Church End, Barton-le-Clay [Z1306/7/4/1B]
Tuesday 16th March 1915: Private D Simpkins of the 2nd Bedfords was all through the terrible battle of Neuve Chapelle, and writes to his mother as follows: - “I have been very anxious to write you this letter, as we have had a very rough time; we were called up at 2 am one morning to do an attack, and we had a very rough time I can tell you, but thank the Lord for His very great help, we have done a good deal; we took three of the German trenches and secured two thousand prisoners, as near as I can say, so that shews you what good work we have done, and gained two miles of ground. We advanced under shell fire and when we got there we had to dig holes to get under cover, we were then in them three days and were very lucky to get our food up us, but we had a job to get water, the way I got mine was a very cunning way – the hole that I dug to lay in began to get wet so I cut the foot end of the hole low to keep the wet away from me, then I bored a round hole there and the water dripped in the hole nice and clear, and that’s what I had to drink; but now we have got back to a place where we can take it easy as before”(1).
Source: P21/30/17
(1) 3/7044 Sergeant D. Simpkins was killed in action near Arleux-en-Gohelle with the 1st Battalion on 19th May 1917 and is buried at Bois-Carre British Cemetery, Thelus.
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