Rev. Rupert Inglis 169 



" I am proud, very proud, of what Frittenden has done. I 

 know how hard it has been for many of the soldiers to leave their 

 homes, their families and occupations, but the harder it has been 

 the greater the credit and the greater the reward. 



" I ask for your prayers. I ask you to pray that I may be 

 a help to those to whom I have to minister out here. That God 

 will bless and keep you all is the prayer of 



" Your affectionate rector, 



" (Signed) Rupert E. Inglis. 

 " France, July 7th, 1915." 



The son of the man of Lucknow had found it impossible to 

 sit at home and twiddle his thumbs. 



After this, the story of his adventures is told in his letters to 

 his wife, who has had portions of them printed in the form of a 

 little book, for private circulation, and dedicated to his children, 

 " Joan, John, and Margaret, just to help them now, and in years 

 to come, to understand a little of their father's life among our 

 wonderful soldiers." 



I quote from them at some length, not because they are 

 records of adventure above the average of the time, for they are 

 not, but rather because they are so typical of the thousands of 

 letter-histories that have been written in this war, and there is 

 the same tragic family likeness running through them all. 



To begin with, there is the newness of everything at the Base ; 

 then comes the excitement of joining a Brigade and becoming 

 familiar with life at the actual front — a quiet part of the front at 

 first. After this comes the beginning of the end, references to 

 long marches across country without any mention of what lies 

 ahead. I have read all this in a dozen such sequences of letters, 

 and there is always the same care to conceal the fact that the 

 writer is in the converging movement of troops marching into 

 one of the great battle-areas, so that the anxiety of those at home 

 may be lessened as much as possible. To have mentioned the 

 name " Somme " would have been to chill the heart of the 

 recipient, and what would have been the use of that ? The last 

 letter seems to come almost automatically after that, and in 

 this case it ends, " I shall probably be back early to-day. ..." 



Most of these last letters were written within the iodme and 

 blood smell of the advanced dressing-stations. 



