Letter from William Montgomery to Sara Montgomery, 23 December, 1915 Letters 1916-1923 William Montgomery

This work was originally published by Maynooth University in Ireland in 2017. In 2026 this data, stored in a relational database was extracted and converted into this TEI/XML document.

 Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities Vienna, AT 2026

This is an open access work licensed under Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0).

The Montgomery family lived in Malone Park, one of the wealthiest suburbs of Belfast city. This letter is part of a large collection that their son, William, a Captain with the 9th Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles, wrote to his parents, Harford Hugh and Sara Montgomery, throughout the war. His first letter is dated 3 December 1914. Captain Montgomery was a decorated soldier. He was awarded both the Victoria and the 15 Star medals and was promoted to the rank of Major. His father owned a fire assessor business.

Public Record Office of Northern Ireland Papers of the Montgomery Family, D2794/1/1/8 https://letters1916.ie/item/2737 English William Montgomery 1915-12-23 Sara Montgomery Monacherra, Malone Park,Belfast, Ireland Male World War I (1914-1918) World War I (1914-1918)

The data in these XML files was generated based on a data dump from the Magellan database (https://github.com/Maynooth-Center-for-Digital-Humanities/Magellan). Each database record has been converted to a JSON file (https://github.com/letters1916static/letters-data/tree/main/json). The element section of the JSON file contains the TEI-encoded contents of the letters. The TEI XML has been cleaned and made well-formed using a Python script (https://github.com/letters1916static/letters-data/tree/main/src).

 23/2/1915 Dear Montgomery, You know that there is a lot of important work to be done before we come out this time, & you know how handicapped I am without Haigh; I am going back for a lessonis to let Sinclair take "a" till we get back to Fucerrile after his your boy is Released by C tomorrow & you've to tackle new direction of working parties, in your own way &your own time I'm wont a etc Redeem etc. I know that you have already had a hell of a time, but I am sure that if you direct the work every energy would be saved; at the same time you can by delegating jobs to others get some sleep; when you are in C day out. Will this end in views I am Telling C & D to let you know by 6 AM what news you can have In work, time its in the care of C til they Relieve you in the care of D till they relieve B. After that C can tell you what they can give you daily and B as well also A the General expects a lot, but this is a penalty We pay for a good Reputation, but I am sure that in your hands the Reputation we have for can be well maintained. I am telling B to lend C 2 offers you wish in trenches generally, as they have had good dug outs. The more the men work the sector they remain I am sure. Yours Wm M 1am 22/23x11 A party of INCO & 12 men S Lancs are to report HQ at 5pm till when you want them sent. Replied 23 January 1916 Mrs HH Montgomery Monacherra Malone Road Belfast William Montgomery Letter from William Montgomery to his father, Harford Hugh Montgomery, 18 December, 1915Letter from William Montgomery to Sara Montgomery, 23 December, 1915 Monacherra, Malone Park,Belfast, Ireland Letter from William Montgomery to his mother, Sara Montgomery, 13 October, 1916Letter from William Montgomery to his father, Harford Hugh Montgomery, 29 September, 1915Letter from William Montgomery to his father, Harford Hugh Montgomery, 18 December, 1915Letter from William Montgomery to his parents, Harford and Sara Montgomery, 18 November, 1915Letter from William Montgomery to Sara Montgomery, 23 December, 1915Letter from William Montgomery to his mother, Sara Montgomery, 23 December, 1915