With all the commemorations of the 100th anniversaryof the end of WW1 it seems appropriate to feature this letter written by Private Harry Lincoln whose name is on the Redlingfield Memorial and also on the Menin Gate at Ypres. He died on 5th May 1915 fighting with the 1st Bedfordshires on Hill 60 during the second battle of Ypres. He was born in Horham in 1887. He lived with relatives Samuel and Mary Muttock in Mill Road, Redlingfield as a young child. By 1901 He was a resident of Willow House Children’s Home in Eye and by 1911 he was an infantryman with the 1st Bedfordshire Regiment. This letter was to Clara Harvey of Redlingfield. The UK Register of Soldiers’ Effects shows that Miss Clara Harvey was Harry’s sole legatee She received £19.19s.09d. in December 1915 and a further £5 in August 1919. Linda Hudson

Pte. H. Lincoln
No.8174 B Coy
1st Bedford Regt
On Active Service
12. 8. 14

My Dearest Clara,
a line before I go. I am still in Ireland I have been expecting a letter from
you but as I told you we might be leaving here on Sunday I expect you thought I
might not get it but you can always write to the last address I am where you
hear from me, it will always find me, Dear Clara the above address will always
find me. We are leaving here tomorrow morning or Friday morning. We are
going round the coast straight to Belgium. I am not supposed to tell you this as
we have not got to put the place where we are on our letters, just On Active
Service that is all. We have been issued with a little tin disc with our number,
name and regiment on which we have to wear round our necks, so they can tell
who we are if we get killed, I belong to the expeditionary force whom Kitchener
is sending out to the front. Dear Clara this is a place to be in, we have to fight
like tigers to get our food here soon as ever it comes up about 50 make a grab
at it. Some get a lot and some don’t get any. If we have money it’s a hard job to
spend it. If you go to the coffee shop or canteen you have to wait about two
hours before it is your turn to be served, if I get through this lot no more for me,
it will be better when we leave barracks as every man will carry his own
rations. We were allowed out of barracks two hours last Sunday after we had
been on church parade and a route march in full fighting kit. I shall be glad
when my time comes to leave this place. Dear Clara this war is going to be
worse than I thought, some seem to think it won’t last a month and some say it
will last three years. Our officers told us this morning it would be a hard and
long war. We have been through the mill since we have been here from 5.30 in
the morning to about 7 at night with not much to eat in the bargain. Dear
Clara if I never come home again I leave the boy in your charge and I know
you will do your best for him. I have got to make my will this afternoon. I shall
make it out to you everything of what I possess. So if I go under and you do not
get anything you must apply for it. Dear Clara if I get killed in Active Service
there will be a medal for me somewhere and I hope you will try and get it and
keep it for the boy to wear when he grows up. You can write to me now
anywhere I am with that address, it’s a good job I brought these few stamps
with me as we can’t get any here. I will write again as soon as I get the chance.
Remember me to the men in the harvest tell them I am all right so far. You must
let Mrs.Baldwin know too as I have not got time to write. I must close now with
fondest love to you and Leslie and remain
your ever loving Harry.
We carry a little book with us to enter all payments made to us and it has got a form of will in it.

(See the original letter here).

Linda Hudson (Published in Athelington, Horham & Redlingfield News Winter 2018-2019 issue No 44).

The untold story of a name on the village memorial

Harry Lincoln is A name on the Redlingfield WW1 Memorial at St Andrew’s church and also on the Menin Gate at Ypres. He died on 5th May 1915 fighting with the 1st Bedfordshires on Hill 60 as documented in the regiment’s war diary.

Thanks to information now available online it is possible to learn more about Harry and his connections with Redlingfield and Horham than Mike Ager and Stephen Govier were able to do when they researched the names on the memorial some years ago.

He was born to Lizzie Lincoln in Horham on 28th April 1887 and baptised on the 14th July at St Mary’s church. No father’s name is recorded. The 1891 Census lists him as a lodger, aged three, in the house of Samuel and Mary Muttock in Mill Road, Redlingfield. Harry’s grandmother was a Sarah Muttock born 1833. His mother Lizzie was working as a general servant at White House, Bedfield.

Ten years later the 1901 census shows that he is an inmate of Willow House Children’s Home in Eye. Lizzie is working as a monthly nurse for the Whatling family in Worlingworth.

By 1911 he is 23, unmarried and an infantryman with the 1st Bedfordshire Regiment in Aldershot. A letter written by Harry in August 1914 (available in full on Redlingfield’s website) tells us that he is in Ireland about to leave for Belgium on active service. This letter was addressed to Clara and says that if he never returns he leaves the “boy” in her charge and that she should give his medal to the “boy” to wear.

The UK Register of Soldiers’ Effects shows that Miss Clara Harvey was Harry’s sole legatee She received £19.19s.09d. in December 1915 and a further £5 in August 1919. Clara’s parents George and Caroline Harvey with siblings Sidney, George and Agnes were living on Horham Road, Redlingfield in 1901. Agnes married Reggie Lister, whose name is with Harry’s on the memorial. Later she married his brother Arthur.

Harry’s letter is poignant and quite long. It is well worth reading.

Linda Hudson (Published in Athelington, Horham & Redlingfield News Winter 2015-2016 issue No 32).