Book Description

Captain Sir Edward Hamilton Westrow Hulse, now lying in Rue-David Military Cemetery, Fleurbaix, a fallen officer of the Scots Guards who died bravely trying to go to the rescue of his commanding officer during the battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915. Perhaps no further trace of him would now exist, bar family and friends, were it not for these most interesting letters that were collected and only printed for a select distribution; however, they attained a far greater readership due to their interesting and elegant style. The writer of these letters had a sense both of perspective and of humour,—without which all records are but as the dry bones of the events they chronicle. For example, the rapid and careless pen-sketches that describe the work of a night raid, the reception of a prisoner, the excitement of a sniping party, the confusion at Havre, and a dozen other incidents of that crowded half-year are every one of them admirable. But there is something else in these letters which is of even greater interest. Without hesitation it may be said that in the fourteen pages under the date December 28th we have the most keenly noted, vigorous and dramatic description that ever has or ever will be written of what from a psychological point of view has been the most extraordinary event of the war,—the Christmas Truce of 1914. In its mere literary aspect it is as perfect as anything written from the front: and as a human document it is of even greater value.