Now! Then! The final letter to his father of Private Charles Langrick, 1st/5th Bn., The Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment

20 August 1915: The final letter to his father of Private Charles Langrick, 1st/5th Bn., The Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment

Charles Langrick. 2014. [August 20th]. Huddersfield’s Roll of Honour, 1914-1922. Ed. Margaret Stansfield and Paul Wilcock. Huddersfield: University of Huddersfield Press. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, without modification. Get it:

Excerpt

Always my dear Dad, my thoughts are with you and often in the still hours of the night I can imagine myself at home leading the old life. And then the magnitude of the cross which has been laid upon us all comes home to us with every thought and I hope we shall be able to bear it and not in vain. Well, Dad, I must close now as the shadows are falling and it is almost impossible to write but, as I finish, the song comes into my mind, “Dusk and the shadows are falling.”

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations

Comment

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission says that Charles’s parents were Benjamin and Marian Thirza Langrick, of 55, Birch Rd., Berry Brow, Huddersfield. Benjamin was headmaster of the Armitage Bridge National School 1892-1926, so he didn’t survive the 23 extra years desired by his son.

Perhaps the song is “The wandering boy,” which proceeds to reference Indiana, and for which I can find no melody (The Carter Family’s contemporaneous “Wandering boy” is different):

It is dusk and the shadows are falling,
And back from my wanderings I roam,
Back to the scenes of my childhood
And back to my dear old home.

I travel onward and onward
With a joy of sincere delight,
Because I am traveling homeward
Like a bird to its nest at night.
(Anon 1928)

Re “the Company,” Wilcock, in his introduction to Stansfield, writes: “The London, Liverpool and Globe Insurance Company, by whom he was employed, had paid him full wages since the commencement of the war and at the close of the first twelve months intimated that they would now pay half wages.”

Wilcock quotes the letter of condolence sent by Second Lieutenant N. Rippon, 15th Platoon, D Company, 1st/5th Battalion DWR:

Dear Mr and Mrs Langrick, Please allow me to offer my deepest sympathy with you in the death of your son who was wounded in the neck on Sunday, August 22nd, and died in the Clarence Hospital at 7.15 pm on August 23rd. Immediately your son had been attended to I rang up his brother, Sergeant Vernon Langrick, and everything possible was done for him, but the wound proved fatal. He was a thoroughly good soldier and a splendid fellow to get on with. I am greatly indebted to him for the tremendous lot of work he did for me. He could speak French fluently and always wrote all the letters on behalf of the Platoon. I can assure you his loss is felt by all the Officers, NCOs and men of D Company. I sincerely hope you will be able to take some little consolation from the fact that he died a brave man’s death fighting for his King and Country and also he will have a nice little grave in a hospital cemetery instead of just behind the trenches. Again, expressing our united sympathy with you in your great loss.

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Original

[August 20th]

Dear Dad,

Very many happy returns of your birthday, as you say, and to my great surprise as I had always looked upon you as one young and energetic. It is now 23 years since you took up your duties at Armitage Bridge. May you be spared another 23 years to do your duty there and may the evening of your career be abundantly blessed with all the things of life that are best, will always be my prayer.

I am not at all surprised at the Company’s action and think they have behaved splendidly towards their staff. Their expenses are sure to have been very heavy.

We are safe again in the trenches and supports, but keep looking forward to a rest. Vernon [his eldest brother] and myself are quite well and all the boys from home are likewise. Poor Samson Taylor’s loss was a great shock to us as it was so unexpected and sudden.

Well, Dad, I must close now as the shadows are falling and it is almost impossible to write but, as I finish, the song comes into my mind, ‘Dusk and the shadows are falling.’

Yours loving son,
Charles.

277 words.