1 Many thanks to
dear Lena for
her letter. B. E. Frorce
France 13/5/'16 My dear Father, I was on the
point of writing to you
when your ever welcome
letter reached me. A thousand
thanks for it (you cannot
imagine how welcome your
letters are) and also for
the papers giving an account
of the dreadful riots in
Dublin. I am glad I
was safe in the trenches 2 during that time, for
apparently the Bosches
cannot hold a candle
to the Sinn Feiners.
One good result will
follow from what has
happened: the ridding
Dublin of a most
undesirable element which
was doing much harm
among our ignorant
people. Incidentally I
am chuckling to myself
over those who said
that "Retreats for Workingmen"
were not needed in
Ireland, and I hope
the project will be
helped by those sad scenes. 3 Since I wrote last we have
been back here some
miles from the firing
line as the men always
get a rest after a spell
in the trenches. This time
they wanted it badly, poor
chaps, having had a hard
time of it, an experience
none of us are likely to
forget. Once again we
have had all the luck,
even with our share of the
fighting, for though one
regiment of the Brigade
is reduced to 200 men 4 the casualties of the
8th Fusiliers only came
to a little over 100. As result of our stay
here things have been
singularly uneventfuly &
quiet. They say a war
is going on somewhere
but it is not easy to
realize that at present.
I was not sorry to get
a little time of rest,
for the beastly gas took
more out of me than
I thought, but I am
feeling fit and well
again now, thank God,
ready for another spell
before my trip to
"Blighty". 5 I paid a visit recently to
another wonder of the
war, the church of
Vermelles. Little remains
of it now, for the town has
been held in succession by
the Germans, French and
ourselves and every yard of
ground was lost and won
a dozen times. The church
is just a heap of ruins;
the roof has been burnt, the
tower shot away, while the
statues, stations etc are smashed
to dust, but hanging
still on one of the 6 broken walls is a large
crucifix absolutely
untouched. The figure
is a beautiful one, a
work of art, and the
face of our Lord has
an expression of sadness
such as I have never
seen before. The eyes
are open, gazing as it
were upon the scene
of desolation, and
though the wall upon
which the crucifix hangs is
riddled with bullet holes
and shell splinters, the
image is untouched
save for one round
bullet hole just through 7 the heart. The whole
thing may be only chance
but it is a striking sight
and cannot fail to impress
one, and brings home the
fact that if God is scourging
the world as it well deserves
He is not indifferent to
the sorrows and sufferings
of His children. Sunday 14thI was not able to
finish this yesterday
as the men keep me going
scraping their kettles". (I wish
mine was half as clean
as some of theirs) Between
600 & 700 men were at 8 Holy Communion this
morning, the last probably
for many of them for
we are due back in the
trenches tomorrow, though
the part we are going to
is quiet compared to the
last position we held.
One cannot help feeling proud
of our Irish lads, everyone
loves them — the French girls ,
naturally, that goes without
saying, as poor Aunt Polly
would have written; the shop-
keepers love them for their
simplicity in paying about
five times the real value
of the goods; Monsieur le
Curé would hug them each
and everyone if he could,
for he has been simply
raking in the coin these
days, many a one putting
three and five franc notes
in the plate to make up, 9 I suppose, for the trouser
buttons of the knowing
one, and surely our Blessed
Lord loves them best of all
for their simple, unaffected
piety which brings crowds
of them at all hours of
the day to visit Him in
the Tabernacle. Need I add
that the Padre himself has
a warm corner in his
heart for his boys, as I
think they have for him,
judging by their anxiety
when the report spread
that I had got knocked 10 out in the gas attack.
They are as proud as punch
to have the chaplain with
them in the trenches; it is
quite amusing to hear
them point out my
dug-out to strangers as they
go by: "That's our priest,"
with a special stress on
the our. Let me end up this note
with a little bit of news
which I mention because I
think it will please and
gratify you: I have just
been told (unofficially) that
my name has been sent
on to the Commander-in-Chief
for "Mention in Despatches."
I hope the Angels have done
their work as well and that
I shall get a little corner in
their report to Head Quarters above.
This is only for yourself. Your loving son Willie.