P71/28/21/22

Letter number 22 with numerous mentions of local men and events including:

Dec 1917

From: 1917 To: 1917

- Chris Allen was recovering though “still far from well” and was at Marefield Park [Sussex]; - Jim Cox was recovering after eight weeks in bed and was in hospital in London; - Archie Cox was in a sanatorium near Bombay with dysentery; whilst in Mesopotamia he had been present at the fall of Kut and Baghdad; - Don Cox and Walter Church had rejoined after recovering from being gassed and had been in action again; - Fred Harpin had recovered and was on leave; - Arthur Goldsmith, in the north of England, might receive a discharge; - Walter Curtis received shrapnel wounds to left hand, leg and thigh at the capture of Passchendaele and was in hospital near Liverpool - Percy Mackness was recovering from shoulder wounds; - Wilfred Jeffs had recovered and was probably on foreign service; - Frank Harpin of the Iniskillings had recovered from a slight shrapnel wound in the chin and was in Ireland; - P.Keech had recovered and was in France as a Royal Flying Corps mechanic; - William Church had recovered and returned to France; - Charles Cox had recovered and was en route for East Africa; - Arthur Goldsmith had been in the battle of Messines Ridge; - Fred Middleton had rejoined his Regiment after a slight head wound; - Walter Bowyer and Reggie Ruffhead were both in France and William Bowyer was in Egypt; - George Bartram had recovered and was back at his duties in Egypt; - Sapper Fred Dawson and Walter Cox both considered that the Turks would soon be pushed out of Gaza, Walter Cox was with Headquarters Company, 60th Division Train; - Alec Lacey, Walter Warwick and Arthur Church were well, Alec Lacey now being a Lance Corporal; -George Jefferies was stationed at Gibraltar; - Tom Church and Fred Curtis were at Dover [Kent] and had experienced air raids; - Arthur Bartram was well “his coolness and presence of mind stand him in good stead”; - Albert Cowley had moved from Edinburgh to a camp near Ipswich [Suffolk] and Hector Hardwick was expecting to leave Rugeley Camp [Staffordshire] to join the Royal Flying Corps; - Chris Allen had had another operation due to complications and was in hospital in Brighton [Sussex]; - Sergeant George Smith had been wounded; - Murden Goldsmith, Percy Mackness, John Parrott and C.Sykes were all in France and were well

item

Allen, Chris,
Cox, Jim,
Cox, Archie,
Cox, Don,
Church, Walter,
Harpin, Fred,
Goldsmith, Arthur,
Curtis, Walter,
Mackness, Percy,
Jeffs, Wilfred,
Harpin, Frank,
Keech, P.,
Church, William,
Cox, Charles,
Middleton, Fred,
Bowyer, Walter,
Ruffhead, Reginald,
Bowyer, William,
Bartram, George,
Dawson, Fred,
Cox, Walter,
Lacey, Alec,
Warwick, Walter,
Church, Arthur,
Jefferies, George,
Church, Thomas,
Curtis, Fred,
Bartram, Arthur,
Cowley, Albert,
Hardwick, Hector,
Allen, Chris,
Smith, George,
Goldsmith, Murden,
Parrott, John,
Sykes, C.

STEVINGTON, general correspondence, First World War, World War One, Sussex, London, sanatorium, Bombay, dysentery, Mesopotamia, Baghdad, Kut, Passchendaele, Liverpool, Ireland, France, Royal Flying Corps, East Africa, Messines Ridge [Ypres], Egypt, Turks, Gaza, lance corporal, Gibraltar, Dover, air raids over UK, Edinburgh, Ipswich, Rugeley, Brighton