much longer Do you.
Well Mother I can't give you my address this time as I don't now what part of France I shall been in with .................week..
I will....(let?) you know as soon as I can. Well I think this is all at present I remain your true loving Son
Bill xxxxxx So long


Interestingly this kind of solves the puzzle for me about The West Yorks in his previous letter....he had obviously left The West Yorks and joined another regiment...but which one ???
 
You are a star. However I have now (with the help of your transcriptions) set myself a new problem - I have read a letter in the past where the question is asked "Is Dad is still on the 'Wobble'"? That was harder to read than these have been. Back to my filing system.
 
Once again..a pleasure Bernie :) sorry about causing you more problems though ...but as my old Rover Foreman used to say..No Problems..only Solutions !!! Help is at hand if you need it I'm sure..
 
Hi Lindyloo

Thank you for that; yes it is quite sad really, it's a wonder how anyone managed to survive in the conditions of trench warfare.

It is interesting how Fred said 'it's all for nothing'....
 
Morning Morturn, it is very sad..it must have been so terrible for them all..It was Bill that was writing the letters and unfortunately he was right, poor man, in his case, as in so many others, because he never made it back, so it was all for nothing for him...
 
Update Re John William Emery - Bill

Aire_Cemetery_and_notation.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I have posted this before but couldn't find it so thought I would post it again. This was from my fathers cousin Trevor Manning Davies who was educated at King Edwards he is listed on the memorial in Aston Parish Church.


I thought you might like to read some of the contents of a letter written by my father's cousin who lost his life at the battle of the Somme.

Date 30th June 1916
My Dear Father and Mother,
I am so sorry to cause you grief but I have given orders that this letter to be posted only in case I am killed. I am going over the parepets in the morning with the infantry Colonel 5th Sherwoods. I am acting as liaison officer between the artillery and the infantry, and have with me three telephonists who lay wires across the front line to the Germans. The attack will be made under cover of dense smoke, and with a little luck we should get across all right, but one never knows.
We have been bombarding the Hun for a week now and thousands of shells have been rained on hos trenches. We all feel tired and so are the guns: their springs are broken and we have had to have new ones. If I get through, I hope to be relieved in twenty four hours and come back.

He then sends love to family members by name especially his brother.

Your affectionate son.
Give my love to all at grandma's and all relations.

1st July 1916
I am starting in 20 minutes. Thank you so much for all you have done for me, and all you have had to put up with from me; I am sorry. My love to you all.

He died on 1st July 1916 aged 23
 
Oh Wendy that has brought tears to my eyes:( We cannot imagine what he must have been feeling and also how desolate his family must have felt when they received that. Even at the end he was thinking of them and the pain they would feel. Such a brave man, as they all were.

Suzanne
 
This memorial makes it even worse when you read what he achieved before the war. Such a waste of such a clever man. My grandfathers sister never got over her loss.


Trevor_Manning_Davies_Edited.jpg
 
Hi Wendy, how sad and such a waste of talented young men. I have a letter from my gt. uncle to his sister (my grandmother) its dated 27/2/1916 just about two months before he was killed age 23 in Palestine - he married in 1914 and had a son. He was born in Worcestershire and was a china painter apprentice - so perhaps was talented!! The letter is very,very fragile so will do my best. I can't read where he was.
"Dear Amy, thanks ever so much for parcel received yesterday. It was most welcome as it is a job to get anything here there are no houses or native villages round here as it is all desert. We are patrolling the country from where the Turks are expected to come(if they ever do) they stand no earthly chance here of getting through our defence.
We are going out into the desert for a week at a time then having a week in camp. We get plenty of work, there is not much chance of getting stale. I am keeping quite well
 
(I don't know why but the end of the letter didn't post - I'll finish here)

have never felt better. Henry Stephens is on our brigade headquarter transport he is back in one of the villages somewhere, I have not heard from him since we came up here.
I hope you are all keeping well, I am glad you went to see mum, I thin k she worries unneccarily about us, and I expect you bucked her up a bit.
I suppose Alf is in one of the groups, is he likely to be called up.
Our correspondence is censored here so I can't say a lot I would like to, or give the name of our station.
I shall have to close now so goodbye for the present, Yours affectionatly, Fred"

Makes me feel very sad for these young men. It's amazing they all say they are well!!
Sheri
PS I also have a letter from the Boer War if anyone is interested.
 
sheri these letters make such sad reading we have no idea what these young men went through. Such a long way from home with only letters for contact with their families. I am only glad some letters survived for us to read today. Wars are always so terrible with the loss of such young people.

I would love to read the text of your letter from the Boar War.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I am grateful to have the letters too Wendy - I truly believe that I rescued them along with photos of my grandparents when young and others - my grandmother lived with my uncle at the end of her life - on the day of her funeral we went back to the house and this packet of photos etc where on the bedside table - I could see there were photos and asked my dad if I could have them - I truly believe my aunt would have thrown them away - a most unsentimental woman - I suppose I sort of stole them as I didn't ask my uncle!!! But my brother and I were the only grandchildren so I thin k they belonged to us.
Will post the Boer War one at the weekend.
Sheri
 
Hi All, Not exactly A Letter from the front, but it does have a bearing on the original post,as its by the same author my uncle John William Thomas Emery,Known as Bill.Note on back of photo from Bill.jpg Here's my effort at a transcription of the letter/note Note from Bill transcription..jpg more importantly it was on the back of a photo which has just come to light a photo that my cousin had stashed away in an old tin, this photo has been on the forum before,but we was'nt really sure who it was, now we know its Bill, he appears to be discribing a new comrade who he had previously wrote to his parents about " you can see he is a young fighting soldier" " he has 7 years to do from england" apparently 7 years was a typical length of service for a pre 1914 recruit to enlist for, so from this i assume that the soldier seated, with a two year long service stripe is Bill,it seems that the photo was taken 2 months before the out break of war,when he was in Hong Kong, The barracks there was ' gun club hill barracks 127 Austin road 'Bill Emery,,.jpg Michael.
 
HI BERNARD
HAS YOU KNOW THE HALL OF MEMORY WAS BUILT TO COMMEMORATE THE 12,320 BIRMINGHAN CITIZENS WHO DIED AND THE 35,000
wHO WAS WOUNDED IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR. WHEN THE PRINCE OF WALES LAID THE FOUNDATION STONE ON 12 june 1923, he said the
Building would stand to symbolise to generations to come that birmingham stood for,during a period of great national crisis -- work of every
Kind unflinchinggly given,
Compassion to the sick and wounded, courage and resourse in adversity, and above all,self sacrifice in the face of death,

THERE ARE EIGHT VICTORIA CROSS WINNERS ,WHOM ARE BURIED IN BIRMINGHAM AND SOLIHULL;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
james cooper , won his victoria cross off the Andaman islands in 1867 and buried at warstone lane hockley
Alfred knight ; woon his VC AT Gravenstafel Ridge near ypres belgiumin 1917 and is buried at new Oscott colledge
GEORGE ONIONS WON HIS VC AT ARCHIET- LE PERIT ; IN 1918 AND IS BURIED IN QUINTON CEMETRY
GEORGE RAVENHILL WON HIS VC AT COLENSO IN SOUTH OF AFRICA IN 1889 AND HIS BURIED IN WITTON CEMETRY
ARTHUR VICKERS WON HIS VC AT HULLOCH QUARRIES , FRANCE IN 1915 AND IS BURIED AT WITTON CEMETRY
THOMAS TURRAL WON HIS VC AT LA-BOISELLE SOMME FRANCE IN 1916 AND IS BURIED IN ROBIN HOOD CEMETRY SOLIHULL
SIR ARNOLD WATERS WON HIS VC AT ORS ,FRANCE IN 1918 AND IS BURIED IN SUTTON COLDFIELD CREMATORIUM
ALFRED WILCOX WON HIS VC AT LEVENTIE, FRANCE IN 1918 AND IS BURIED AT ST PETERS AND ST PAULS CHURCH ; WHICH INCIDENTLY IS NOW ASTON PARISH CHURCH OF ASTON ,
BERNARD ;May i add my uncle ; my fathers brother was killed in action at the battle of somme and his name is encronched of the gate of somme
along with the rest of our dear old comrads and brave men whom fought for king and country and lost there dear lifes for us all;;
best wishes bernard alan;; Astonian;;
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top