I am also sending you one of my coat badges. This morning I received
from my tailor a much warmer coat, I am glad to say, for I find it
terribly cold being out all night in mud and ice-cold water. I am sure
you are trying to be a very good girl and learning your lessons well.
Your loving
DADDIE.
_March 9th, 1915._
IN TRENCHES. VERY MUCH!
_March 11th, 1915._
I have had some very hard fighting since I wrote to you. Of course I
knew it was coming off, but could not tell you exactly.... We lost a
certain amount.... I am too busy, though, to write much, and I am out
in the open feeling very cold, and will be in the mud all night,
where, by the bye, I've been for the past three nights. A few of my
officers have been killed, I regret to say, whilst the total of killed
and wounded for my regiment alone has been three times the number of
my father's house in P---- Terrace [total number, 141]. Can you
imagine me charging down with the regiment shortly after dawn into
Neuve Chapelle? I will write more about it all if I am spared. There
is heavy fighting before us.
Yours ever....
G.B.L.
[Here the letters end abruptly, this being the last one written just
after the taking of Neuve Chapelle. On the following day, March 12th,
the Irish Rifles were ordered to advance to a further position, which,
although the ground was gained, the task was an almost impossible one,
the men being completely worn out after fighting hard several days and
nights together.
The story of how Colonel Laurie led the charge will be found in the
letters appended, with various other descriptions of the battle.
Cheering on his men and calling to them to follow him, he fell in
action mortally wounded. Thus was he summoned in a moment to a higher
life, and his pilgrimage on earth was over].
_R.I.P._