Letter from Wilfrid Spender to his family, 3 November 1915 Letters 1916-1923 Wilfrid Bliss Spender

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 Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities Vienna, AT 2026

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"Sir Wilfrid Spender (1876-1960) was a member of the British Army until 1913 when controversy surrounding his signature of the Ulster Solemn League and Covenant resulted in his resignation. Spender was called up for military service in 1914 and from 1915 served in the 36th (Ulster) Division. Throughout the war, Spender wrote a collection of letters to his wife Lady Lillian Spender. The letters date mainly from 1915 to 1918, when Sir Wilfrid was serving in France. The letters concern politics, the Irish question, personal life, and Wilfrid's experience of the Great War."

 Public Record Office of Northern Ireland Letters from Sir Wilfred Spender to Lady Spender, D1633/1/1/42 https://letters1916.ie/item/4134 English Wilfrid Bliss Spender 1915-11-03 Male 1960 World War I (1914-1918) World War I (1914-1918) Personal Relations Country and City Life

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).

 Mater Mab Edmund Rex Please return to Lil 3 Nov. My dear Folks I suppose you will expect a letter today as you only got a scrap yesterday, & so did I! The enclosed from Miss Scott Kerr is rather nice but rather gushingly sentimental, & I suppose I must answer it, which however is bound to disappoint her as I cannot keep it up in the same strain. I was away inspecting the bombing schools today, & my motor got stogged in a ploughed field. 2 hours I spent jacking it her up— I'm sure it was a female motor!— & putting flints! under her wheels & getting her forward inch by inch safely on to the road, with her tyres like ribbon reels after a baby has played with them. Yesterday's field day in the pouring rain was a sorry performance for the men but I enjoyed it fairly well — more than Fanny who pricked up her heels whenever we looked homewards, tho' she went gamely over heavy ploughed fields in spite of the rain & wind. I would not let her be clipped in case we might got ordered to Servia which in my opinion is still quite likely for where else are the men to come from. I am waiting anxiously for Squiffy's speech (Asquith's Soubriquet out here). I suppose it will be another compromise, & I hope Carson will tear it to rags. One of our brigades leaves for the front today & we get an old brigade of regulars in its place. I am looking forward to see how the regular compares with our men. I don't think he ought to outshine him except in the officer line. I expect I shall want my other gaiters soon, & would you therefore send them to a shop (! Stores/ to be properly bound & strength — ened especially at the bottom. I slept on my mattress last night & think it will do very well when I get Douglas to realize that I must have a proper pillow. I think I require one of our files for the office. Would you order one for me larger size with clipping machine like yours. The bill when paid should be passed to me please for payment out of the office fund. I hope to be able to answer some of Rex's queries later, & wish I could settle down to a connected letter but every four or five minutes I am being interrupted, to look at a letter or wire, or to answer some question which is sprung on me about something that came in weeks ago. The fact that one only has one's office to sit in makes one get through one's work expeditiously but it makes any other kind of thought nearly impossible. The old dame of the house I am billeted in seems well satisfied with her 5 lodgers i e myself 2 servants & 2 horses. The pony has moved so that Fanny & Clyde Valley are together again. She was very angry the other day when she saw Douglas with a sack of coal, thinking it was hers, but when he managed to make her understand it was government issue she was satisfied &I think has tried to make amends. The people here vary enormously, & some are anxious to help others only anxious to help themselves out of the pockets of the rich Anglais. Monsieur votre servantswas a rather unexpected phrase from the old dame who took to running to the door whenever I was going out. I think she intended to teach me to shut it gently as at first I used to bang it like the door at 24 till I learnt the trick of it. November is a horrid month everywhere but luckily there are only 4 of them as a rule. March I hope may bring some compensations, & any warm day is an a forerunner of summer not as now a reminder of last. All the same the autumn tints are wonderful & the beech copses especially would make some of the Ulster forests almost envious. The country on the whole is uninteresting however when the first novelty has worn off. Of the enemy at present I have am seeing very little, but I expect I shall be paying another visit to the trenches next week unless we get orders to move again, which no one expects except me. I am a little disappointed at not having heard from Col Craig. Perhaps he thinks Lily's visit absolves him. I am longing to hear her decision about her work, & whether but can't quite make out whether she is to see Lady Carson tomorrow after the Committee meeting or at a later date. I am quite ashamed of the dullness of this letter, but it is like the day & so is a true picture. Except from Mater & Rex no news of the family has come lately & I beg to state that I do pass letters on tho' somewhat tardily perhaps. Best love to all my dear folks Wilfrid B Spender Nov 3 So disinclined for writing that I send only a dear folk letter. poor folks! I will really be more careful of Wilf's letters in future, but I read them with such avidity that I always think they are meant for me. Leader is succeeding in bamboozling the Gen' as completely as he did the last one! He will certainly become a General. A Colonel is coming with the new Brigade whom I particularly disliked as a boy. I should probably be ready to like him more now if he were only a Captain! I have not disposed of Henry yet. Its not very wise of me to pass on Mirs Scott Kerr's letter to a vain little p r, but the old b w was always a foolish animal especially in anything to do with p r s. Wilfrid Bliss Spender Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 12 June 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 13 June 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 17 June 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 19 June 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 21 June 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 24 June 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 30 June 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 3 July 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 9 July 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 11 July 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 12 July 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 15 July 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 16 July 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 16 July 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender, 16 July 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to Lady Lillian Spender, 18 July 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to Lady Lillian Spender, 21 July 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to Lady Lillian Spender, 21 July 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to Lady Lillian Spender, 22 July 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to Lady Lillian Spender, 22 July 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to Lady Lillian Spender, 23 July 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to Lady Lillian Spender, 24 July 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to Lady Lillian Spender, 27 July 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to Lady Lillian Spender, 29 July 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to Lady Lillian Spender, 28 July 1916Letter from Wilfrid Spender to Lillian Spender, 30 July 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 31 July 1916Letter from Wilfrid Spender to Lillian Spender, 31 July 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 1 August 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 4 August 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 6 August 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 7 August 1916Letter from Wilfrid Spender to Lillian Spender, 8 August 1916Letter from Wilfrid Spender to Lillian Spender, 9 August 1916Letter from Wilfrid Spender to Lillian Spender, 9 August 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 10 August 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 12 August 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 13 August 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 14 August 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 15 August 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 20 August 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 21 August 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 22 August 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 24 August 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 25 August 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 27 August 1916Note from Sir Wilfrid Spender, 28 August 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 18 December 1915Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 19 December 1915Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 20 December 1915Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 21 December 1915Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his family, 21 December 1915Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 22 December 1915Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, 23 December 1915Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife, Lady Lillian Spender, 2 January 1916Letter from Wilfrid Spender to his wife, Lillian Spender, 9 January 1916Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender to his wife Lady Lillian Spender, [January 1916]Letter from Wilfrid Spender to his family, 3 November 1915Letter from Wilfrid Spender to Lillian Spender, 12 November 1915