suffering from my complaint and much worse than I had ever suffered, and they were treating him with medicines, and he was not making much progress, so I gave him my ointment, as he was suffering, and I was assured of this that my Darling would never think wrong of me for giving away something she had bought to do me good, when I was passing your kindness to me onto others at a time of urgent need. We have some heartbreaking cases to deal with at times I can tell you, for instance the following. We brought in a case the other night, it was a shell wound of the leg, he was suffering very much from pain and shock, and from the trenches to our hospital, the roads are very bad, owing to holes from shell fire and too dangerous for repair, and so our wagons do not travel so smooth, this poor man said to me ‘O do stop the waggon’; of course it was no use, I could not, as we were in a danger zone and our building in sight, so I said ‘We are nearly there now, and I will soon put you right’, but he said ‘I know that but I am in awful pain, do stop’. I knew he was dying and the jarring of the waggon was causing him agony, and the above was the last words he said, as he was dead before he got to our hospital. I could not sleep that night for thinking of how he died, and the loved ones he may have left behind. Now Lovie, do not say a word to anyone of what I have just said as we are not supposed to say a word in our letters about same, so I trust my secret to you dearest Darling. I should just like to clear up a few words you said in reference to what I said about playing a game at football, I should not do any such thing and rob you of a letter, and most times when I have played, as I said in my letter, is after I have been out collecting, it is a great strain on our nerves I can assure you, and our minds are not always in a fit condition for writing letters. We must indulge in a little game of some sort to clear our minds of the awful surroundings of which we are in the midst, so loving Ethel I think those few words will clear that little matter. I am very sorry to hear Fred Lockley ......
(Frederick Lockley died 13th October 1915, age 17)
In many ways Frank's diary entries and letters reflect the feelings of the people at home; from the early enthusiasm and optimism, they were plunged into the shock and despair at the level of casualties. After the failed attack of October 13th 1915 and the loss of so many of his friends and neighbours, we see no more optimistic words in Frank’s diary or letters home.