Sarah Ridley 

First world war in letters – in pictures

With everyone 'going on' about the centenary this summer, you may wonder what all the fuss is about. After all, August 1914 is an incredibly long time ago. One way of making a connection to the first world war is to read letters written by soldiers during the conflict. Sarah Ridley shares some of the letters written by William and Robert Semple to their younger sisters, Mabel and Eileen, which form the core of her latest book, Dear Jelly
  
  


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When war broke out in August 1914, William Semple decided he must abandon his medical studies and enlist. By the summer of 1915 he was a second lieutenant with the King’s Royal Rifle Corps on the Western Front in France/Belgium. In this letter to his sister Mabel, written in August 1915, he decided to include sketches of how a soldier actually marches in his uniform (i), and how he is supposed to march (ii). We can see his uniform, quite clearly – the stiff cloth cap, wool tunic, trousers and puttees.
Photograph: © Franklin Watts/Wigglesworth family. Not to be used without prior permission Photograph: Krause, Johansen/PR
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William’s younger brother, Robert, joined the Royal Field Artillery and arrived in France around the time of his 19th birthday. In the letter he wrote a month before this one, Robert had described his experiences of the Battle of Loos: "While our troops were attacking, the guns had to fire away as hard as they could. The noise was terrible. There were thousands of guns all firing at the same time. All the horizon was one mass of smoke and bursting shells." Here he’s drawn himself up to his knees in mud!
Photograph: © Franklin Watts/Wigglesworth family. Not to be used without prior permission Photograph: Krause, Johansen/PR
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On the next page of the same letter, Robert drew himself as he would like to appear – in command, with his foot on the parapet of a trench, a German soldier begging for mercy at his feet! Shells are exploding all around them and skimming his cloth cap, as well as the spike of a German soldier’s Pickelhaube.
Photograph: © Franklin Watts/Wigglesworth family. Not to be used without prior permission Photograph: Krause, Johansen/PR
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Writing to both sisters in January 1916, Robert declared himself "in the PINK", an amusing way of saying he is fine. Here he is, sweating with exertion as he tries to make a mule go forwards. The soldier at the front looks furious and even the mule is in a sweat. Why is he struggling with a mule? As a junior officer in the Royal Field Artillery he had to work with the mules that pulled the field guns, as well as the guns themselves.
Photograph: © Franklin Watts/Wigglesworth family. Not to be used without prior permission Photograph: Krause, Johansen/PR
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William and Robert often described their living quarters, or billets, in their letters. Here Robert has drawn a sketch of his dugout in September 1916. Literally dug out of the wall of a trench, it provided him with somewhere to sleep, as well as some protection against the weather and German shells. A long procession of German prisoners of war kept interrupting him as he wrote this letter. Photograph: Krause, Johansen/PR
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A few months later we find Robert building Nissen huts, shown clearly at the top of the second page of this letter. Designed by Major Nissen a few months earlier, the huts were easy to put up and take down again, perfect for the British army. Robert almost always signed his letters with seven kisses below his name. The sketch at the bottom shows him waving to his sisters, who are standing on a distant hill, the sea dividing them.

P.S. If you are wondering about the reference to Maud, the eldest sister, she has decided to become a nun.
Photograph: © Franklin Watts/Wigglesworth family. Not to be used without prior permission Photograph: Krause, Johansen/PR
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"I am trays beans which is the Anglo-French for très bien", Robert wrote in this letter to his sister Eileen. At the bottom of the page he drew himself with three stars on his cuffs to show his promotion to the rank of captain. He had been awarded the Military Cross the year before. The citation that came with the medal states: "During the preparations for the attack on the 31st July [1917] he carried out all his allotted tasks in spite of destructive hostile fire which repeatedly buried his mortars."
Photograph: © Franklin Watts/Wigglesworth family. Not to be used without prior permission Photograph: Krause, Johansen/PR
First World War Letters: DEAR_JELLY_011
Robert’s life followed the same routine as most soldiers on the Western Front: a few days in a front line trench, some in a reserve trench and then time in a rest camp. However, in May 1918, when he wrote this letter, he had been in action since January without a break, fighting against the German army’s "big push" – the Spring Offensive. On the previous page of this letter Robert wrote: "At present I am resting from the fatigue of war in a small dirty village behind the lines." The missing words of the sentence on this last page are: "Think of me out at the Great war…"
Photograph: © Franklin Watts/Wigglesworth family. Not to be used without prior permission Photograph: Krause, Johansen/PR
 

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