Church parade in the open air. The old parson gave us a sort of valedictory chat in lieu of sermon.
2 thoughts on “Sunday, 12th August (1917)”
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Church parade in the open air. The old parson gave us a sort of valedictory chat in lieu of sermon.
Comments are closed.
Walk March 
12 August – my mother’s birthday, John. She would have been turning 21, and my eldest brother, Pete, would have been 5 months.
Valedictory sounds like ‘final leave’? I’m waiting with bated breath until they are in France.
R seems to be a newish good cobber of Lincoln’s. Do you know his full name?
I look forward to each day’s Walk March. It must be hanging over your head all the time, because you obviously can’t prepare a dozen at a time and have them sent daily.
Amazing undertaking you’ve taken on. Well worth it.
Best wishes
Angela
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Dear Angela,
I hadn’t realised your mother was so young when she married Warwick. I recall from Lincoln’s dedication to Warwick that he had been married about a year in 1916, when they joined up, and Lincoln refers to being made God Father for Ian while at camp (is that the correct brother?).
I’m afraid Warwick and Lincoln are not yet off to France. They have another seven or so weeks until they leave camp on 8 October 1917. Until then Lincoln uses much of his spare time exploring the countryside, painting, and writing home. It is one of the more idyllic periods in the diary and we have some lovely sketches he did which I will post. It’s nice to be able to match up, say, the sketch of a turnip field with his description of doing it.
They only arrive at the front proper on around 20 October. In retrospect, it may have been lucky they were a later deployment, no doubt filling in for losses that had been suffered. The battle of Passchendaele was underway, with the New Zealand Division being heavily involved from 4 October to 20 October 1917, after which it was taken off the line. However, the artillery stayed deployed after 20 October and supported the Canadians until early November. That is the maelstrom into which Lincoln and Warwick were thrown. Who knows, if they had gone earlier, neither of us may have been around to be having this exchange.
I don’t unfortunately know R’s name. There are no “Rs” in the photograph of them at camp.
Finally, you’ll be pleased to know I am not entirely a slave to this project. WordPress is a great service, and I can line up a series of posts and have them released when I want. Thus last weekend I was staying up north at Langs Beach – I had pre-programmed the posts to cover that period.
All the best.
John
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