State Library of NSW
[Page 535]
2.
Roger, had no love for fighting for its own sake, but he felt – like you both – that it was his duty to go, & so he went, and did splendidly just because he was not trying for limelight but was doing whatever came to his hand to do with that same high sense of honour and duty that distinguished him in everything he did throughout his life. I never knew a straighter & more honourable boy in all his dealings than he was. He just went straight ahead, & never bothered what anybody said, but did the thing he thought he ought to do, regardless of anyone's opinions to the contrary. His goodness just shone out of his face, & everyone who ever knew him was struck by it. You know how fond of him Mother & I were, & how we hoped that some day you & he would pull along together, & be the Hughes & Hughes of the next generation in succession to his father & me. Everyone speaks the same way of him, no matter how different their walks in life.
It is a great blessing to know that he died so painlessly & quickly, & that he was spared long agony & suffering. But all the same the suffering is his mother's, unless she comes soon to realise that she wouldn't bring him back again even if she could. Nothing can still the sorrow of those left behind but prayer, & the firm belief that all is well with him for ever. God be merciful to him, & may the soil of France lie
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