Letters were a huge way for soldiers on the front to communicate back to their families or lovers.
"God bless my daddy who’s away / Across the silver sea, / Fighting in the cause of Right, / For Home, and Mum and me, / Please God, take care of daddy dear, / Through sunshine and through rain, / And wipe away poor Mummy’s tear, / And send him home again’. Printed text on the back informs us that the postcard was produced by ‘W. & K. London, E C.’, other details being ‘Series No. 3776’ and ‘British Manufacture.’. Also on the reverse is a message written by hand in black ink: ‘To my Dearest Daddy. / Wishing you Many Happy Returns of the Day. With fondest love and kisses from your ever loving Daughter / Marjorie / X X’."(Flicker photos) ThE British government printed off numerous numbers of letters people could send to the front with text on the already as well as a spot for a relative to write
“The last time I wrote I think I told you we had lost our comfortable job on railheads. We have been shifted from General Headquarters and are at the most godforsaken hole there can possibly be in France. We had a rotten journey raining all the time. Reveille* was at 4am and we eventually left the station about 10am. The accommodation consisted of the old cattle trucks, and rations of bully and biscuits. It was a very cold and uncomfortable journey.
We arrived at our destination about 4.30pm and after standing in the rain
for 21⁄2 hours with full pack on, we set out on a ten mile march. It’s the worst march I’ve ever done. The majority of us at the finish were absolutely knocked up and were only too glad to crawl into the billets before going to bed, which was about 12pm. They gave us a mug of tea (the first we had since six in the morning) and best of all a ration of rum. The up to date soldier kit to carry about from place to place consists of 150 rounds of ammunition, inside the pack; overcoat, fur coat, two pairs socks, one pants, one shirt, ground sheet, iron rations [emergency food supply]. Outside pack; Mackintosh and mess tin, in haversack; cleaning kit, hold all, 24lbs rations, soap and towel, and on top of that extras such as handkerchiefs, plate, mug, tobacco, etc, two smoke helmets* in a satchel slung over the shoulder, a respirator in the left flap of a tunic and field dressing on the right, and of course the rifle, in all it’s no light weight on a long march, it takes all one’s strength and staying power to keep going.” Frederick G. Woodhams writing a letter to his family, KIA in 1917(British Archives
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