A WW1 Soldiers Letter To His Sweetheart - On Display At Galway Museum..

This was a post I made on a forum I frequent - back a few months ago...I think it deserves a reposting here..


While roaming around Galway museum we (Mrs Doug and myself) found this..

What looked like a service manual for radiators or something was sitting on a shelf, it had a black cover, and no writing to say it was anything important, and it wasnt inside a cabinet or anything...just randomly left on a shelf....I didnt pay it much attention as I went by it.....but I looked back a couple of minutes later and 'Mrs Doug' was reading through it...she called me over to show me what was inside...a soldiers* letter to his sweetheart in 1918....they were both from Galway, but he had found himself injured from battle in a hospital in Egypt, and she had found herself in America, the reason why she was in America wasnt clear, but it appears it is temporary..


*he was a member of The Connaught Rangers ("the Devil's Own") - an Irish Regiment of the British Army during WW1.


...anyhoo....this is hardly readable...due to batteries having died on my good camera and this was snapped with our crappy little point and shoot thing...this isn't readable so i have re-typed what it says...and i think it is very much worth reading.

This was donated to the museum by the grandson of the couple...they eventually married and settled back home in Galway after the war ended.

(to read what it says and the rest of the post click on the 'read more' link below..)


.





cont.


...............................
"Excuse writing and mistakes, I am lying down as I write this letter xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
My dearest Bridget xxxxxxxxxx
I take the greatest of pleasure in answering your most kind and forever loving letters. I recieved them all quite safe. I can see by all your letters that your love for me is just the same as it was in the happy days of long ago. I know you will be very sorry to hear that I have been wounded since I came to Egypt. I got wounded on the 18th of July this year. Of course you might like to know what part of the body I was wounded. Well don't laugh. I was wounded in the 'bottom' you know where I mean excuse me for saying the word. The proper name is 'buttock'. I know you wont mind, you love me much, and its well i know it. You will be delighted to hear that I got over two operations quite safe. I had to have the operations to get the bullet taken out. The doctor failed to find it the first time + finished the job. Operations are grand things, did you ever try one?. I am writing this letter as I am laying in bed. I cannot sleep on those hospital beds its such a...."

The rest of the letter (larger images), ten pages in total, can be seen here

More info the author's group here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connaught_Rangers


..which were part of...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Expeditionary_Force




..and some other info I found on The Connaught Rangers..

After World War I was over, both battalions of The Connaught Rangers returned to the Army Depot at Dover, Kent, England; where their numbers were made up to full strength once more. The 1st. Battalion then went to India in October 1919; and the 2nd. Battalion went to Upper Silesia (Poland) in May 1921. When news of the atrocities committed in Ireland by "The Black and Tans" reached the 1st. Battalion in Jullundur and Solan, India; a mutiny arose amongst the Irish troops and 69 men were court-martialled. At Solan, 2 mutineers died whilst attacking the armoury, and 14 were sentenced to death. However, only the ring-leader of this rebellion, Private J. Daly, was finally executed. No doubt the Army leadership realised the extreme provocation under which the rebellion was mounted by those Irishmen, hearing of the fate of their fellow-Irishmen at home at the hands of British soldiers of another regiment. Following the mutiny, the entire 1st. Battalion was sent to Rawalpindi and saw service there, with no further rebellion.

In June 1922, both the 1st. and 2nd. Battalions returned to Britain. Their colours were then laid up at Windsor, Berkshire. The Connaught Rangers were disbanded as a regiment on 31 July 1922, after an outstanding record of uniformed military service over almost 230 years. The Rangers' links to Tipperary Town still exist, immortalised worldwide in the words and music of the song "It's a Long Way to Tipperary".