A letter received
by the brother of Private S. Harris,
Was delivered to
the family doorstep at Redhill.
Private Harris
detailed his battalion of the West Kents
Recent
engagements, on the other side of the channel.
For fifty hours
they had lived their lives like rabbits,
Having burrowed
down into trenches - the experience
Described as not
unpleasant and somewhat exciting.
A bursting of
shells overhead was continual, eventually
Becoming
monotonous. The encounter for the
younger
Soldiers was
initially awful but they too became used
To the roaring
over their heads. They started to cheer,
Each time
shrapnel and shell sounded they remarked;
‘There’s another
rocket John,’ watching it's rapid trail.
In the digging of
trenches and recesses the West Kents,
Shared with
Dorsets and Scottish Borderers, telling yarns
Whenever resting
- ‘A nice lazy life’ the reader might think.
On the other hand
is the reminder of shrapnel bursts
Just above head
height - To avoid being killed themselves,
They killed time in
using cigarette cards to play 'banker'.
Shrank down in
their hole, discussion centered on football,
About favourite
teams prospects and merits of the players.
In making a bet
that Billy Meredith joined Manchester City
In 1896, one chap
was promptly hit by a bullet in the knee.
As bandage was applied,
he remained calm to state, saying
He would not play
for Maidstone United on Christmas Day!
Private Harris
asks his brother, upon writing back, to send
Cigarettes as he
owes 20 packets to a chum and asks him
To find out the
date of Meredith joining Manchester City,
In order to
settle the bet. Harris states that like them,
Their officers
are very light-hearted - in their digging duty
They dug an underground
officers mess, for their meals.
One soldier even
used cigarette cards and pictures cut from
A French paper to
decorate the place – the food of the officers,
Notes Harris, is
not like food they would have been presented
At the Hotel
Cecil - a kind and jolly lot, he states, would not be
Met in a day’s
marching - one officer, stocked with cigarettes,
Divided them
among his men – Soon to pay back his kindness.
A few shells hit
the turf of the mess-room, that made up the roof,
And the sides
fell in like a pack of cards, burying three officers.
They dug out the
generous officer and others, from their pickle.
Private Harris
estimated 500 shells burst about them, during
Their stay in
those trenches - less than a dozen were wounded
And not one man
was killed - as they were all well protected.
Finally once able
to leave the trenches and stretch their legs
Realised what had
been thrown at them, seeing the ground
Strewn with burst
shells - Harris ends with the plan, if all goes
Well that the
next day they are to have a real game of football.
The private
selecting a team to play against a Borders team,
Who are always
swaggering to them about what they can do.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1914. Life
in the Trenches – Football and War. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 8 Oct. p.5.
Col.4. Available at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/11137116/Daily-Telegraph-October-8-1914.html
[Accessed: 8th October 2014].
Mann, J., 2014. 100
years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 8 October
2014)
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