10th December 2025.

Today’s letter extract comes from Company Sergeant Major George Shipley of the 10th Middlesex Regiment, writing as his troopship made its way to the Dardanelles.

"I am in the best of health at present and hope to go through alright. I expect you heard I got married a week before I left, a lot of us did the same thing, it was quite a common occurrence."

It is an almost casual remark, a throw away line which I suspect helps to mask fear. Beneath the pragmatism is the very real need to anchor oneself to something real before the world turned uncertain.

When I picture him writing, I imagine him surrounded by others who are smoking, talking, playing cards - anything to distract them from the battles that were to come.

George died on 2 December 1915.