The contents on this page remain on our website for informational purposes only.
Content on this page will not be reviewed or updated.

FROM THE CONTEMPORARY LOCAL NEWSPAPERS OF NORTH BUCKS (BUCKS STANDARD, NORTH BUCKS TIMES, WOLVERTON EXPRESS)
With today’s internet a wealth of official information is available regarding those who served.
In an age before local radio and television, families often allowed letters to be published in the local press from their loved ones on active service.
However, for their descendants the letters reveal a more personal aspect, graphically describing the experience of the people and providing an insight into their personalities.

B.S. 1914 Nov. 7th

Driver Roland Spriggs, of Great Linford, is attached to the 44th Ammunition Column of the Royal Field Artillery, and in a postcard to his parents tells of some of the battlefield hardships. He says he is quite well, but asks his mother to send him a clean shirt “as it is eleven weeks since I had a change.” As for the conditions on active service, “It is very near walking away.” His mother and sister would duly send him a supply of clean shirts.

Also in the 44th Ammunition Column is his brother, Driver Walter Spriggs. He is well known as a member of the Great Linford Hornets Football Club, and writes to Mr. H. Pinfold, of Wolverton;

“What I can see of it you have not many of the Hornets left. I heard from Joe (the writer’s brother) the other day, and he tells me most of the Wolverton lads have enlisted. Well, we can do with them. It is quite as hot as any hornet’s nest. … Remember me to the old boys, and tell them I am still alive and kicking. I think we are doing better now.”

Both brothers were on the Army Reserve at the declaration of war, and have been in the fighting since early August.


B.S. 1914 Nov. 28th

Private W. Rainbow, of the 1st Northants. Regiment, is in the Cottage Hospital at Runcorn, Cheshire, with severe bullet wounds in his left arm, which is fractured. Two bullets passed through his arm near the muscle, and two others have been extracted from the forearm. In a letter to a friend at Newport Pagnell he writes;

“I am out of the firing line now with a wounded arm; stopped one well twice in the lower part of the left arm. It went in my arm and out again.”

He thanks his old friends at Newport Pagnell for the cigarettes sent to him a few days before he was wounded, and speaks of having seen Bill Spriggs, from Great Linford. Private Rainbow is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Keziah Rainbow, of Great Linford.


B.S. 1915 Feb. 27th

Suffering from frostbitten feet, caused by exposure in the flooded trenches at the front, Private William Hobbs, of the 2nd West Yorkshire Regiment, has been invalided home to Great Linford. He has spent six years in the Army, including foreign service with his regiment in India and Malta, and he was stationed at the latter when the war broke out;

“We were ordered home to England towards the end of September and from Winchester we were sent to France. We landed at Le Havre, and immediately took up occupation of the trenches. The first night we were attacked by the Germans, and the sensation of being under fire was peculiar to me, for this was my baptism in the realities of war. Naturally, we were a bit timid at first, but we soon got seasoned to the business. The fighting was kept up practically throughout the night but we kept the Germans from advancing, and the next morning the destruction we had wrought was apparent by the number of dead which the enemy had left. For three days we held these trenches, and were then moved up to Las Bassee where we saw a good deal of hard fighting, but nothing very exciting until very early in December. The Germans were occupying trenches from which they gave us a lot of trouble. We had orders to take these trenches, and for a quarter of an hour the artillery bombarded the position. The explosions from the big guns were deafening. Finally we had orders to charge and the movement was a success for not only did we capture the trenches, but several prisoners fell into our hands and the enemy’s losses were very heavy. On reaching the trenches we found they had been blown to pieces and we had to set to work to re-make them to give ourselves a position of some security. At daybreak we were surprised to find that the Germans were practically surrounding us. We wanted to charge them with the bayonet, but the order came for us to retreat. When they saw our intention the Germans opened fire and we suffered somewhat heavily. We only fell back to our original line of trenches which we had left the night before so that we did not lose any ground. We were relieved that night, and after three days’ rest again entered the firing line and took up a position in the trenches. It was in these trenches that I was attacked by frost-bite and was sent into hospital.”

Private Hobbs says that for a whole month they did not have a fine day, and in the trenches the soldiers stood in water up to the tops of their boots. In the communicating trenches the water was knee deep, and many soldiers who got stuck in the mud had to be dug out.


B.S. 1915 Mar. 27th

Called up as a reservist at the beginning of the war, Driver Roland Spriggs, of Great Linford, has been at the front since the start of the hostilities, and is serving with the ammunition column, 44th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. In a letter to a friend at Newport Pagnell he writes;

“There is a lot to be done before it is finished, but I think myself it will not finish by fighting. We know we are up against a treacherous lot of devils, an uncivilised tribe, but I think they will get all they want.”

His brother, W. Spriggs, is a driver in the R.F.A., but although both have been on the battlefield since the early days of the war, they only met a few days ago.

(In June 1918 Mr. and Mrs. W. Spriggs, of 11, Station Terrace, Great Linford, would learn that Roland, their second son, had been severely wounded by shrapnel in the head, back, and arms, in the recent heavy fighting in France. Until then he had remained unscathed. His wife, who lives at 180, Mill Road, Kettering, would receive notification that it happened on May 26th, and that her husband was now in the 2nd Western General Hospital, Manchester. One of his brothers has been missing in Salonica since April 24th, 1917.)


B.S. 1915 July 17th

Under a fusillade of German fire, eight months ago Private W. Rainbow, of the 1st Northants. Regiment, was badly wounded in the arm, whilst coming out to bind up the injuries of the adjutant of his battalion, Captain G. St. G. Robinson. He is still in hospital at West Derby, Liverpool, and his injuries are so severe that the doctors are having great difficulty in getting the arm straight. Despite having initially lost touch with Private Rainbow, after making numerous enquiries Captain and Adjutant Robinson has now discovered his whereabouts, to which he addresses the following letter;

“I have only just managed to find your address, and am writing to ask you how you are. I hear your arm was pretty bad, but I hope you are getting on alright. What I want to know is if there is anything I can do for you in the way of helping you, as you got your wound so pluckily coming out to bandage me up. I’d like to do anything I could for you. I sent your name into the colonel while I was at home for recommendation. I hope your mother knows how gallantly you behaved in coming to my aid; if not, I hope you will show her this letter. I have been trying to find out where you were for a long time, but have only just succeeded, as I came out to the 2nd Battalion in March for a month, and then on here. We have just been through another bad time. … I hope you will let me know if there is anything I can possibly do for you. I am afraid it is very late in the day to thank you for coming out to me, but I can assure you I have never forgotten you, or the circumstances.

G.ST. G. ROBINSON, Capt. And Adjt., 1st Northamptonshire Regt.”


B.S. 1915 Sep. 10th

Aged 24, Private Ernest Brightman, of the 1st Battalion, Oxon and Bucks Light Infantry, South Midland Brigade, was killed in action in Flanders on Sunday, August 29th. The official intimation reads;

“The young soldier was shot through the head and had a painless death.”

Before the war he was employed in the electrical department at Wolverton Works, and was amongst the first from his village to volunteer. He enlisted on September 1st, and went to the front in early March.


B.S. 1915 Sep. 11th

Lance Corporal Percy Hedges, of the Royal Bucks Hussars, enlisted three days after the outbreak of war, and has been wounded in action at the Dardanelles. The official notification was received at Great Linford by his parents last Monday, but gave no further details. In a letter written on August 20th (on the eve of the Yeomanry receiving its baptism of fire, in the charge of Chocolate Hill) he wrote to his mother;

“I am keeping fit and well. No beds now. We dig holes and sleep in them and have a fairly good time. We hear the guns night and day, but we are about twelve miles away. It is very hot by day and awfully cold at night. Where we are you would not know war was going on; it is so quiet.”

In a letter written on Friday, September 10th, he then informs his parents that he is in hospital at Cairo, with a shrapnel bullet through the leg. As to the circumstance, on Saturday, August 21st the Bucks Yeomanry had to advance about two miles across open country before reaching cover. After a brief rest of 20 minutes the regiment then received orders to charge the Turkish trenches, and it was about 5.30p.m. when Lance Corporal Hedges was wounded. After managing to get back about a mile and a half he was picked up by the Red Cross, who took him to the hospital on the beach. There he remained all the next day, but during this time the Turks constantly shelled the hospital, killing six or seven of the wounded. Lance Corporal Hedges was later conveyed by hospital ship to Cairo.


W.E. 1915 Oct. 29th

News is received that Lance Corporal Percy Hedges, who was wounded when the Bucks Hussars were in action at Gallipoli, has now recovered. Discharged from hospital, he has rejoined his regiment, and been promoted to the full rank of corporal.


B.S. 1916 Aug. 12th

Private Harry Robinson, of Great Linford, who in times of peace was connected with the Bucks Otter Hounds, and is now in France with the 5th Lancers, has sent a very interesting letter to Mr. Geo. Tayler, J.P., of The Kickles, Newport Pagnell. In characteristic “doggy” language Robinson describes his experiences in the Dublin rebellion, and tells how in France he hopes to “run to ground” the wild offspring of William’s chicken and land grabbers. His letter is as follows:-

“Dear Sir, - Just a few lines hoping they find you and Mrs. Tayler quite well as it leaves me in the pink at present. We had a grand hunt with the Lancers at Dublin on Easter Monday. The meet was at 12 at the General Post Office with the dog hounds, with me as one of the whips, Capt. Wilson handling the horn. We found at the first draw, but could not get him to leave cover for five or six days, until we put to ground a game terrier – a puppie of Big Lizzie – and she went to ground well. Several old dog foxes bolted into Mary-street and Sackville-street, where they were chopped by the late Lord Kitchener’s young entry, all being well blooded and entered well for the first time of asking. I have been sent over here to try and run to ground a few of the wild offspring of William’s chicken and land grabbers, so you may hear of us giving an account of ourselves. I must close with my best wishes for a good hay time and harvest, and leave a good old dog otter for a hunt when I return.

I remain, your obedient servant,

PRIVATE ROBINSON,

No. 5736, 5th Lancers, No. 5, Cavalry Base

Details, Rouen, France.”


B.S. 1917 Sep. 29th

During the past week, Cissie Ellis, a five year old girl from Great Linford, has received two letters from wounded soldiers in France, thanking her for the eggs they received bearing her name. For the National Egg Collection, both Cissie and her brother take eggs to school every week.


B.S. 1917 Nov. 10th

At Great Linford, at the end of last week the news was received that Sergeant William Hobbs, of the West Yorkshire Regiment, had died in hospital at Boulogne. In the recent heavy fighting in Flanders he had been wounded in the chest on Tuesday, October 9th, and for three days lay in intense pain in a shell hole. After being taken to a casualty clearing station he was then removed to the 54th General Hospital at Boulogne, where three operations were performed. However, his condition being critical from the outset, he succumbed to his wounds on October 30th, the day after his 27th birthday. In a letter from the hospital, the matron writes that the shrapnel which penetrated his lung had caused such severe injury that nothing could be done, and, with a cross to mark the grave, he was buried with military honours. As a soldier for six years before the war, after returning from India with his regiment he mobilised in November 1914, and with General Sir Henry Ronaldson’s 4th Army Corps took part in the battles of the Somme, Marne, and Ypres, amongst others, displaying such courage that he was promoted on the field. Due to frozen feet, in the early days of the war he had been invalided to England, but returned to the Western Front after being for a while at Malta. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Hobbs, of Great Linford (his father is serving in the Royal Defence Corps), and before the war served his apprenticeship with Mr. Heeps, shoeing and general smith of Great Linford.


B.S. 1918 Feb. 2nd

At Great Linford, on Thursday, January 31st, Mrs. H. Brightman received official notification that her husband, Private Herbert Brightman, of the Royal Fusiliers, had been taken prisoner by the Germans on January 1st. Employed for 15 years by the Aylesbury Brewery Company at Newport Pagnell, he enlisted in February 1917, and on New Year’s Day, Mrs. Brightman had received a field card from him written on December 28th.


B.S. 1918 Mar. 9th

Mr. and Mrs. Hedges, of Great Linford, have received a letter this week from their son, Corporal S. Hedges, a despatch rider in the Royal Engineers. In this, dated December 9th, 1917, he says that after being in hospital in Mesopotamia for two months with malarial fever, he has been removed to a convalescent camp, from where about twenty from the camp were one day taken for a trip on the river in a small motor launch. In fact the outing was made even more pleasurable when a brass plate was noticed inside the vessel, with an inscription which announced that the boat had been purchased by subscriptions from the inhabitants of Chesham, Princes Risborough, Brill, Missenden, Linslade, Winslow, & c.


B.S. 1918 Mar. 2nd

Corporal W. Turner, of the 17th Lancers, has just been awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre. Joining the Army on September 1st, 1914, he has seen much severe fighting, and came through unscathed until September 9th, 1917, when of the four wounds he received, two were severe. He was nursed back to health in Exeter Hospital, and returned to the front in January 1918. He is the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Turner, of Great Linford, and in peacetime was employed as under gamekeeper to Mr. Ross, of Leatherhead, Surrey.

(It would shortly be announced that he had also been awarded the Military Medal, and been promoted to sergeant.)


B.S. 1918 June 29th

Mr. and Mrs. F. Seamarks, of the Elms, Great Linford, have received news that their third son, Private Harry Seamarks, of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, died of pneumonia in Egypt on June 10th. He was 21, and prior to joining the army three years ago had been employed at Wolverton Carriage Works. A brother is serving in Egypt, and the eldest brother is reported as missing in France from April 25th.


W.E. 1918 July 26th

Private G. Fincham, Northumberland Fusiliers, is reported as missing since May 27th. He joined up in 1917 at the age of 18, and is the youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. J. Fincham, of the Black Horse Inn. Their eldest son, Sergeant J. Fincham, of the Royal West Surreys, was posted as missing on March 23rd 1918, but is now known to be a prisoner of war in Germany.)


B.S. 1918 July 27th

Mr. and Mrs. William Spriggs, of Station Terrace, Great Linford, have just received official notification that their third son, Private Joseph Spriggs, of the Wilts. Regiment, was probably killed in action at Salonica on April 24th, 1917, the date he had been posted missing. “A loving son, a brother kind, A beautiful memory left behind.“ He was aged 27, and having joined the army in September 1914, after a brief period of service in France was drafted with his regiment to Salonica. Before enlisting he was employed in the paint shop at Wolverton Carriage Works, and as a keen sportsman he played many games for the Wolverton Town Club. Three brothers also joined the Forces. One was recently wounded, and is now in Kettering Hospital, and the other two are serving on the Western Front.

(Regarding the four sons, as at February 1916 William and Roland were serving in the Royal Field Artillery, and had been on active service on the western front since the early days of the war. Joseph was at Salonica with the 7th Wilts., and Frederick was a driver in the Army service Corps at Greenwich.)


ALSO AVAILABLE IN BOOK FORM AS ‘LETTERS FROM THE FIRST WORLD WAR’ FROM WWW. LULU.COM,
PRODUCED WITH THE INVALUABLE EXPERTISE OF ALAN KAY & ZENA DAN.