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One young man : $b The simple and true story of a clerk who enlisted in 1914, who fought on the western front for nearly two years, was severely wounded at the battle of the Somme, and is now on his way back to his desk.

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One young man : $b The simple and true story of a clerk who enlisted in 1914, who fought on the western front for nearly two years, was severely wounded at the battle of the Somme, and is now on his way back to his desk.

World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, British

"I was in a terrible condition. My clothes were soaked in
     blood, my hands all red, my mind numbed. Nothing could be
     done, so I went and joined my company, but first made
     application to the sergeant-major that I might help to bury
     my chum. This was granted, and as three other men were
     killed that evening, a party of us were detailed to make
     graves for them. I can see now those four graves in a
     square, railed off by barbed wire, on the cross-roads
     between St. Jean and St. Julien. On one corner stood an
     estaminet and trenches ran all round. A chaplain was
     passing, and we had a service of a minute or two. The time
     was about 2 o'clock on Saturday morning. We were only able
     to dig down a couple of feet, and these graves must, I fear,
     have suffered from the heavy shelling which followed, but I
     like to think that my chum still rests there undisturbed.

     "How I got back to the barn that night I do not know. I
     certainly was not my natural self, and it was more a stagger
     than a march. It was impossible to realise that I should see
     George no more. And on the following day I had to face the
     still harder task of writing to his parents and to the girl
     he had left behind."

To this, written by Sydney Baxter, I add nothing. Not to me has it
come to dig a shallow, shell-swept grave for my chum. What words,
then, have I?




One Young Man Receives a Letter




CHAPTER VI

ONE YOUNG MAN RECEIVES A LETTER


George's stepfather wrote to Sydney Baxter as soon as he received the
heartbroken letter telling of his chum's death. To this letter from
the father I devote a chapter. It must stand alone. In all the
glorious annals of the war it is, to me at least, unique. Nothing that
I can write can add to its pathos or increase its heroism or enhance
its beauty. I leave it to speak for itself--this letter which will
live, I believe, as the most beautiful expression of a stepfather's
love and devotion in our language.

     "MY DEAR LADDIE,

     "Our hearts are breaking for you, and our thoughts and
     prayers are much taken up on your behalf. All along we have
     united you and George in our petitions, and all that was
     sent addressed to George was meant for Syd and George. We
     never thought of you separately at all, but just as sure as
     you shared all in common, so our thoughts were for you
     both.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

One young man : $b The simple and true story of a clerk who enlisted in 1914, who fought on the western front for nearly two years, was severely wounded at the battle of the Somme, and is now on his way back to his desk.

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