Food Parcels | WW1 PARCELS TO THE FRONT & LETTERS HOME

SOUTH STAFFORDS WAR DIARY.

NEUVE EGLISE: BULFORD CAMP

April 2nd 1915: C.O. & Senior Major proceeded to Wulverghem to interview O.Cs Comdg 2nd E. Yorks Regt.

Battalion Paraded at 6.0 pm for Trenches . [The 3rd Monmouth Regt, with HQ at St. Quentins Cabaret (T.5.d.2.2.) held Right Section of 83rd Brigade Line, & 2nd East Yorks Regt. with HQ at ‘Gable Farm‘ (T.5.a.0.3.) held Centre Section].

Battalion took over trenches as follows:- ‘D’ Coy took over Trench 10a (left), 10b & 10b (support) from 2nd East Yorks Regt. ‘A’ ‘B’ & ‘C’ Companies – Trenches 8, 9, 10a (right) 10a (support) ‘Souvenir Farm’ (T.5.d.7.4.) S.P.4 and X Dugouts from 3rd Monmouth Regiment. Bn HQ & Aid Post fixed at St. Quentins Cabaret. Relief completed 10.45 pm.

The Battalion now held Right Section of Staffs. Infy Bde Line (former 83rd Bde Line), the Left Section having been occupied the previous night by the 5th North Staffs Regt. The Right Section extended from U.1.a.7.2 to N.36. d.3.2 with recaltrant (sic) to T.6.b.9.1. (1).

NB Pte Bertie Hibbett ‘A’ Coy in Trench 8.

Pte BERTIE HIBBETT: LETTER to Mother, 95, Foden Rd, Walsall. (Mud-stained Envelope postmarked 8th April. Censor W.E. Wright).

Good Friday. April 2nd / 15 .

My Dear Mother,

A warm sunny morning. I have been to a quiet service in a field some distance away from this camp of wooden huts; I am squatting in one to write this letter.

When I returned from Parade I saw several officers checking through piles of correspondence. I sympathised with them (2). Yet I felt I must write to you dear Mother on this holy day for everything seems beautiful and tends to great thoughts; and so mothers are to be included for our Lord remembered his Mother as she stood at the foot of the Cross.

There were many things that reminded me of home. Lieut T. Cozens* was present and looked as unconcerned about the grimness of this war as if it was Peace time and he was at Walsall in church. The clergyman reminded me of Mr W.H.Cozens*; the address was simple but conveyed a deep meaning he found difficult to express himself. Above all we sang three beautiful hymns – ‘There is a Green Hill’, ‘Praise to the Holiest’ and lastly one – which is Good Friday itself so to speak – ‘When I survey the Wondrous Cross’. (3)

And so I am feeling very happy after the service & the weather so pleasant and bright. I hope you too are enjoying the usual fine weather England gets at this time.

I had better tell you, although I am inclined to think that it will spoil the object of my letter today, i.e. to make you happy & quite free from anxiety. Sydney is still away on duty & last night I thought best to open the parcel, for we are going into the trenches again this evening for six days at a stretch & there it will be awkward for the parcels to be outside the pack. So I put one cake inside the first box you sent, together with some of Ida’s Q(ueen) cakes & the chocolate & the rest. Happily the first box just fits inside my valise & I can keep Sydney’s share & hope to join him in the trenches.

How pleasant it would be for Sid and me to spread that clean towel & lay out all the delicious confectionery & enjoy a good tea of the ripping home made cakes. Yet, dear Mother we are now serving our King and Country more than ever, now we are on active service, and these mishappenings cannot be helped.

I hope it will enlighten you if I convey the object of the address at the service this morning i.e. ‘no crown without the cross’ 1st referring to Good Friday & Easter, he told us not get the idea of separating the two. So – with regard to this war – we must struggle through to gain the victory & happiness afterwards, & you dear Mother will serve our King and C(ountry) by waiting patiently, ‘He serves who only stands and waits’. (4).

Your letter in the parcel I read with deep interest; many many thanks for your very kind thoughts. I hope Basil will enjoy his stay at Manchester. I had some choc. from Miss Foster* & a letter saying she will be spending Easter at Dumfermlin & sorry Harold will not see her.

I will close now, hoping you will enjoy the hot cross buns you reserve for tea & have enjoyed those at breakfast.

Best love, Bertram.

PS I guess Miss Bore* will be over at Easter to see you. Am sending her a PC in answer to hers, I cannot remember her address.

(1 ) Abbrev. recalcitrant? i.e. Discipline Section for disobedent soldiers & conscientous objectors. (2) Postage delay owing to volume of Letters Home & need for censorship.

(3) Hymns: There is a Green Hill. Cecil Frances Alexander. (Irish. Recognised as one of greatest 19th C. hymn writers. 1818 – 1895. Admired by J.H.Newman.

Praise to the Holiest. John Henry Newman. 1801 -1890. (19th C. Oxford Movement. Evangelical cum Anglo-Catholic cum Roman Catholic Cardinal.Tune: Gerontius, John Bacchus Dyke 1823 – 1876.

When I survey. Isaac Watts.1674 -1748. (Independant Pastor. Hymn based on Galatians 6.14.). Tune: Hamburg. Lowell Mason, 1824.

Howell Tune When I survey — Lowell Mason

(4) John Milton (Sonnet on his blindness) 1652 .

NEXT POSTS: Easter Day, 4th April 1915. Update Welcome Page.

SOUTH STAFFORDS WAR DIARY

25th March, 1915. Marched 10.00 am to return to old billets near Bailleul & Meteren, arrived about 1.00 pm. GOC NMD witnessed march thro’ Bailleul as also did GOC III Corps (Compliment). (1)

STEAM MILL

26th March, Thur. Remained in billets. Coy Training – physical drill, short route marches. 27th March, Fri. Moved Hd Qrs & ‘C ‘& ‘D’ Coys billets nearer to Meteren & Oultersteene. Company Training carried on, musketry instruction, physical drill, short route matches.

28th March. Oultersteene. Church Parade Service in the morning.

Pte BERTIE HIBBETT: LETTER to MOTHER, 95, Foden Rd, Walsall.

Palm Sunday Morning. 28/ 3 / 15 (censor C.Lister)

My Very Dear Mother,

I want so much to write you a very, very ‘nice’ letter, but I regret to say I don’t know how to begin.

Palm Sunday, and thinking about processions, the Brigade paraded to a fresh green field some miles away in the open country.

Marching to the Front. — **British Army Marching in France. 1914-1918..**

Our company marched gaily along in the sunshine & cold wind with our rifles & equipment.

We formed up in a quadrangle again & our Chaplain administered a short form of service. We had three pleasant hymns, – your favourite Mother,

Fight the good fight and we had O God our help in ages past and lastly we had that good old hymn which goes well with many voices – The Church’s One Foundation. (2)

I am in a dilemma, this very moment whether to confess that I could hardly get some of the words out in your favourite hymn, so deep were my thoughts of you, dear Mother.

I believe in giving way to one’s feelings & not keeping them penned up, yet ‘cast care aside’ touched me & I tried hard to think its my Duty to stick firm & not give in to imaginations & every high thing that exalts itself against principle. (3). I am serving my King and Country, & you dear Mother are, I am sure, proud to have done your share & I am proud to the excess that you have borne our absence from home these many weeks and months.

‘Trust’, again I repeat that motto ‘Trust in the Lord & he shall bring it to pass’.

I will keep my eye on the knife, fork and spoon this time. I have seen the novel arrangement of knife and fork in Luton & almost expected you would send something of the like. I do feel so grateful & can’t express my thanks for your extreme kindness & constant thoughts & consideration.

I should, & I guess Sid too, like more correspondence from Ida & a letter or two now and again from Dad. He takes the important bits in hand – of writing in his careful hand, as he generally does, our lengthy address, yet I should like a little more from him.

As for Dodger, I guess he is enjoying hot beef & York pudding with vegetables and gravy, the meal he likes so much. I have replied to Harold’s letter I got yesterday, 27th, & told him Basil will miss such dinners.

I thought it my duty to write & answer the small parcel of yours before setting down to my dinner of Bully beef, biscuits etc . Cyril Hind* has just had a parcel & given me a small piece of his cake as a sweet. I must tell you before I close that I got a lovely parcel from Fernliegh* (4) & enjoyed some of the contents, namely, Shrimp and Salmon Pate, Cadbury’s Mexican Choc. & Horlicks Tablets.

Dear Mother this letter is getting long. I have written a long letter to Harold, so long that I’m afraid the censors will have their patience tried. So I must pack news in close, and brief.

Sid has been on duty some miles away since Friday Reveille & will be pleased to see, on his return, something from Home & from his Bible Class.

NB I have all your photos still & have them in a bonny little khaki case with gelatine to cover the photos.

All of you round the tent at Abergele

& Dodger, Sid & I with our knuts poking out of the tent –

Sydney, Bertie and Basil. — **Sydney, Bertie and Basil: Abergele. .**

and Ida sitting on a chair. I look at them now & again especially on Sundays.

Our Colonel said that should anyone find anything of sentimental importance on the person of anyone wounded to death he must see that it will get into reliable hands to be sent to his home.

The handsome tin comes in useful & we keep Harold’s things & Miss K.E.Brookes* things in, they just fit. You will be pleased that Sid, Vernon and I were together in the trenches last Tues. night & we are in this loft now with the majority of QMS boys, Norman Cope*, Cecil Jackson*, A.E. Brown*, Jones*, Cyril Hind* etc.

Will close now & Harold will give you more news – & Sid. I hope you will get this letter – tell me. I have got all yours since we were in this country. You will be glad to know they came quicker than those sent to you.

Best love, Bertie.

*************************

Bertie Hibbett gives no details of what he had just experienced in the trenches of Armentieres, but he is clearly in shock at the horrific reality in which he and his QMS pals are caught up. His ‘dilemma’ is more than wondering whether to confess his natural emotions during Church Parade. On Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, the hymn tells him to ‘Lay hold on Life‘ but everything is in utter contrast to anything he has ever known. To bring him ‘halfway Home’ all he has to rely on now are Family Letters & Food Parcels, his QMS Pals, carefully named, and the Faith in Christ his Mother has taught him.

(1) GOC NMD: General Officer Commanding North Midland Division. GOC III Corps.

(2) Hymns: Fight the Good Fight based on 1 Timothy 6.12. John S.B. Monsell, 1863. Our God, our Help in Ages Past: Isaac Watts. 1719, based on Psalm 90. [John Wesley altered the first word to ‘O God’]. The Church’s One Foundation: Samuel John Stone, based on the Apostles’ Creed, Book of Common Prayer, 1662 (a ‘statement of belief’ developed from the earliest New Testament preaching). Tune: Aurelia. S.S. Wesley.1864. [Hymn is said to have inspired Rudyard Kipling’s Hymn before Battle’ 1896].

(3) 2 Corinthians. 10 5. King James Bible. Pte Bertie slips into quotation of St Paul. [Saying appears in 18th & 19th Cent. Enlightenment Essays on the Principles of Human Behaviour]. (4) Fernleigh, Nottingham, home of Bertie’s Godmother, Mary Foster.

NEXT POST: Ist April, 1915.

WW1 PARCELS TO THE FRONT & LETTERS HOME

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2nd APRIL,1915. GOOD FRIDAY: WULVERGHEM TRENCH 8.

NB Pte Bertie Hibbett ‘A’ Coy in Trench 8.

28th MARCH 1915: OULTERSTEENE & PALM SUNDAY ‘DILEMMA’.