Series 01 Part 02: Hughes family correspondence, 3 April 1917-22 September 1918 - Page 512
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[Page 512]
2.
you have made. At the same time you have so thoroughly vindicated your personal courage that you need have no fear that anyone will under rate your share in the general scrap. The text of the Gazette notice (as reprinted in the Times of 15th May) came to us from Auntie Mary by the last mail, & we were simply tremendously proud of our boy! We sent the paragraph to the papers here, & I enclose two cuttings from the Herald & Telegraph reproducing it. It also appeared in the Sunday Times, & in the Evening News, & we have had heaps of congratulations from people we have met everywhere. Everybody seems to have read it, as it had a good position in the 'Personal column' of both morning papers yesterday. Auntie Mary also sent us a copy of the Daily Sketch of 15th May which reproduced in a headline the very words used of you in the official account.
Solomon (City Treasurer, who lost his only son, as you know) sent me a cheery little note today reminding me of the days when you – a little chap in knickerbockers – signed your name in my book at the Town Hall as "Geoffrey, the Lord Mayor's son". Dr & Mrs Todd, Dick Teece, Layton, the MacCraes, the Earps, Robert (the Hall Porter at the Town Hall), Miss Gurney, Miss Macdonald, & all sorts of people have stopped us to say that they think the official paragraph about your Military Cross is simply splendid, & of course we think so too.
Your letter with the account of the Boar Hunt in France was most amusing, & you did wisely in getting out of the way. It reminded me of my first day's pheasant shooting in England when a crowd of beaters went on in just the same way, & one fellow shot the Keeper, – a pellet of shot went through his cheek & dropped on his tongue; another fellow shot the Keeper's dog (the greatest crime of all!); a third put a charge of shot into