Excerpts from Lcpl Terry’s letter from the trenches

“I’m afraid that you will be very much disappointed because I don’t expect to get a leave for a long time yet. I’m afraid I shall scarcely know baby when I see her as she will be getting such a big girl.”

“I’m very pleased to say that I’m in the best of health and I hope that you are well too. I guess you would think it looked rather funny if you could see us all writing our letters now, down in our dug-out below the ground.

“We have each got a candle and a cigarette alight and we write a few lines and then smoke a bit until we study what to write next, and the funny positions we get into for comfort would make anyone laugh.”

“I must tell you about our dug-out. The entrance to it is simply a hole in the ground with a flight of stairs leading down into the first place.

“This is a large cellar and it is about 16ft below the surface of the ground. Then there is another flight of stairs which leads down into the bottom place.

“There are 22 steps in the second flight and each of these are one foot apart so you could just do a little addition sum and find out how deep the bottom place is from the surface.”

“The big guns outside are firing just now as I’m writing this letter and they make a terrible noise.”

“Give my love to Dadda and Mamma and all your brothers and baby. I hope you will write to me again soon.

“Wishing you good luck. I remain your loving cousin, George W Terry.”