Letter from Edward Packe to Penelope Packe (his sister)
Diary entry Manuscript of this letter Edward Packe and Penelope (Pen), his sister |
21.XII.14 (21st December 1914)
My Dear Pen,
'Hail thou ever smiling dawn'. I was most awfully cheered by the parcel from W.B. which I got last night on coming back for a rest after four rather trying days. I am going to tackle the P.P. [1] for lunch & will tell you who gets the 3d. I am sending off a P.C. [2] now as this letter might not be finished today & you might be rather alarmed by the casualty lists owing to rather a fiasco which happened a couple of days ago. I had better not tell you about it now, but it was due to the telephone wire connecting us & the artillery being broken during an attack.
Although I have wished you all a happy Xmas once I feel I must do it again as the parcel makes it feel so very like Christmas. The mince pies have not arrived yet but I hear that another bag of mails has arrived so I tackled the P.P. on the spot, ten people had a bit but it was mostly shared by four of us & after giving some away there was about a quarter left which contained the 3d So cutting it into four, we each had a piece & I had the last which did contain the 3d so I maintained my reputation for always getting the 3d.
27.XII.14
Almost a week since I started this letter but each mail has brought in such piles for me so I have just been sending P.C.s but I think that now I can start again.
 Edward Packe's watch. He sent it to be cleaned and mended on November 9th. |
A very curious state of affairs reigned here on Christmas day. I don't know how it started but anyhow Germans & English were walking in between the two trenches hobnobbing & exchanging cigarettes etc. The Germans weren't allowed near our trenches & they wouldn't allow us near theirs. There were a good many German dead near our trenches & these we brought into the middle & then they took 'em away to bury them & did the same to ours. Although I wasn't up in the trenches as we were lucky enough to be back on a farm for 2 days, I got this from one of our stretcher bearers who brought back our dead in the middle & although there were many elaborations put on the story, till it got that the Germans were in our trenches & we in theirs, the bear (sic) fact is I think we each advanced to the middle & hobnobbed there. Anyhow I saw a German field service P.C. with a German name & address on which a chap was given. You couldn't hear a shot fired the whole day anywhere & it was awfully hard to realise that there was a war on until they came for a fatigue party from our Coy to bury the dead that had been brought in. Christmas day was a beautiful cold frosty day with nearly all the mud frozen up it was nice for a change. In the evening we went into a cottage close to our farm where there is a family living (only a mile from the firing line) & we had a sort of sing-song, the French sung one & then we'd sing one, it was rather a weird mixture, Carols & 'Tiperary' being mixed together. On the whole I had a jolly good Christmas & I hope you all enjoyed yours as much. I thought of you often enough & wished I could have been home to hide 'Goodies'.
 Example of Field Service Postcard |
Best love & best thanks & best wishes to all the family (servants included)
Your ever loving brother
Edward A Packe
P.S. An officer coming round to inspect the sentries the other night surprised one of our chaps stripped to the waist & stamping on his shirt saying 'Die; you —— lice. Die! You —— lice!'
Another tin of Keatings wouldn't come amiss for me either.
[1] plum pudding
[2] post card
[3] peppermints(?)