COPY OF A LETTER FROM L/C Dwyer VC TO Lt. STONEHAM 1 SURREYS

                                        10525 l/C E Dwyer
                                        1st East Surrey Regiment
                                        C Landing
                                        No 1 General Hospital
                                        BEF
                                        30th May 1915

To:     Mr H F Stoneham
        Lt. 1st East Surrey Regiment

Dear Sir,

Your kind and welcome letter of the 23 inst has been forwarded to me.
I was very surprised indeed to hear from you.  Thank you sincerely, Sir, for the congratulations and I will endeavour to make myself worthy of them.

I sincerely hope you will soon be well again - your wound has taken, a long time to heal.  Sir, there are only a few; of the old signallers left, Ede and Cook. Collins, Hall, Gooch and Ellis.  Sweeney, Lee and Smythe are at 14th Bde.  Elson, Robbins, Newstead and Mobley are at home in Dover,

I quite well remember the day you were wounded, also Sgt’s B and R Hunt were killed, that day Capt. Bowring was captured, and Capt Hewitt was wounded, everything was in a pickle, Lt Col Longley being the coolest man in the field.

I cannot really describe the events from the Marne to the Aisne, I was like one in a dream.  About the beginning of October the Div was booked for. Antwerp but they were so hard pressed round La Bassee that we were stopped and sent there: an aeroplane raced our train and stopped us, and we went to relieve the French round La Bassee.  The regiment we took over from was the 14th Alpine Chasseurs and I have never seen such .a sight.  They left their trenches at 2'oc in the afternoon and all the Germans did was to follow them up.  The consequence was they ran right into us and we left half our Division behind wounded.  That was three weeks nightmare to me; they used to counter-attack every night and in the district could be seen the most awful cases of “German Kultur”, among the women and also little girls of the age of thirteen.  .We lost Sgt Fairs and Cpl Cox round there.

The Indians relieved us there at the end of October and we roamed about from one position to another until about the middle of November when we went to Messines. Whilst there Col Longley was taken from us and promoted Brig Genl: then of the old officers all we had left was:- Mr Roupell, Mr Darwell, Capt White and Mr Clarke, and the rest were all new.
Christmas we spent out of the trenches but we were in for the Old Year out and the New; Year in.  We were doing famously there, every man knew the ground off by heart, and then in February they gradually started shifting us further up the line towards Ypres.  From Messines we went to Kemmel and that is where Pte Smith - he was in your platoon - was killed. He was an Irishman and a good man too.  Smith, Elmer and myself were always together.  You remember Pte Sadler, Sir, he was killed there and also Ackerman.  All the time-serving men were being picked off.  If you joined the Regiment again, Sir, you would hardly know one man except Elmer.  It is very miserable in the Regiment now all the old officers and men have gone.

Well, Sir, we went to Ypres, .and well we knew it, but the worst was yet to come.  After the taking of Hill 60 the Regiment went up there and they shelled us with their 17mm guns for three days and nights without a stop, but they could not shift us.  It was there that we lost Major Patterson - he was the CO.  Poor Capt W was blown to atoms, only a couple of pieces could be found of him, and Mr Roupell still led 'A' Company until they were relieved, although he was three times wounded

There we lost 15 officers including Capt W. Mr Clarke got a dose of gas but I believe he is all right, but, Sir, if any of Capt '.Wynyards's family inquire, don't tell them he was blown up.

I do not know who commands the Regiment now, but a Capt Oldham of the Norfolk Regiment had them but he is wounded now.  I wish poor Elmer was here, Sir, he writes to me and is so lonely on his own.  He is Company Orderly. We used often to sit and have a chat - Elmer, Vassey, Sadler, Mitchell and I, and they nearly always brought your name into the conversation with a few remembrances of the days of the Retirement.

I must really close, Sir, I have so many letters to write.  Trusting you will excuse the scribble.

Your obedient servant,

Edward Dwyer L/C 10523

Footnotes
1.     This letter was written to Lt H F Stoneham who had congratulated him on winning the VC at Hill 60 on 20 Apr 15.  Dwyer was in hospital at the time having been wounded in the action. After discharge from hospital, L/c Dwyer was granted leave in England where he was called upon to address recruiting meetings.  Before he returned to the Front, Dwyer asked Canon D Browne, his parish priest in Fulham, to look after his VC, because he felt he would not be coming back.
On 27th May 16, L/c Dwyer rejoined the 1st Battalion at Arras.  He was killed in action at Leuze Wood four months later.

2.     Of those mentioned in Dwyer's letter, Sgts HW and RH Hunt were killed on 9 Sep 14 at the Battle of the Aisne.  Killed at Kill 60 were Maj W H Paterson, the Commanding Officer, Capt D .Wynard and Capt  P C .Wynter. Capt the Hon A R Hewitt DSO was wounded with the 1st Battalion in the Battle of the Aisne and was killed with the 2nd Battalion on 25 Apr 15.

3.     After the death of Maj Paterson, who was promoted Lt Col. posthumously, Maj. R D F Oldman of the Norfolk Regiment assumed command of the 1st 3Bn. He rejoined his own regiment on l6 May 1915.

4.     Lt H F Stoneham himself was wounded at the Aisne on 9 Sep 1914.  Lt’s. E G H Clarke and T H Darwell, who were both awarded the MC, were wounded at Hill 60.  Capt A White survived the war, but fell to a sniper's bullet in Dublin in 1920.

5.  Lt Col J R Longley, who had taken the 1st Battalion to France in Aug 1914, became Maj Gen Sir John Longley and was Colonel of the Regiment from 1921 to 1939.