stiletto_33853 Posted 13 May , 2005 Share Posted 13 May , 2005 Novelist commissioned into the Rifle Brigade,3rd Battalion wounded on the Somme,, returned to France with the 12th Battalion and Killed at Arras.Letters to his wife, published by his wife in August 1917Interesting comparison between the regular and service battalions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 13 May , 2005 Share Posted 13 May , 2005 http://oldpoetry.com/authors/Robert%20Ernest%20Vernede Here is a photo and a little bit more about him. Marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 13 May , 2005 Share Posted 13 May , 2005 Here's a find - it's an article about soldiers' letters home and includes extracts from Vernede's correspondence, also Raymond Asquith and other names. The Asquith extract is a classic! http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_...514192#continue Marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 13 May , 2005 Author Share Posted 13 May , 2005 Hi Marina, Many thanks for the links. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 13 May , 2005 Share Posted 13 May , 2005 Thank you - it was your post got me searching! Aren't those extracts good? Marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desmond7 Posted 13 May , 2005 Share Posted 13 May , 2005 Not arf! In all seriousness ... the idea of the young lad keeping to his letter writing formula grabbed me even more than Asquith's stuff. And it was good. Cheers Des Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 13 May , 2005 Author Share Posted 13 May , 2005 Marina, Great extracts, Must admit that since I have got hold of this book I have found it very difficult to put down, Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 13 May , 2005 Share Posted 13 May , 2005 What are the publishing details, Andy? I wouldn't mind reading this one myself. Marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 13 May , 2005 Author Share Posted 13 May , 2005 Hi Marina, I think that you might have difficulty finding it as I believe it is quite rare. It was published in 1917 for his wife by W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. I managed to obtain this and several other books from the library of an ex Rifle Brigade Officer and author who has recently passed away unfortunately. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 13 May , 2005 Author Share Posted 13 May , 2005 Marina, I will post some of them here, so will post his 14th May letter tomorrow. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 13 May , 2005 Share Posted 13 May , 2005 Oh, excellent! Marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 14 May , 2005 Author Share Posted 14 May , 2005 14th May 1916 The Country here has changed extraordinarily in the last month - all the leaves out and the trees flourishing again. The day before yesterday I rode into the big town near here thro a village about the size of Puckeridge that is mostly ruined by shells. It was strange to see babies rolling about among the fallen bricks and mortar, and old women sitting out in the sun beside the remains of their cottages. How these old people must hate the Germans, whom they have seen twice bringing desolation upon them. This morning I started at 9.30am with two others to inspect a place the Batt. might have to go in an emergency. We went by muddy lanes and tracks (it rained nearly twenty four hours yesterday) and emerged on the place, which is a field full of Orchids and froget-me-nots in deep wet grass - rather pleasant and peaceful - though it wouldn't be if we had to go there as a Batt., for the Boches would probably do some shelling. Then we came back by the main road through rather a pretty little country town that had also been terribly shelled. There was a bog girl's school at one end of it - half in ruins. I don't know when that happened - whether it was at the start of the war or not, and whether the demoiseles had to free hurriedly along the roads as did so many other folk round here. All the small shops in this sort of place have been turned into small grocery shops for the Tommies - and you see announcements like "Coffee and Chipps," or "Egs-Milk-Buter-Chipps." Chipps are, I suppose, potatoes, and always seem to be purchasable. You see Tommies sitting with their legs dangling out of top floor windows as once was - and guns nosing out of barns, and an armoured car, perhaps, half sunk in a flower bed, waiting for the push. Fine weather makes the country far pleasanter - its stiffly laid out in avenues of trees like the maps they use at Hythe, and it certainly makes war seem more fantastic and unreal. Got back, had lunch, and then a hot shower bath. The shower bath consists of a place quite as small as the billygoats house, in which there is just room for two people to stand together, and you generally have to wait half an hour to get in. The old soldiers whose time is up are rather annoyed at being compelled to serve on - not unaturally, perhaps, but it is obviuos that they cannot be spared, being each worth several recruits. I can't write interesting letters. The sort of enforced slackness plus the idea that you must not say anything the censor might object to, rather dulls me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 14 May , 2005 Share Posted 14 May , 2005 Thanks, Andy. Funny how he says he can't write 'interesting letters'! I thought his description of the village was very vivid indeed with the Tommies dangling their legs out of windows! And the bath house. Ah, me - orchids and shelled houses - what a contrast. If you have the time, maybe another little extract or two! Marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 14 May , 2005 Author Share Posted 14 May , 2005 Marina, Letter to his mother on 14/5/16 This is my wedding day. I went for a longish walk through muddy lanes and shelled villages. The weather has turned wet again, otherwise the country would look rather pretty - all the trees in leaf, and orchids and Kingcups and forget me nots blooming in the meadows. In fact, it is looking pretty - in a formal way and where it isn't ruined. Some of the hedges, for instance, have autumn tints instead of spring ones, caused by the gas passing through them. Yesterday I went for a ride to the largest town in the neighbourhood - again through shelled villages where babies still sprawl among the ruins. The Company gee has taken to stumbling lately, bother him, otherwise he is a fine powerful beast and jumps well. Of course on pave especially stumbling is a great nuisance. Are you keeping fit? My sister will want to collect a Red Cross fund for herself if she does much more severe work. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 15 May , 2005 Share Posted 15 May , 2005 I'm always fascinated by the way so many of them liked to look at the flowers - always described in detail, as if they were hungry for something fresh and new after the squalor of the front line. My favourite one ever was a description of the Somme the summer after the war ended. An officer was back there and was stunned to find new growth beginning aready and he couldn't take his eyes of a great cloud of butterflies that hovered over the field. I always find that very touching. I was interested in the changes in the colour of the foliage due to gas - I've never seen that described before. It does give an idea of the volume used if it caused that effect. His wedding anniversary too - so sad. Thanks, Andy, Marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 16 May , 2005 Author Share Posted 16 May , 2005 16th May 1916 Just going up - A beautiful Day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 16 May , 2005 Author Share Posted 16 May , 2005 17th May 1916 Its a perfect day and I'm seated outside my dug-out in shorts made from breeches cut down, shirt and gum boots, not to mention tin hat and tie. My servant is really very good - quiet but most useful and attentive. He has just baled out about ten buckets of ater out of my dug-out (below the floor) and he does this about twice a day. Just as he finished, two Riflemen came up and were disappointed to find none left as they wanted to make tea with it!. Apparently the bottom of my dug-out is also a drinking water reservoir. This is quite a good dry trench. I was up from the time of arrival till 4am this morning but have the rest of the day to sleep in. Have already seen this morning the Brigadier, I.D., a new padre attached to the Battalion, who is the brother of A.B., and several other people who have been up through the trenches. Very quiet, I'm glad to say - only aeroplanes being strafed overhead. T. said he went to the trench exibition in London when he was home on leave, and found he had never seen anything like it before. Some old soldiers apparently show people around, and while he - T. in mufti - was explaining the workings of a Lewis gun to a friend, an old gentleman said crushingly, "If you'll kindly allow this soldier (pointing to an attendant0 to explain the gun, we shall all benefit from it. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 16 May , 2005 Share Posted 16 May , 2005 17th May 1916 'Its a perfect day and I'm seated outside my dug-out in shorts made from breeches cut down, shirt and gum boots, not to mention tin hat and tie.' What a picture! The tin hat is the finishing touch! 'Apparently the bottom of my dug-out is also a drinking water reservoir.' Grief - I was just reading to day about the cholera outbreak at Gallipoli and that this was caused by water contaminated by corpses 'T. said he went to the trench exibition in London when he was home on leave, and found he had never seen anything like it before. ' Well, quite... This is really enjoyable, Andy Marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 16 May , 2005 Author Share Posted 16 May , 2005 Marina, The pictue of him sitting outside his dug-out in such attire did make me chortle just a bit. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 16 May , 2005 Share Posted 16 May , 2005 Only just a bit? I was in KNOTS, bless him! marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 20 May , 2005 Author Share Posted 20 May , 2005 I think this is May 20th. It's still beautiful weather, and if the boches would cease whizz-banging it would not be unpleasant sitting in the trenches. At the moment I've retired to my dug-out, which, I think, is whizz-bang proof, and two martens are trying to flutter in at the door. I don't know if they've inspected it in my absence and decided they would like to build there. The frogs - green ones - are yulling from a rather stagnant pond just behind, and birds are cheeping around. Cpl A. has just gone by carrying some timber for a gas proof dug-out he and I are constructing by the aid of our united brains. This is a few minutes later, and the boches have left off whizz-banging. Since lunch time I have been listening to I., chatting about "Intelligence", in the Company dug-out, and falling asleep at intervals. When he got up to go off, I pulled myself together and came over here to write. Not that I have very much to tell you. Oh dear, I've got to shoot off to censor the men's letters. You needn't picture strafes at present. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 20 May , 2005 Share Posted 20 May , 2005 You needn't picture strafes at present. Andy <{POST_SNAPBACK}> He 'll have to get together with the Corporal and build a strafe proof dugout. I wonder if the gas proof and whizz bang proof ideas are just ironic jokes, or a way of passing the time. Hard to believe that the frogs and martens would continue to haunt the land where the battles were, isn't it? Thanks, Andy, Marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiletto_33853 Posted 20 May , 2005 Author Share Posted 20 May , 2005 Hi Marina, Its interesting that in quite a few of the memorial books and letters home that I have from cetrtain officers that most make reference to the wildlife in and around the trenches. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted 20 May , 2005 Share Posted 20 May , 2005 Yes, it is - as if their eyes were hungry for somehting fresh and natural - flowers and animals. I always find it very touching. marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ypres1418 Posted 20 May , 2005 Share Posted 20 May , 2005 Andy, i have just been reading this and have enjoyed his remarks, i can picture the scene, the lads sitting on the window sill with legs dangling and hearing their mothers shouting for them to get down before they fall down!. thanks for letters. Mandy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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