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19 May 1915 – M A Dudman to Gertrude

Pitney House.

May 19th 1915.

My dear Gertrude

We have thought so much of you during these last few days & are so sorry to hear Ted is wounded, but glad only slightly. How glad you must be to have him at home & safe for a time. It will be nice if you can all be together for a day even, it was nice Ted arrived before the news of his being wounded reached you & you had no real anxiety, & I do trust his wounds will not be very painful & that he will be able to rest well, he must need it after the terribly trying time he has had.

What an awful war it is, really one feels as if one could not read all the accounts in the paper, they are too sad & dreadful. We have Agatha Vansittart with us & she has made out a list of 29 relations, all either in the firing line or just going out to France or somewhere. 3 airmen, amongst them one relation, a Vansittart has just been killed–

Poor little Hilda is here also, she is threatened with congestion of the brain & wears an ice cap nearly all day & night but is extremely lively & happy in spite of everything! Nurse rather scorns the whole treatment & says “let the child lead a normal life & develop her muscles”, so there is friction. She certainly does not seem ill, except for a high temperature.

I wish you could come & see us & we should so like to see Ted, could he spare us a few days before he returns? We should be so pleased if he could. How nice Paul has leave now also. We are glad Jim has a commission, I hear Guy Grossman won’t have one. Mrs Joscelyne’s eldest son has one in the 8th Somersets, but her youngest son is a private & out in India with the West Kent Regiment. She has just left us.

France & Flanders, alas, are not the only places were there is warfare!! I fear, for it is beginning in Pitney! We are all getting very sad over the way all Church services, parish work &c are being neglected & are beginning to protest. It is too long a tale for a letter, you must come & hear! but both Bishop & Archdeacon are being appealed to.

I quite agree with you about the Lusitania, people are foolish to travel unless absolutely obliged at present. Awdry Tyndal has just reached home safely from India, but it was an exciting voyage.

We have 200 soldiers now camped on the high ground between Golf Links & High Ham. They are I believe rifle practising at the Paradise butts, & we hear 1000 are to come altogether! & our Yeomen are coming home in turn to see their families before going abroad. With love to you all.    Yours affecly

M.A. Dudman.

 
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Posted by on 19 May, '15 in Ted Berryman

 

18 May 1915 – Benedicta Yeatman to Gertrude

43, QUEENS GATE GARDENS,
S.W.

Dearest Gertrude

I hear you have Ted home wounded, but not seriously & will have all the family party together the first time for years. I am so glad- tho’ Ted is wounded that you should have them all together- I was going to write & ask Ben if she would like a few days here after Whitsuntide? but must wait till she has a more convenient moment tell her. I hope all is well with Mrs. Bennett.

I went to Salisbury this week end to get a glimpse of Julian who is at Tidworth. Harry was to have been in the fight on 9th May & then the orders were countermanded- Julian is supposed to be going somewhere in 5 weeks’ time but I expect it will be longer. He is only 18 in July- I do not hope the Dardanelles- Well much love

Ever your affecate

B.K. Yeatman


This was from Benedicta Yeatman who was Ben’s godmother and namesake. She was also the aunt of Julian Yeatman, co-author of 1066 and All That.

 

 
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Posted by on 18 May, '15 in Ted Berryman

 

12 May 1915 – India Office Telegram to Gertrude

 

Telegram 1915 05 12

12 May 1915

Reference my previous telegram it is now officially reported that Capt E.R.P. Berryman 39th Garhwal Rifles was wounded in action 9th May

Military Secretary

India Office

 
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Posted by on 12 May, '15 in Ted Berryman

 

11 May 1915 – India Office Telegram to Gertrude

Telegram 1915 05 11 - 01

Telegram 1915 05 11 - 02

11 May 1915

TO Mrs Berryman Delaford Guildford

Regret to inform you that your son Captain E.R.P. Berryman 39 Garhwal Rifles officially reported admitted No 3 London General Hospital Wandsworth Common 10th May suffering from Gun shot wound left leg no previous report of wounding received

Military Secretary

India Office

 
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Posted by on 11 May, '15 in Ted Berryman

 

Gertrude to General Stopford (Draft)

Dear General Stopford

My son Jim is desirous of getting a temporary commission in the Army. Since September he has been in the Public Schools Battalion of the Middlesex Regt so has done a certain amount of training. I wonder if you could help him in any way. I believe the War Office are badly in need of Officers.


Unfortunately this draft isn’t dated. After this time, it’s impossible to know why the General might have helped Jim get a commission. Maybe he was a family friend. Jim was settled in the wine trade in Oporto in Portugal, and it must have been disruptive to his employers or business partners having him up and off to the War like that.

 
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Posted by on 16 February, '15 in About, Jim Berryman

 

20 January 1915 – Paul to Gertrude

H.M.S. Gloucester

20.1.15

Dear Mother,

Just got your Sunday’s letter- very many thanks for it. I am so glad you like the gramaphone records. I somehow knew you’d like the organ ones.

It’s most awfully kind of you to say you’ll give me ½ my Burberry- I should like it very much. The Burberry has just arrived – lovely.

So glad to hear Ben is all right again – I had a letter from her yesterday – which I must answer soon.

I went over & saw Digby again yesterday & had a long talk with him, he was ever so interested to hear of all our doings- & he is writing to you.

How sad about Charlie Moodie. I wonder whether he was at the front or not. He was only 24 too. Poor Charlie. I am sorry – always such a great friend of all of us.

Yes. I got Ruth’s sox all right & have written thanking her. I really am fitted out now. So you are all busy doing Hospital work at last-.

How perfectly extraordinary about that servant Beatrice- what a little rotter she must have been- & then bringing back those parcels next day. I can imagine how infused with laughter you must have all been.

Where is Topher stationed – I don’t think you have told me – only his Regt.

We are still waiting – very dull & monotonous it is too – & our spirits not vastly improved by the weather – which is fairly rotten – always blows & rains fat hailstones.

With ever so much love to you all-

from your ever loving son

Paul

 

19 January 1915 – ‘Digby’ to Gertrude

H.M.S. Iron Duke
c/o G.P.O.

19th Jan/15

My dear Mrs Berryman,

Just half an hour ago, I saw over the side a very smart & good looking naval officer. He had come on board about some job, & then looked me up & had a long talk, over all yours & dear old times. The officer was Paul!

He is very fit & keeping cheery & bright, although life here is rather monotonous & decidedly damp & cold. How delightful it was, hearing all the news of your family – it all seems so strange to hear of them grown up, & how very proud you must be to feel that every son of yours is giving his time & work to the country – it’s grand, simply! Paul was telling me that he was the only one missing from a family gathering which has recently occurred. You must have loved that as it is ages since they all got together like that.

I saw something of the Foxes last June & left Weymouth as Col. Fox was dying. They are still there I believe, though Jo is married & living at Southsea & has Dollie staying with her – Vi (my wife) sees them at times as we have a house at Cosham, where I have a wonderful fat chubby son who is celebrating his first anniversary on 29th of this month. I shall look forward to seeing you all again as soon as this terrible strife is over. I promise myself that if I am spared, I will go on a motor tour with Vi for a holiday, willy nilly so will try & reach Guildford.

I am so glad to hear you are so well & as young as ever dear Mrs Berryman, & the memories conjured up by my talk with Paul has made me sit down at once & write to you a few lines of remembrance & with best love to all

Ever yours affectionately

Digby


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Iron_Duke_(1912)

From Wikipedia: Iron Duke and most of the fleet remained in port during the German raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby in December 1914, though the 3rd Battle Squadron was sent to reinforce the British forces in the area. Iron Duke went to sea with the 2nd and 4th Battle Squadrons for gunnery practice north of the Hebrides on 23 and 24 December. The following day, the rest of the fleet joined Iron Duke for a sweep in the North Sea, which concluded on 27 December. Iron Duke and the rest of the fleet conducted gunnery drills on 10–13 January 1915 west of the Orkneys and Shetlands. On the evening of 23 January, the bulk of the Grand Fleet sailed in support of Beatty’s Battlecruiser Fleet, but Iron Duke and the rest of the fleet did not become engaged in the ensuing Battle of Dogger Bank the following day.

 
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Posted by on 19 January, '15 in Paul Berryman

 

January 1915 – Benedicta to Gertrude – Engagement to Wiggs

Tuesday

I got your letter last night thank you so much. You seem certainly to have had rather a strenuous day on Sunday. Isn’t it sickening the weather has been so alarming. I can’t describe the rain and wind yesterday and really last night it didn’t seem possible for the house to stand much longer but today so far is ripping so Wiggs and I are going over to Rye to lunch and down to Cumber if the little trains still go in the winter. I heard from Dreda this morning about Willie being ill, I do hope he’ll be all right for the dance if we manage tickets, anyway I suppose Marjorie and I can go with Topher & Wiggie but we shall be disappointed if so many of us can’t go, sickening for Jane but I really don’t suppose Eric will have gone!

I don’t know whether you’ll be pleased No I don’t suppose for a moment you will be I can’t quite expect it but Wiggs and I have decided that it’s best to be engaged. The unsatisfactory way in which we were going on was NO good, it isn’t all done on the spur of the moment, much thinking has been done & I’m sure it’s best. There are to be no great shoutings about it but anyone who wants to know can, you will I fancy think we are doing right, the other situation was rotten for me but I didn’t want to sort of rush Wiggs into anything so things had to wait. If the dance is off I am going to stay here till Thursday so will you send me a line either here or Dollie’s as that is where I shall be on Wednesday night for the dance, see? Will you give the enclosed to Dreda, I wonder if either of your billets will come back, on wednesday or is the scare sill on. Have a rest when you can I expect you were awfully tired after christmas & it was all rather a rush

Love to all,

your loving Ben

You’ll iron my frock won’t you, the ninon at the top too.


Ben and Wiggs got engaged within weeks of her return from India and when she told her mother she was clearly on the defensive about it and maybe about him. My mother was puzzled by the whole thing: when she edited the letters in the 1980s she asked “who was Wiggs?” and added “there was certainly no ‘shouting’ about the engagement. No one else mentions it.”

Wiggs’ real name was Ivan Bennett and, at 25, he was some 6 years younger than Ben, which may explain her defensiveness and the disapproval she seems to have expected. 

Ben certainly knew Wiggs before going to India because she corresponded wiith him with while she was away. She mentions him in a letter in September when he appears to have joined up early but critically:

Wiggs tell me he was inlisting into Kitchener’s 2nd Army, well it obvious the right thing to do, however much against soldiering one is.

She may have been encouraged to go to India in 1913 to get over her feelings for him. In October Paul says:

Re – Ben & Mr Bennett – as you say a rather difficult question – and I must say that I should rather be inclined to let him come back to Delaford, because they will be bound to meet elsewhere & that sort of deception from your point of view I’m sure you dont like. Much better let them more or less carry on openly. It sounds ridiculous I know Wiggie 22 & Ben 28 or whatever her age is, but these days nature does funny things – & I also don’t think Wiggie is worthy of Ben, her due is someone much more perfect- In any case now they won’t have heaps of chances of meeting – I wonder what you have done, because I expect Ben is home by now anyhow! I hope she has arrived safely & is well-

He seems to have been a friend of the family, in November Ted had mentioned Wiggs as a friend of Gertrude’s.

He was clearly accepted by the family, however reluctantly, as we can see in this photograph taken in the spring of 1915, which we can date because of the brothers who were in England at the same time.

Ivan Bennett, Ted Berryman, Richard Berryman<br/>Christopher Berryman, Jim Berryman

Ivan Bennett, Ted Berryman, Richard Berryman
Topher Berryman, Jim Berryman
Spring 1915

 

 

1 January 1915 – Ted to Jane – Christmas Truce 1914

Jan 1st/15

Find I’ve used two bits of
paper by mistake! Sorry

Dear Jinny

Thanks most awfully for your 2 or 3 letters you have written lately. So sorry old thing, I have written but have had very little time. We are out of the trenches now after 25 days on end, & the whole corps is now resting, & we are all – as many as can – getting LEAVE. Is’nt it ripping & all being well I’ll be home today week, on the 8th, sometime during the evening. So anything I don’t tell you in this letter I can tell you then. Your concerts seem to be a great success; if you get any up while I’m at home I’ll help you like a shot. I’ll be home in the evening of the 8th, & leave again on the morning of the 14th, just 5 full days at home.

I’ve got my uniform now & have had a bath – in an old dustbin – but still it was a bath, & I feel so clean & smart, you would’nt know me. Of course I grew a beard in the trenches, & did’nt shave for just a month, but it was’nt exactly a success, & it looked exactly as if I was’nt shaving & not as if I was trying to grow a beard!

I’ve got new news to tell you I think. We are billeted in a little village, very dirty & muddy & fairly comfy; but we were in better billets before. We took 3 days to march here from the trenches, about 5 miles a day, as after standing in water & mud all that time you can’t imagine the state your feet get into, soft & swollen & no good for walking on, just good enough to stand upon & no more.

Going into the trenches.... coming out

Going into the trenches   coming out

Told Mother about our palling up with the Germans on Christmas day. It was most amusing & so utterly out of keeping with the rest of the show that one can hardly realize it happened.

Christmas Day Truce 1914

The above is – liar [sic]  – what happened; but I’ll tell you all about it when I see you. I have’nt seen anything in the papers about it yet. I’m afraid this is a very dull letter but I really can find nothing to say, & I may’nt say it anyhow.

It’s a real miserable day today, cold and wet and miserable, thank goodness we are in houses and not out in those bally old trenches still. I suppose this will all turn to snow soon, & I wish it would freeze or something & dry up the roads a bit; at present the mud is awful, but we are fairly used to that now. I hope you’ll have a nice hot bath waiting for me, as I don’t think I shall have another before I come home, it’s so cold washing in bits. And don’t send anything more out just at present as I shall be starting home before it arrives.

I got a long letter from Paul, he seems very cheery & cold & hints darkly at great goings on in the North Sea. He’s in the middle of the show now anyhow. There has been a lot of heavy fighting lately round here, & some of the Indian troops have suffered very heavily, but we were’nt in it, so are all right, at least fairly so. Tons of love & keep smiling

yr loving brother  Ted

According to Drake-Brockman, the Garhwalis were in billets at Hurionville near Lillers which was the Indian Army Corps Commander’s headquarters at the time as well as their railhead. They arrived there at 2:30pm on December 30th.


This is Ted’s second mention of the famous Christmas Day Truce of 1914; his first description is in his letter to Gertrude of 31st December 1914.  

The original of this letter is in the Archive of the the Imperial War Museum: Private Papers of Lieutenant Colonel E R P Berryman DSO –  http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1030021700

 

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21 December 1914 – Paul to Gertrude

Monday. [21 December 1914? Received on the 27th December.]

Dear Mother.

Thanks very much for your letter and also I got a letter dated about Nov 5th from you. I suppose it’s been right out to Malta & back- Oh how we have laughed in the mess over my floating waistcoat – anything so vast – I can’t even join the two edges of my coat together when it is on – so I propose wearing it outside – Lovely and warm it is which is one thing. I must write & thank old Daddy Yanow – but I must say it’s a most ridiculous garment to be always wearing – very nice to put on just before you fall in the water. Our new job up here ought to be rather interesting and really & truly the weather is’nt half so cold as yet – as you might imagine – but there’s nothing like being prepared.

The Town & county of Gloucester have been fine – they have sent us 20 cases various things- Plum Puddings – apples – warm clothes etc all for the men and officers; a representative of the Mayor came onboard while we were at [censored]  the other day & brought them all down. I had a letter from Bee [Ben?] today saying she had sent me some cyder apple jelly – but I have’nt got it yet – it apparently just missed me before we left – but I am sending for the case or whatever it is-

How are your officers getting on. Hope they are fitting into the Delaford methods- and are a success.

You can’t realize how backward I am with my letters; I have had absolutely no time since we left. We’ve been on the hop all the time.

Well I wish you a very happy Christmas & New Year under the circumstances.

My very best love to you all
Your ever loving son
Paul.

Dont forget to send me a piece of the family Plum Pudding.