A Corporal Writes of Lieutenant Green

Lieutenant Green [X550/1/82]

Friday 26th May 1916: A letter has been received by the parents of Corporal A Sharpe whose home is at 13 Union Street, Dunstable in which reference is made to the death of Lieutenant Reginald Green. After stating that they have had to do extra duty in the trenches and that the weather has been pretty warm, he writes: “We had an officer killed last night, I am sorry to say, and perhaps you might know him as he is the son of Mr J W Green of the Brewery, Luton. He went out into No Man’s Land and unfortunately received a shot in the right thigh which proved fatal, death taking place a few hours afterwards. He was a very good officer indeed and he was in charge of my platoon. We are all very sorry at his death”.

Corporal Sharpe, it may be mentioned, has been at the Front since the early days of the war and has been twice wounded – once in the back with a dum-dum bullet, which was taken out of his side in five pieces, and later he lost the forefinger of his left hand, while he has also been in hospital twice since with fever and colic. But he writes in a cheerful strain and says he is “in the pink”. At the outbreak of war he was serving in South Africa with the 2nd Bedfords, but after convalescing from his first wounds, he was transferred to the 1st Bedfords, since when he has seen much active service.

Sources: Luton News 25th May 1916

(1) The dum-dum was a hollow point or soft point bullet, designed to expand on impact, causing a worse wound. It was designed in 1896 by Neville Bertie-Clay at the Dum Dum Arsenal near Calcutta in India. The bullet was banned by the Hague Convention three years later