Now! Then! 2025! - A Yorkshire Almanac

Excerpt

On the day the war ended, when the ceasefire began, I have a feeling that he was somewhere on the Belgian frontier, possibly near Mons. I think he felt that he had been short-changed in the matter of pleasures in the wartime, so he called on this French, what would you call her, madame – I think the lady was her own master. Unfortunately he discovered that he was unable to perform, but the lady was not at all distressed and treated him to a brandy. I think he rather thought that he had got through the war successfully, and that virginity was an overrated virtue.

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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

Comment

Maubeuge is a guess. Thomas Trevor ApSimon’s war letters suggest that he was at, or just short of, Goegnies-Chaussée on 11 November (ApSimon 2023). Of the nearby towns, fighting took place in Mons right up till 11:00 and Valenciennes was too far, but Maubeuge was only 8km, had a sex industry, and had been taken by the Guards Division on 9 November. TTA’s birthday was 5 November – more reason to celebrate.

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Original

On the day the war ended, when the ceasefire began, I have a feeling that he was somewhere on the Belgian frontier, possibly near Mons. I think he felt that he had been short-changed in the matter of pleasures in the wartime, so he called on this French, what would you call her, madame – I think the lady was her own master. Unfortunately he discovered that he was unable to perform, but the lady was not at all distressed and treated him to a brandy. I think he rather thought that he had got through the war successfully, and that virginity was an overrated virtue.

107 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Alcohol (drug) (62) ·
• Armistice Day (2) ·
• Armistice of 11 November 1918 (3) ·
• Belgium (7) ·
• Brandy (6) ·
• Erectile dysfunction (2) ·
• Erection (1) ·
• France (33) ·
• Goegnies-Chaussée (1) ·
• Guards Division (United Kingdom) (1) ·
• Mons (3) ·
• 📌Pontefract (19) ·
• Prostitution (15) ·
• Royal Army Medical Corps (1) ·
• Sex (12) ·
• 📌Valenciennes, Nord department, France (2) ·
• Virginity (1) ·
• Western Front (World War I) (3) ·
• World War I (1914-19) (21) ·
• York and Lancaster Regiment (1) ·

All tags.

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