COTSWOLD Feature War Postcards
Postcards and diaries from the battlefields give a rare insight into the lives of soldiers, as Sue Bradley discovers on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the “war to end all wars”.
“Dear Alice, just a few
lines in hope this will find you all well. I am glad to say this leaves me quite well..”
SO begins many a poignant post card from Private Ernest Painter to his sweetheart Alice Postings during the First World War. The pair kept in touch throughout
the fighting by postcard and letter, with Alice keeping all of Ernest’s correspondence until her death in 1975, when she was 93. Today his words from the
battlefields of The Somme, Passchendaele and Ypres offer a unique glimpse of what life was like for the men sent to the front line to fight for King and country in the war that was supposed to end all wars. Alice, who grew up in Maisemore,
near Gloucester, had known Ernest since their childhoods but, given that they were cousins, their families had frowned upon their blossoming relationship and, in 1911, he was sent to New Zealand to work on a relative’s farm. Ironically the outbreak of war
A corner of the place of the Gare in Ypres
eventually saw his return to Europe, although it would take almost three years of what Ernest often described as “sheer hell” before the couple were able to marry at St Giles Church in Maisemore in December 1918, when they were both 35.
Ernest, who was born in Hook, near Swindon, joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces in 1916:
“The big war was in full swing,
they were in want of men badly, so I thought it was my duty to offer myself to go and do my bit for my country,” he wrote in his diary. Little did he know that this would
often involve marching indeterminable miles with heavy packs on his back, coping with thick mud, snow, rats and lice in the trenches for weeks on end and, worse still, seeing his friends being killed in front of him. On one occasion he wrote to Alice,
“It is pretty lonely out here now and plenty of wet weather. I will be glad when it is over, goodness knows when,” while from Frise he told her, “I am footsore and tired when we reached the end of our journey last night – 36 miles march is no cop
In happier times: Ernest and Alice with their children Toby and Ronald, Ernest’s father John and brother Henry, with his wife and family.
with a full pack, I can assure you.” Ernest himself survived
several ‘near misses’ in the trenches, describing one that happened during December 1917 in his diary: “The enemy was shelling us
all day. At 6 o’clock a shell landed close under my feet. “It blew me up in the air. I do not know how high I went up but when I landed and come to myself I thought I had one side of my face blown away, however when I got a bit steady I found that I only had a few cuts and bruises all over. “It was a marvellous escape
for me.” After an earlier close scrape he wrote to Alice, “Dear, I
54 COTSWOLDESSENCE ESSENCE | September - November 2013
had a very narrow escape in the trenches this time, the Huns made a raid on us, my comrade was killed beside me. “I had my bayonet knocked
off. It gave me a bit of a fright at the time, however we drove the Huns off with great loss on their side.” Often in his postcards,
Ernest seeks to reassure Alice that she need not worry about him. “I am feeling none the
worst for it now, a fellow soon picks himself up after it is over,” he wrote after one incident. “I think we are out now for
six or seven days again but these days soon slip by. That is the worst of it.”
www.cotswoldessence.co.uk Ernest Painter in his army uniform
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