THE letter received from Southampton by Mrs Roberts of Berwick, which was published in the Shire News on 26 April 1916.
FROM ENGLAND
Dear Mrs Roberts,
We are strangers to one another, but I will introduce myself as being a native of Southampton and I am writing you a few lines to tell you how sorry I was to read quite recently in our local newspaper of the big trouble you have sustained in the loss of your dear boy who, I understand, was wounded at Gallipoli, then taken to Netley Hospital, when suffering from enteric.
He passed away to the great Homeland, having fulfilled his gallant part in this heart-ending war, and your grief has been made greater because your dear one has been laid to rest in a strange land; and yet not in a ‘strange’ land, after all when you remember it is England, the Mother country, but too far away for you to visit that sacred spot.
Possibly before receiving this you will know that volunteers were soon found ready to fulfill your desire, in that some friend would undertake to occasionally visit your dear boy’s grave and place flowers on it. Personally I could not do this, but my mother secured the promise of a friend who was quite willing. But this took a little time to arrange. In consequence, when enquiring for details for her, I found others had been before, and I was too late. However, I think our friend will sometimes go if she can obtain permission to be admitted to the cemetery, as at present I am not sure whether it is open to the general public. We trust that the thought of your dear one’s grave being visited will bring you comfort.
With kind thoughts and much sympathy.
Yours very sincerely,
B. Robertson.
