Saturday 4 April 2015

Comments on Billie's Letter

"P.C." = "Postcard". 

"Thompson" = J Thompson Ray, a brother-in-law of the Thompsons who wrote these letters.  I will be publishing a family tree showing the relationships shortly, along with some other explanatory notes.  In the meantime, the similarity in names caused me a lot of confusion in reading these letters, so wanted to clear that up for readers. 

Now a brief but slightly complex note on dating.  My copy of the text of this letter is dated "late March or early April 1915".  Since the text of the letter refers to the day as being a Sunday, the best fit for date is Sunday 28th March 1915 or Sunday 4th April 1915.  Sunday 21st March or earlier can be eliminated since Billie refers to a letter John wrote from France - presumably that of 23rd March, which is the earliest one surviving, and seems to be the first John wrote, since he reports the journey to France.  Similarly, Sunday 11th April 1915 or later can be eliminated since Billie wrote another letter before then that reports that he has returned from the front line, where he was located when he wrote this current letter. 

Chris Preedy

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