Private T Medlock

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Allow me a small space in your valuable paper, which I receive out here every week. It seems to keep us in touch with the old homeland, and no doubt there are a few old acquaintances who would like to know the welfare of a Great Gransden man who has been doing his bit out here in France since September, 1914. I have had a lot of ups and downs, but I still keep rubbing along as well as circumstances will allow. As most of my old pals know, I have been wounded three times, but I am in the best of health now. I have two brothers out here, one has just come up from the Base, after a spell in a convalescent camp with a fractured foot. The war doesn’t seem much like ending yet, but I expect we shall have to go on about the same. The last 18 months we have been dodging the J J’s, whiz bangs, sausages and all kinds of missiles, and I expect we shall have a lot more to dodge before we have finished with the Germans; but still we are not downhearted, for while there’s life there’s hope, and we get plenty of company in the trenches, what with the rats which we do not draw rations for, but they soon have their share, and the enemies with hooks, we dread them more than the Germans, which are Germs with the man left out. – Wishing you all the best of luck and success.

Private H V Gilbert & Private A W Peacock, 2nd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment

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We are having a few minutes to spare so we are sending you a few lines, hoping to find all the readers of the St Neots Advertiser and yourselves quite well, as we are in the pink of condition ourselves. We are two strong readers of the paper and we get it every week and we were delighted to get it, just to hear the news of the old town and the surrounding villages. We two happen to be in the same billet, and reading letters about our soldiers and sailors, I think we shall be quite right in writing to you. We have not had a very comfortable time during this wet weather, plenty of times up to our knees in mud and water, but this winter is not so bad as last winter up to the present: this makes our second winter campaign, and we have been through many severe engagements during our period in this country, which is just over fifteen months. We are having pretty good weather out here at present, but chilly at night time in the trenches. (Bang ! only a small shell, but not much damage). The Huns are politely sending us a few iron rations to carry on with. We have been up the line ever since we came out to France – when they were sticking bills on the buildings for the slackers “Your King and Country need you. “ I suppose we shall be having a few days rest before long, and then we can have another cut at pushing them back a bit further. Hoping to see the old paper again before long, we must close now with best luck and kind regards to all readers of this paper.