2269: The Letters of Albert Spiers

My grandmother's cousin, Private Albert Arthur Spiers, number 3318. 1st/7th Bn. London Regiment, wrote ten letters to her from various parts of the front in France. He writes cheeky, happy letters, but also talks of life in the trenches and the mud. In his last letter, he makes plans to see her shortly when he returns home on leave. However, he was killed on 21st May 1916. The regimental diary states; "During the morning enemy fire was extremely heavy, especially minewerfers. One detached post (Lieut Long & 20 men) were completely wiped."

Albert's name is on the Arras Memorial, in the Faubourg-d' Amiens Cemetery. The Memorial commemorates 35,700 casualties who have no known grave. The original letters were handed down to me by my mother and are part of our family archive.