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Transcription of Robert Wards letter to his brother and sister.
His spelling has been preserved as has the number of words in each line. I have done that to make it easier to locate the actual text in the letter it self. Some parts of the letter are torn and missing. I have rendered missing words and undecipherable text with a string of 3 or 4 x's. (eg 'appeal to xxxx futher life'). The reader can in some instances guess the missing text, (eg in the above example 'appeal to your futher life'), but if the text is not obvious I have not suggested what it might be. The last lines of the letter are in fact a series of x's
The actual letter was written on the 2 pages of a single leaf of A5. which was folded twice forming 4 leaves of A7 allowing him to write on the 8 A7 pages. Apparently over the years the letter has been separated along the folds and an attempt made to rejoin it using selotape. This has produced a document that can't be read in a continuous manner and in my xerox copy which is with the letter I have identified each of the 8 pages. The text below is divided with blank lines identifying those 8 portions.
January 17th 1916 Pte R Ward No 16126
3rd Battlion
Lincolnshire Reg
Dear Brother and Sister
just a few lines to
let you know how I am getting on well
my Dear brother I am in the best of health
and strength up to the present time and
I thank the Lord for that and for his
bountifull gifts towards me up to the present
moment of time and I am righting this letter
to you in an appeal to xxxx futher life I
often wonder about you and wonder if ever you
thought of doing a little bit for our dear and
blessed marster who rains above and who has
the power over us all here upon earth you know
we all are his dear chreachers every one of us Je xxxx
died that we all may one day meet around th xxxx
throun of heaven where we all long one day to xxxx
again but my Dear Brother if we dont live for it xxxx
sharnt maby never see each other again but I hope a xxxx
pray from the bottom of my heart that if you have xxxx
not yet started to love and surve our dear and blessed
Marster you will start from the reading of this letter
my heart and mind has been move so much since I
have been xxxx hear trying to do my little bit for my
contry that I could not healp but to start to live
a better life than I have been living when you was
at home and I am righting this letter expecting
2
going out very soon but where I don?t know just
now but will tell you further on in the letter
if I get to know soon enough well my Dear brother
I am going to where I dont know whether I shall
ever come back to my Wife and Children or
not so I am making an appeal to you if such
should be the case that I do not live to return
home again I shall look forward to the time when
I shall meet you in heaven and unless we live for
it we may never see each others face again but I
offer up a prayer every night for the Lord to spare
my Dear life to return home safely after the war
is over and that he will spare then unto me for
to see them brought up well I am expecting going
out as a bom thrower so you will have an hyidear
what a kind of job I have got to do but I am
going to try to do my duiety while I am there and
if I live to come home I shall be able to tell you
the tail about what I go through and what I shall
see. well I spent 6 days at home from January 5th up
to the tenth of January and poor little mable was
bad in bed all the time and then I went home
the fowling saturday to see her again as I was expecting
going away very soon as I have told you in the begin
ing of my letter so I thought I should like to xxxx
before I went away as it might be my last time
that I should be spared to see her dear sweet face
hear upon earth and if it should be so I are looking
forward to seeing them all in heaven and you includ
ing well my Dear Brother I have altered a little bit
since I came up. I both look a lot better and I
feel a lot better and they have straightened me
up as well and I have had 17 teeth drawn and
have been today to get my mouth moddled for
some xxx ones I expect I shall feel funny at first
3
with them but I shall soon get used to them
I have had all my double teeth drawn out but
too so you see I have not be able to eat very well
with my frunt ones and I also have seen Charley
tompson at Grimsby him who used to be forman
joyner for tompsons of louth him and his brother
as a contract jobs of there own now and is getting
on well two they have plenty of work on just now
but it is a job to get any stuff for to work with now
the war is on well my Dear brother I have realised
more since I have been in the army than ever I have done
in my life before and I hope the Lord will spare my life
to be able to tell the tail when it is all over and I
hope that the Lord will soon bring it to and end
for the sakes of the dear wifes and Chirldren which
are left behind while there Husbands is out in the
trenches doing there duiety towards there King
and country but my Dear Brother since I
have been hear I often have wounderd if only
they (?) would listed to fight the battles of life
xxxx there dear and blessed Lord and marster
xxxx they have listed for there Kind and country
xxxx should have been in a much better form
xxxx then we are today I think this war would not
xxxx come of yet if it had not have been for
the sin and rebellion of this dear land of ours
I don?t expect as ever I shall see you again in this
life but do try if you have not yet started to
live a true and a hupright life as far as it
is possiable for you to do so and then at the last
day our dear lord will be able to us all come
ye blessed of my Farther inherriate the kingdom
of heaven wich I have prepared for you from the
foundations of the wourld and dont you
think that wount be beautifull for us to hear
it will be far more sweeter than to hear him
say enter ye into outer darkness for I never
knew so just take heart and repent of your xxxx
sin and belive in him who saves us from all his
and dangers to which besseps us all both by day
or night. well my Dear Brother though you
be far from your dear old home and all of us
which so Dearly loves you all I always am thinking
of you and your wife and Dear Children and
longing to see you some day but when that
day will be I can not say with you bein so
far away but we shall have to live in hopes
for the best to be and with this I think I
have told you all my knews and maybe it
will be the Last time I shall have the pleasure
of righting to you my Dear Brother xxxx
from your Dear and loving and effectionate
brother and will be for ever more while life
hall (?) last and then if it is to be for me to leave
this life I am fully prepared to meet my God
who ruleth all thing well and for the best yours
Pte Robert Ward
3rd Battialion
Lincolnshire Reg
well my Dear brother I
was told that you rought
and told some of them that
I rought you a touching
letter when I rought but I think by the time
when you have read this letter and fully thought
it out it would have touched you more still so
good afternoon and may God bless you know
and always and for ever more while life shall
last. Give the Children a few kisses for me and if
you right to Alice let me know through he(r) how
you are getting on and how this letter found you.
and right back as soon
as you can and then
maybe I may be able to
read if the Lord only spares
xxxx me to do so and I hope he
xxxx will look upon me in xxxx
and return me home safely to my Dear Wife
and Children once more
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Letter from Robert Ward to Frederick Ward
Written while he was serving in the first world war.
| Owner of original | Vern Smith |
| Date | January 17th 1916 |
| File name | RobertWard.txt |
| File Size | 7.86k |
| Linked to | WARD, Frederick; WARD, Robert |
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