Keep the Home Fires Burning - detailing wartime life in the towns and villages mentioned.

NBT 1916 May 30th Tue.

Addressed to the Rectory, the following is an extract from a letter sent by Lt. Dymoke Broad, Gurkha Rifles, to his father;

“I hope you received my cable. Wound very slight. I got off pretty lightly, a bullet hitting me in the throat from very short range, but, providentially, it only got me just across the front of my windpipe. It is not very bad, and although naturally not feeling particularly grand, I am getting on all right. The regiment did magnificently in the morning. Our two Gurkha Battalions went right through four lines of Turkish trenches and beyond. Later in the day the Turks being reinforced, counter attacked very strongly, and we had a rather bad time. I was hit somewhere about 7 o’clock in the evening, and we were fighting all night till about 1a.m., when I managed to rejoin our battalion, with 150 men I had collected. It was rather rough luck on us, for various reasons which I may not give you. I was promised a mention in despatches for the morning show, but I do not know whether it will materialise now that we did not relieve General Townshend. The others did just as well, but I was fortunate enough to come under notice.”

Last Thursday a letter reached the Rector from his second son, Herbert Broad, who volunteered for the first Canadian Contingent when the war broke out. He was refused for not being sufficiently tall, but now writes;

“My second attempt has been successful. I have sold all my stock, and let my farm for three years, and have joined the King’s Army. I have been accepted for service abroad, and go this week to Regina to join the 195th Canadian Expeditionary Force, “A” Company. I am feeling brighter and younger, and more fit than for some time past. Indeed, I feel like a ‘two- year-old.’”

All four of the Rector’s sons are now serving in different parts of the world. The eldest is in the Australian Contingent, the second in the Canadians, the third in the Indians, and the youngest in the Durham Light Infantry. On the 27th the India Office advised the Rector that Lt. Dymoke Broad, with the other wounded for India, had safely reached Karachi in the S.S. Jeddah.