A Journey Through Two Soldiers' Letters from WWI
Letters from the Great War
This week's "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" prompt, "Letters and Diaries," couldn't have come at a more perfect moment. As I've been diving into my family's WWI history, I've had the privilege of reading two sets of wartime letters that bring our past to life.
While researching my great-grandfather Charles Cripps' WWI service, I discovered an unexpected treasure in the Australian War Memorial archives - a detailed letter from Private Robert Leslie Holden. What makes this find so fantastic? Both men served in the 11th Battalion's 12th Reinforcements and embarked together on the RMS Mongolia from Fremantle in November 1915.
I was amazed that I had found a letter written by someone who was in the same regiment as my great-grandfather and on the same troopship. Now his journey to Egypt and the Western Front were all the more real.
I already had the original letters that my great-grandfather had written while he was away. They came to me through my father’s collection of memorabilia. There were also some postcards he had sent home to family and friends, that found their way to me via other relatives who knew my interest in the Cripps family history. I have now passed these on to my second cousin for safe keeping through the next generation.
Through these combined letters of Robert Holden and Charles Cripps, we can trace their journey from Western Australia to the hellish battlefields of the Western Front. While Holden's account provides vivid details of their shared experiences - from the sweltering heat of Colombo to the devastation of Pozières - my great-grandfather's letters home offer intimate glimpses into a soldier's heart, revealing both the terrors of war and the precious comfort found in letters from loved ones.
Their intertwined stories paint a powerful picture of mateship, courage, and the human experience of war. Want to discover how these two soldiers' paths crossed and diverged during this momentous period? Follow the link to read their full story, where their letters bring the past vividly to life.
Link to full blog post here.
Further reading of my great-grandfather Charles Cripps can be found over on my WeAre.xyz blog here.
I loved the way you wove together the stories of these two WW1 soldiers to illustrate their shared experiences. Your tabular display of their locations (assisted by AI) was a master stroke! This is a well constructed story, an exemplar for others to view. Keeping the central theme around the letters gave this story a poignant perspective!
These are such treasures. I have some postcards from WW1 which I must get around to writing about here. Unfortunately, the postcards don't have as much detail and depth as a letter would but treasures none the less. Some were sent in letters but where the letters went I don't know.