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

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Letter from William Montgomery to his mother giving details of proposed movements between dug-outs in the trenches. 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/2784 English William Alexander 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).

 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 an going back for a that is to let Sinclair taste "a" till we get back to after we your coy is relieved by C tomorrow & you to take over direction of working parties, in y. own way & y. own own time for work on the etc. I know that you have already had a hell of a time, but I am sure that if you direct the work a lot of your energy would be saved; & at the same time you can by delegating jobs to others get some sleep, when you are in C dug out. With this end in view I am telling & D to let you know by 6 AM what men you can have for work, till they in the care of C till they relieve you & in care of D will 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 that is a penalty we pay for a good reputation, but I am sure that in yr. hands the reputation we have for hard work can be well maintained. I am telling B to lend C 2 officers for work in trenches generally, as they have gone days outs. The more the men the sector they remain I am sure. Yours sincerely 1 AM 22nd/23rd XII A party of 1 N.C.O. and 12 men S. Lancs. are to report H.Q. at 5 PM tell adjt. where you want them sent. Replied 23 January 1916 Mrs. H.H. Montgomery Monacherra Malone Park Belfast William Alexander Montgomery Letter from William Montgomery to his father, Harford Hugh Montgomery, 26 October, 1916Letter from William Montgomery to his mother, Sara Montgomery, 13 October, 1916Letter from William Montgomery to his father, Harford Hugh Montgomery, 19 November, 1916Letter from William Montgomery to his parents, Harford and Sara Montgomery, 30 October, 1916Letter from William Montgomery to his father, Harford Hugh Montgomery, 29 September, 1915Letter from William Montgomery to his father, Harford Hugh Montgomery, 16 November, 1916Letter from William Montgomery to his father, Harford Hugh Montgomery, 13 December, 1915Letter from William Montgomery to his parents, Harford and Sara Montgomery, 18 November, 1915Letter from William Montgomery to his parents, Harford and Sara Montgomery, 29 December, 1915Letter from William Montgomery to his mother, 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