Letter from Wilfrid Spender to Lillian Spender, circa November 1915

Foo, Bar; Bar, Foo

Letter from Wilfrid Spender to Lillian Spender, circa November 1915

1 want to do
so.
Ever your
loving BW My dear little PR a very growly
animal last night when he
found Richardson with 2
letters from one address, & thomaswhilst poor
Singleton had none. I said
that if this happened next day
I would write to Mrs Single-
ton for him. He was glad
of my suggestion & said that 2 if the occasion ever offered itself
(but of course I knew it wouldn't)
He would do the same for
me. I have been made a kind
of consolatory friend by Mey-
nil & find it a very trying
position. I am really sorry
for him but have said all
myI could & now he
asks me to sit next to him
at meals, & wishes to sit in
my office & talk about it,
& this is a little difficult, es-
pecially as the Gen' does not
make any attempt to change his
attitude to him, & looks fiercely at
us both in consequence! However I'll do my
best for him. Yesterday he asked me whether
he would be well to apply for GSO,
(as apparently he had heard that
there was a question of my stopping!)
We manoeuvered about & I played
the silly rabbit quite successfully, I hope.
Could I have done so 2 years ago? The glass fastener is acting
much better now. It only required a 3 llitle firm handling to recover
from its bad habits! The news is not cheerful
but I am much more afraid
of being rushed into another adven-
ture than of going quietly on. I hear Ian Hamilton is
seldom in sight of the Dardanelles
& is exceedingly unpopular out there
I suppose this means that he has
been found out & hope it may
be the case with other rotters
in high places, wherever they
may be. We want men with
high ideals as John Gough wrote to
me. I wish one could always
live up to it, but it is something to

Letter from Sir Wilfrid Spender (1876 - 1960) to his wife, Lillian (1880-1968). Spender 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. Sir Ian Hamilton was the British commander of the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign. During the Easter Rising, Hamilton was originally intended to serve as military governor of Ireland. However, his handling of the Gallipoli campaign, and the large number of Irish losses incurred during the campaign, convinced British command to dispatch Sir John Maxwell in his stead.

Wilfrid Spender
Lillian Spender
1915-11
Politics World War I (1914-1918) Personal Relations

Open image in new tab

How to cite

Letters 1916, published by the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities, Vienna, 2026 (https://letters1916static.github.io/letters1916-static/item__4248.html)