Obituaries and Letters

During the 1914 War it was not uncommon sight to see the buff-coloured envelope taken to a house which told of a loved one either wounded or missing.
Daisy Noakes - The Town Beehive

L. C. P. Roberts, missing 14 August 1916.
Distressing anxiety has fallen to Mr. H. D. Roberts, the Director of the Brighton Library, Museum and ArtGallery by the tidings that his brother, Lance-Corporal Percy Roberts has been missing since the middle of July. Prior to the war L. C. Roberts was at the head office of the Union of London and Smith's Bank. He joined up immediately after the outbreak of war.

Extract of a letter to Mrs Stanford from H.D. Roberts
I am sorry to say that we have no further news of my brother. I have had several letters from other men in the 10th Royal Fusiliers, but all of a negative nature. He has now been missing since July 15th and by a coincidence this evening's post brings the official intimation that he is missing. We are dreadfully upset as he was our youngest and favourite brother. One would think that if he had been wounded and picked up by another regiment we should have heard by now...

Obituary: Captain Gerald Charles Stewart, adjutant of the 10th Royal Hussars, who was killed in action in Flanders on May 13th, was born in 1888. He was educated at St. David's Reigate, Harrow and Sandhurst, and was gazetted to the 10th Hussars in Feb. 1907. He was appointed adjutant and promoted Captain in 1912. He was twice wounded in October. He was the eldest son of Mr. Charles John and Lady Mary Stewart.

Extract of a letter to Mrs Stanford from Charles Stewart:
Very many thanks - I know that you feel for us - one has the great comfort that our boy like the other brave fellows who have fallen have done their best in perhaps the greatest issue ever fought for. When one puts self out of consideration one could not wish it otherwise.

Obituary: Langley - On the 31st October 1917 of wounds received in action the previous day, Trooper Robert Frank Langley, New Zealand Mounted Rifles transferred D.A.C. New Zealand Field Artillery, elder son of Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Langley, Kawiha, New Zealand, and nephew of Professor Langley, Cambridge. Aged 24.

Extract of letter from Professor Langley, Nov. 25, 1917, to Ellen Stanford
Dear Mrs. Thomas-Stanford
It is very kind of you to write. My nephew was a fine, strong, vigorous youth who made friends wherever he went. We were deeply attached to him. He survived Gallipoli but was mortally wounded in passing through a barrage in France. His only brother has also been killed at the Front. In this and in thousands of other such cases it is the women who suffer most - mothers who never recover from the loss, daughters and sisters left without the intimate friendship and support they have looked to. In face of the desolation of innumerable homes I do not understand the frame of mind of those who are ready to renew relations with Germans after the war...
All extracts taken from Blighty Brighton