BMS/CWK/95/17/6

Letter to C.W. Kaye from Ada Lindsay of Campbell Road, Bedford

23 Dec 1915

From: 1915 To: 1915

Relates part of a letter from her son, Jasper, who is serving in the War; 'The last time we were billetted in the area of shell fire we were not far from the remains of a church. The village was a mass of ruins, just bits of houses sticking up out of piles of bricks and plaster. The church was difficult to see and the tombstones were scattered in all directions, but above all the debris and desolation, absolutely untouched, stood a great 12 foot cross with a life size figure looking calmly down from it. It is always so. I have see several about and never a broken one. Coming quickly round a corner and suddenly seeing all this makes one feel like a little boy caught doing something wrong. One feels ashamed of all the damage and destruction and noise going on in the presence of the Most High, and 3 people out of 4 stop dead at the sight of that figure greiving over the stricken land it has watched over for so many generations.' Ada goes on ..'I am glad to say the Boy is very well, and he makes the very best of those awful trenches where they are knee deep in filth for days on end, and always writes cheerfully and tells me little items that make it all so real, and brings him quite near - also he writes every other day when he has the chance, which is really very good of him..'.

2 sheets

item

Kaye, C.W.,
Lindsay, Ada,
Lindsay, Jasper

general correspondence, World War One, Bedford Campbell Road