Horace was wounded, and moved to Ebblingham casualty clearing station where he died aged 19yrs, only 5 months before the armistice. He wrote a letter to his mother talking about the hellish life in the trenches and how much he was looking forward to coming home. At the end of the letter is a note in my great grandmother's writing saying, "this letter was dated the day my darling died. It came in the same post as the official death notice." His mother( my Great Grandmother) had already lost one son in 1916 and another was badly wounded in 1917. I struggle to imagine how much she and other mothers would have suffered during the war, knowing their sons were enduring such horrendous conditions and in such danger every day. Often the only news of their son was an official death notice after he had died.

Penelope Carnaby