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Author Archives: Richard Berryman

21 November 1918 – Richard to Gertrude

21.11.18

 

Dear Mother

Just a line to tell you I am leaving Egypt today for Bombay. I have got a nice ship & know the O.C. well & it ought to be a nice voyage. Luckily I have only been kept in Suez a day & much to the disgust of one or two others I am getting away first.

I have’nt heard from Topher once since I left Ludd. Tell Jane I met Slocock in the hotel here today. He came on board to see me this evening & I hope will lunch here tomorrow.

I hope I shall find some letters in Calcutta.

Best love to all

yr loving son

Richard



And so Richard sails off to India to take up his post as a doctor in Assam where later letters refer to him having a menagerie of pets, and where, three years after the war, he got married in Nagpur. Richard was 40 and his bride, Beryl Gladys French was 19 or 20 at the time. There is clearly a story there because they divorced after a few years and she married Edward Poyntz Whitlock Nicholl in 1928 and had Edward’s daughter in 1929. There is a suggestion that Beryl had a career as a Casting Director for the Paramount Film Company which seems improbable, but which I very much want to be true. She died in Chester in England in 1981. 

Richard died in 1936 at Barts Hospital where he had trained as a doctor over thirty years before. He was 56 and probably died of cancer. Richard was the first of the adult Berryman children to die but of all of them, he probably had the most fun. Richard was dashing, flirtatious and full of zest for life. In fairness, he probably had the grimmest war too: the doctors saw horrors every day that the soldiers only saw during and after battles. In his letters he’s impatient, demanding and petulant, but according to my mother he was much nicer in person than he was on the page. I am willing to believe her; he was clearly a charmer but I often feel he might have been a bit of a cad. If you can avoid the dangers, cads are the most tremendous fun. 

 
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Posted by on 21 November, '18 in About

 

9 November 1918 – Richard to Gertrude

Richard Berryman, sketch by Vall

Richard Berryman, sketch by Vall

39 I.G.H.

9.11.18

 

Dear Mother

I have got two letters of yours Oct 4 and 8 in which you say you have not heard from me. I hope by this time you have, & got my letter directing you what to do when the cable arrives. I am back again with 39 Hospital, hoping I am on my way to India. But there is a hitch somewhere & goodness knows when I shall get away.

Snice to be back here. Much colder than when I was here last, but the sea is nice & it all seems so much healthier. I am sorry to leave Topher behind. He came to see me off, & he will always be able to go over to our camp & see a change of face. Goodness knows when I shall see him again. He is quite fit & happy only like everyone wonders what’s going to happen to him.

Many thanks for all those papers & the photograph of Evelyn. The papers are most welcome. Funny Dreda should meet Rowland’s people! I have’nt heard from Evelyn for ages, but I must write as it’s my turn. Topher seems to have cut me out there altogether.

I imagine I am going to India for 3 years. Save save save & then come home for good & do a small practice there. But the quicker I go the sooner I’ll be back. I posted some beads & table napkin rings to you, you ought to be able to use them for Christmas, but they should get there ages before. The mail only takes a month really. We hourly expect to hear the Hun has given in. It’s all good news is’nt it. James & Ben must be sick of house hunting.

No eyeglasses ever arrived. Did you ever get a letter asking you to have some coloured prints of that picture of me?

Best love to all

yr loving son

Richard.

a Happy Christmas to all.

 
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Posted by on 9 November, '18 in About

 

1 November 1918 – Richard to Gertrude

1.11.18.

 

My dear Mother.

I might get a mail from you any day now I fancy. A referee & a Sunday Herald arrived posted Sept 29th for which many thanks. I sent a letter saying Topher & I are quite near each other at present. I discovered him by chance. All private cables are stopped or I would have sent one to say we had met, but the one saying quite well went just before the order came out. I have’nt gone yet and am rather sick about it as I do not see how I can get to Assam now by the 23rd. Anyhow I expect to be sent any day.

Funny sending a cable quite well, ‘cos just after I for some reason got a bad throat & for the first time for many years was made to stay in bed. Could’nt swallow or smoke & generally felt rotten. However I made a rapid recovery & did not reckon on being fit even by today, but thank goodness I am.

Topher is seedy now. Rotten country eh? He’s got diarrhoea, but I went & fetched him this evening & have put him in a tent next me & got him a couple of days’ ex duty, so he will soon be alright. He’s been to Jerusalem & I expect will write to you all about it.

As I thought there is very little in the papers about our big push here, which is of course bigger than any, but perhaps not so important. However the news is so good everywhere nowadays, people must be very cheery at home.

I am trying to shed off those twopenny halfpenny olive wood table napkin rings this week, you will perhaps be able to use them on the table at Christmas time. Still very hot here, but we’ve had some rain. I must go over to Jaffa again & have a bathe, it freshens one up so, & there’s nothing like a change even for one day. Bored stiff with this place and am longing to get away.

I am waiting for No 5 letter now. Wonder if I can run across Jim or Ted in India!

I’ll keep this open & see if any letters come tomorrow.

Good night love to all   yr loving son

Richard


 
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Posted by on 1 November, '18 in About

 

25 October 1918 – Richard to Gertrude

25.10.18

 

Dear Mother

Topher & I are at present quite near each other. He is in a camp expecting to go off any moment, and I expect any moment to be sent to India. Wish they’d hurry up and let me know. We had some rain here first time for ages, & huge sand storms blowing. All the news is good nowadays is’nt it, the war is over here. I must send you a cable if I can afford it!

Best love to all

yr loving son

Richard

 
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Posted by on 25 October, '18 in About

 

20 October 1918 – Richard to Gertrude

20.10.18.

 

My dear Mother. Very many thanks for your letters, the referees & D. Sketch with Jane’s photograph in it & the Barts Journal. Fancy finding these papers at last, but there are 2 more like it somewhere. Anyhow I can claim some part of the money with these. The letters no 3 & 4 both arrived here by the same mail. You see I am using the block & pencil, both most welcome. I sent you a cable today saying “Quite Well” & I hope you’ve got my letter telling you what it means, otherwise you’ll be wondering.

Goodness knows when I shall be off, soon I hope. But after all winter at home won’t be so bad now that the war seems more or less “finish” & I expect there’ll be plenty of coal & light about.

I wonder if Topher has arrived in the country yet. I expect he was stopped when all our successes were known & there won’t be much doing out here now. Anyhow I suppose he will write me directly he arrives. I remember so well about Turner’s ponds seeming so small, but I should have thought Rosamond would have had a fairly accurate idea of the size of the drawing room at the Vicarage. Yet really I suppose she was quite a kid when we left.

I hope you went and saw “Seven days leave”, most exciting play I expect. I always meant to see it in London. How soon Topher got in the Gazette. I hope you find some more eyeglasses. I have now got a big pair of tortoiseshell spectacles like you. Lovely are’nt they? So light. We don’t give 6/- a gallon, but they say that’s what it costs to bring it up all that way in a pipe.

Wish I could have been there that week end when everyone was at home. I am so glad Evelyn came over. So glad your nose is alright. I expect Murray has been home by this time. You will be lucky if you are allowed 7 tons of coal won’t you, but if the war ends you won’t have to bother, we shall get it for nothing shan’t we?

I wangled a day’s leave the other day & went down to Jerusalem. No good being out here without going there is it? Most interesting, but it seems such a pity to build over all those sacred spots like cavalry & the Manger. I quite long to go to church again some Christmas time at home & sing “Hark the herald angels”, and “there’s a Greenhill”, & “while shepherds watch their sheep”.

The hill is’nt green, & there are a lot of houses built in the field where the shepherds were, but I’ll be able to think to myself I’ve seen them. There’s the place where Solomon’s Temple was originally built, & the only thing remaining there is a huge rock with a hole in it where the sacrifices were offered, & the blood & ashes all used to run through this hole into a tank beneath & so out. There’s a lovely view from the mount of Olives.

I went there about 7 in the morning, so as to get out to Bethlehem & back in time. It’s curious too, that the Holy sepulchre & the place where the Cross was, are only about 20 yards apart. Both quite close in the same church. I always imagined the sepulchre was a long way away.

I have sent to you a little mother of pearl cross & a Star of Bethlehem and a book marker from Bethlehem. Goodness knows when they will arrive. It is difficult to get anything useful. Anyhow you can wear the Cross sometimes & use the book marker, & look at the Star. The mother of pearl comes from the Red Sea & the people in Bethlehem make all these things. I wish you could see it all. Mr Kirwan has been out here has’nt he?

I got a letter from Jane & one from Dreda which I will answer soon. Please thank them. I expect you are all most awfully relieved that the news is so  good. I am sending some little napkin rings made out of olive wood from Jerusalem, & you can use them, also some beads made out of Mecca fruit, they call it, & olive wood. You have a bead necklace for a muff chain which you’ll promptly break on your bicycle handle! & the girls can have the others. I’ll try & say who is to have them when I write again.

I hope I shall meet old Topher. I can borrow some money perhaps.

Best love to all

yr loving son

Richard


There is a green hill far away

Vegetable ivory – erstwhile “Mecca fruit”

 
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Posted by on 20 October, '18 in About

 

6 October 1918 – Richard to Gertrude

6.10.18

 

Dear Mother

I must soon be sending a cable. Quite well. No good sending it now as I don’t think you will know what it means as you won’t have got my letter yet explaining.

Many thanks for your no 1 letter. I’ve forgotten to put the number on mine, but anyhow I can always tell if I get yours.

I enclose a cheque for £10 to pay all those bills.

It’s a pity you cannot find those papers. I can’t think where they can have got to. Please look in a leather pocket book of mine & send me the address of that firm of coffee growers in the Nilgiri Hills. You’ll see a price list of theirs in there.

I’ve written to Dreda this mail too. Nothing special in way of news.

Best love to all

yr loving son

Richard


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nilgiris_district

 
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Posted by on 6 October, '18 in About

 

3 October 1918 – Richard to Gertrude

3.10.18

c/o Cox & Co

Calcutta

 

Dear Mother,

Many thanks for your letter written just before my buffday. I hear today I shall be off to India in time to get there by Nov 23rd, and I hope by then the war will be nearly over. Anyhow it’s done with here I think. I shall send you the cable later on, if I send it now, I doubt if you’d understand what it means. I must give you time to get my letter.

What a fine old muddle they seem to have made over the War Hospital, I wonder what they will do in the end.

I had a line from Topher. I am glad he has got his commission at last. I don’t suppose he will come out here, as I doubt if they’ll keep even the people they have got.

The bath room sounds lovely nowadays, I wonder what you are going to do with those two nice pictures up by the gas jet.

Sorry to hear Mrs Houghton is so ill.

I hope Paul haas been home & enjoyed his leave.

I’ve got no mufti if I do go to India!

Best love to all

yr loving son

Richard

 

That little chess board you sent me has been useful lately, I happen to have it with me & I’ve played such a lot in my spare time


Possible hospital in question

Five days earlier

 
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Posted by on 3 October, '18 in About

 

25 September 1918 – Richard to Gertrude

25.9.18                Field.

 

My dear Mother

I’ve just got a letter from XX D.H. also Ben’s. Yours had a lot of lavender in it. Cox sent me a letter for Ted too, awaiting his arrival. Pathetic eh. I’ve sent it on. If I cable my quite well stunt would you please post enclosed. I am communicating with Assam & hear there are plenty of jobs.

I got a letter from Jane written 26th August. Please thank her. I shall be sorry if I go & miss Topher. I must write to Mrs Tudor, I’ve been saving some stamps for her, but they are very common Egyptian ones.

Best love to all

yr loving son

Richard.

 

If I cable please send this letter. If no cable don’t send it, tear it up

 
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Posted by on 25 September, '18 in About

 

21 September 1918 – Richard to Gertrude

21.9.18                Field E.E.F.

 

My dear Mother

Many thanks for your letters. A magazine “Lloyds”, so welcome & also a letter in another envelope forwarded from S. America. I wrote you a letter in answer to one from you when you were with the Morses. I find I never posted it! Of course all our success in the last few days will be stale news by the time you get this, what will happen will have happened, however we seem to have got Johnny Turk on the run. I of course am moved off, and am with a Field Amb

What a nuisance you cannot find those papers. I have asked for some more. Fancy you going over to Hartley Row, however I suppose you go sometimes to have a look around.

Ted is doing well then is’nt he. A Brigade Major now. How pleased Nell must be. I saw Swan very often before I came away. He’s such a nice man. I hope Paul & Nancy enjoy their leave & come home to see you. I never got Paul’s letter.

I am seriously thinking of going back to Assam if I can get away in November. Things must be nearly over here & if I stay on I’ll only be mucking about in India, nothing to do with the war, & I shall get stuck for another year for certain. After all I’ve done 4 years now, & there are plenty of black doctors to do my job. I will cable you where to write. This is what I will say so don’t lose this & I will keep a copy.

QUITE WELL = c/o Messrs Cox & Co Calcutta

So if you get a cable saying “quite well” you will know where to write, put “to be called for” on top. And will you write to Cox & Co (Ind dep) 16 Charing Cross & tell them to address letters there in future, at the same time asking them to send £50 to my account with their Calcutta agents. I am writing Cox London to that effect.

Still frightfully hot here & where I am now there’s no bathing & not even much water.

Ben seems very happy at Wimbledon. I don’t expect I’ll have time to write again for a bit. I’ve just seized this opportunity

Best love to all

yr loving son

Richard


Richard does have to say “black doctors” not “other doctors” doesn’t he. “Johnny Turk” sounds almost comedic, possibly because it is impossible to imagine anyone saying it now. 

It’s interesting that both Richard and Ted have a sense of the tide turning and increasing success if not imminent victory.

 
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Posted by on 21 September, '18 in About

 

15 September 1918 – Richard to Gertrude

15.9.18.

My dear Mother

Very many thanks for your letter & that lavender. The first letters direct here, & today I am off (he’s bringing some ink) on some other stunt! Go on addressing here though, they will roll up some old time. It’s a nuisance being pushed off, as I am quite happy here, however “c’est la guerre”. How sad about E Hatch’s brother, he was such a nice boy I remember him (here’s the ink) quite well. I hope you don’t get another
attack of lumbago. Aspirin is the stuff to take.

What a pity they are turning Ruth’s hospital into a malaria place. Nothing else to do but give quinine. No dressings or anything. Did’nt she ever write about a transfer to Marseilles. I wrote to her when I was there, she never said anything & cannot have got my letter. The news is good nowadays, I only hope it’s a beginning of an end.

It’s a pity I have to leave the garden I started. Some seeds are coming up, but they appear to find some difficulty in the sand.

I have an amusing cameleon who is a great friend, & is great at catchng flies. Huge long tongues they have, that flips out in an extraordinary way & nab the fly. It’s no good giving you any other address, I don’t think.

Best love to all

yr loving son

Richard

I see quite a lot of Swan

Edgar Francis Hatch of Great Bookham,
Surrey, 28


http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/785773/

Does Richard sound almost relaxed for once? The comment about the cameleon is charming. It’s also interesting that he has planted a second garden in Egypt after leaving his previous garden in France. None of the others mention gardens at all – Paul was too busy with sports and theatricals and Ted too busy with his men or writing to Nell, poor Topher was too busy fighting, and who knows what Jim was doing. 

 
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Posted by on 15 September, '18 in About