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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.

W.E. 1917 Apr. 20th

From the French front, last week Mr. and Mrs. George Mead received news that, while advancing towards some German positions, their second son, Private William Mead, of the Bucks Battalion, had been killed in action on April 2nd. In a letter to Private Mead’s parents, Private F. Baldring writes of his pal, ‘Billy’;

“We had been the best of pals for several months, and your son was well liked by everyone. I have lost a good mate, and I cannot realise that he is dead, as it does not seem an hour ago that Billy and I were making tea together. He was killed instantly, and did not suffer any pain.”

A Second Lieutenant writes that Private Mead was a very fine soldier, and one of the best in his Company.

(Formerly employed at Wolverton Carriage Works, Private Mead was aged 25, and, having enlisted at the outbreak of war, left for France in May, 1915. His elder brother, Private J. Mead, is with the Canadian Forces in France, and has just recovered from a slight shrapnel wound in the head.)

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.