John William Hart. 
47 
bad reputation. In front of our dug-out is a tablet of chalk 
smoothed and polished, and surrounded by an arch, formed by 
cutting away and smoothing off the rough clay side of the trench, 
but on the chalk is cut in relief a cross and scroll, and inscribed in 
pencil the name of a corporal of the -th Batt. Lon. Regt., 
‘ Killed in this spot, June 10th.’ A find which I made yesterday 
has made me wonder whether I have had a narrow escape, or 
whether a comrade has been employing his spare time in playing a 
practical joke. On coming into my dug-out after a short absence 
yesterday afternoon, I found lying on the floor just where I sit a 
German bullet, which had undoubtedly been fired through a 
German rifle, as evidenced by the rifling marks; some inches 
above it in the wall of the dug-out was a small hole, evidently 
made by the bullet, the hole being just at my elbow as I write.” 
In October, 1915, he writes home: “An old couplet has been 
much in my mind lately; perhaps because of its very inappro- 
prieteness. It is the couplet on that candlestick of mine : ‘ Be 
the day weary or be the day long, at last it bringeth to evensong.’ 
It is the bringing to evensong that we most dislike. It means the 
straining of eyes and ears on sentry-go. Yes ! And the straining, 
too, of nerves, when even the posts of our own barbed wire 
become approaching enemies, when a head of milfoil blossom 
waving in the wind tries to lead us to imagine it the grey cape of 
the Germans.” 
And through it all he reads and discusses “ Les Miserables,” 
the “ Happy Warrior ” and “ The Siege of Paris,” and never for 
long forgets his friends the plants. “ Is it not the limit that after 
cherishing a plant (Mamillaria elongata) for seven long years, it 
should go and bloom just when I am away from home ? How I am 
longing to get back to the plants and the diseases.” 
A spirit like this coupled with an unusual combination of 
practical and scientific knowledge augured well for the future 
spent as he hoped in combating plant disease. By the death of 
John Hart the country lost a valuable soldier equipped alike for 
Peace or War. E. N. T. 
1 The extracts are from letters in the possession of the writer or from 
those kindly lent by his mother. 
