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[Page 76]
Portsmouth 20 Aug '16
Headquarters,
1st Anzac,
France.
Dear Judge Ferguson.
I wrote to you a long while since – but I am not sure whether in the end I posted the letter, as I kept it until I had seen some of those who were with your son when the shell came into his dugout and killed him. The other day I found a friend of mine, little Claud Jones (a subaltern in the same battalion) who was there with your son at the time, It is a sadly brief story. They were sitting there talking at the time – no hint of anything special doing
0 when this shell came through the roof of the dugout. Your son was killed quite instantly, Jones tells me.
I have no doubt that many others (I know that some of them have written) have told you what they thought of your boy and his work here. I heard his name mentioned more than once as that of an officer who had before him every likelihood of reaching a high position, and I have not the slightest doubt that had he come through this war it would have been to end it in a considerably higher rank. I have always heard that the way he managed his company on the memorable night when the Germans first got into our lines near Armentieres was all that could have been wished. You know that owing to certain matters, which were not within the control of the battalion officers, there was an inquiry after that raid, and I understand that those who were actually on the spot and knew gave high credit to him for the way he carried himself that night. I was told that he was blown over three times by shells in trying to reach the rocket station from his headquarters, a matter of about ten yards. It was the irony of things that after coming through a fierce night like that he should have fallen in a comparatively quiet time. When the history of that raid is written he will certainly be remembered.
The latest blow, and one which came as a heavy shock to a great part of the force, was the death of Charlie Manning. He