In this letter David Barrogill Keith writes to his mother in Thurso, preparing for a Christmas in Flanders away from his family. As the letter is a long one it has been divided into two parts: this first part describes what it feels like to be in the middle of an artillery duel, a short-lived pre-Christmas truce between the British and Germans soldiers facing each other at Loos, and a remarkable meeting in No Man’s Land; DB Keith also describes the farewell parade for Sir John French, former commander of the British Expeditionary Force, who had been replaced by Sir Douglas Haig after his management of the disastrous battle of Loos.
The second part, which will be published tomorrow, describes concerts for the troops and tells of the Battalion’s Irish Roman Catholic padre.
Dated 20th December 1915, 10th Cameronians, B.E.F.
My dear Mother,
This will be my Xmas letter as I hope it will succeed in reaching you just on Xmas day. It is to wish you all a merry Xmas & a happy New Year. All the family will be at home I expect save myself but don’t worry about me, I’m getting on all right & Xmas out here isn’t desperately bad except of course that it differs so far little from any other day in the week & like the weekly Sunday will arrive alas! without Carols – & I am afraid quite with a shock. I can hardly realise that it is now three months since I have come out here. Time passes so quickly & this is not really war at all. For those in the trenches it’s magnificent target practice carried out no doubt in the main by over zealous gunners engaged in what is I believe technically known as an Artillery Duel but which being interpreted means that our brave boys way back pom pom the German in his trenches & the German also way back pom poms our boys ditto. So we are the piano on which this elegant & oft recurring duet or duel is performed & we don’t like it one little bit. If our artillery & the Bosch arranged to straff one another & dodged about & hid well it would be war, interesting fair play & a glorious gentlemanly sort of procedure but for both the big fellows to whack us on the head with big sticks while we cower in the trenches & by mutual understanding refrain from punching each other is neither heroic laudable nor funny. Still it’s known as an Artillery Duel in Flanders!
Well I’ve a good deal to tell you. No doubt in that last letter of mine you were surprised at the propinquity of the Bosch. But in our last tour of the trenches he became quite friendly, he waved his arms he threw white papers, he got up he sat on his parapet, he came out of the trench altogether & one bold man came over to the regiment we relieved. They not to be out done in daring sent out a bold L/Corpl. too. These met in NO MAN’S LAND between the trenches which all the world wondered. They exchanged cigarettes, & the Bosch told us we would be very welcome & well done to at his restaurant behind his barbed wire. But – the moment each parted they ran like billy oh for their respective little hole in the mud for the last blighter might receive some presents he did not quite desire. Thereafter we had quite a chummy sort of time with Fritz, we threw over pamphlets inviting him to come & be happy with us & otherwise shewed him how willing we were to have a guest. But the old blighter didn’t come tho’ grimy & unshaven & as he told us he had been there for months & months.
But during the night he must have been relieved as in the morn sullen mud & cold barbed wire & the ping of a rifle bullet were all the weather forecast we could get.
Curiously one of our fellows picked up a Bosche shell fired at us indited I think R STRONG & CO. It must be a swine of an American firm but these Americans are pool sfools anyway & not worth quarrelling with.
Well today I saw Field Marshal Sir John FRENCH for the first time saying his farewell to his troops. We were all drawn up along the roadway & presented arms as the car with the white moustached old man passed slowly along. And then it passed away – for ever with the man who for eighteen months had charge of the British Destiny in France…
[Caithness Archive Centre reference P38/10/16; part two of this letter will be published tomorrow]
