1 COPY 108th Brigade, Machine Gun Company B.E.F. 3rd July, 1916. My dear Mr & Mrs Davidson:- By the time you get this(which is scribbled
on all I can find in a moving Camp) you will, I hope and yet more
than sincerely regret, have received an official notice of your
son's death. All I can tell you in consolation is that no
man in this terrible War could have done his duty better, or died
a finer death. Mr Davidson may remember me; at all events I
remember seeing him at Bordon,and I shall never forget looking back
as we left the Review the day the King was down,and seeing the
solitary figure looking back at the 13th R. I. R., and the 108th
Brigade in particular. I know he said to himself ' if he goes
' he goes for the Nation's good,and he has gone, but if ever a
man as a civilian soldier founded a Company, ran it as a unit, did
his duty as a Senior Officer,and gained the respect of all ranks,
and died like a man and a soldier, Jim did. When things went badly,and he no doubt felt his
obvious duty was to take up reinforcements, off he went,and for a
long time he held up more or less single handed a dangerous position;
although shot through the knee,he refused to be carried back; alter-
nately he fired his Gun, and threw bombs until he had to retire to
bind up his wound; he returned, and did what he could ,and finally he
started back to try and find reinforcements. He was shortly after
shot through the head. I wish I could tell you what I thought of him in
adequate words,and also what the Company thought of him,and I know
also what the higher authorities he came in contact with thought.
You knew him better than all of us,and you can imagine a little of
what a tower of strength he was. It was through him that I came to the 13th at
Clandeboye,and with he, and Dermot Neill gone from this Company,
and nearly all my good and best friends in the 13th gone also,I
feel very lonely and sad,but it is all in a good cause,and there's
no good any of us making the worst of it. I hope I will come across
you some day,and that you will be given help to bear your terrible
burden. Rely upon it,his body will be respectfully buried,and
please write me if there is any help or information I can give you. Believe me yours in sincerest sympathy and deepest
regret, W. Worsley Ashcroft. P.S. The Ulster Division has done grandly, but has had to pay a very heavy penalty.
W.W.A.