Write to Mrs. Pryor
Have you got that money?
Hospital
Somewhere in
France, July 19/17
My Dear, Dear, Betty & Kiddies:
I am just sentencing you a few lines at the earliest opportunity, for I know you will be worrying a whole lot until you hear from me - in the first place dearest let me say you must not worry at all, for very providential I am not wounded badly enough to be crippled or anything like that & its only a matter of time before I shall be entirely recovered.
I was wounded by a shell bursting close by - in both legs above the knees & in both arms the left is right in the same place where my S.A. wound was, & the right arm is very slight & at the shoulder, seven men were wounded by the shell, five slights & Pryor & more seriously, Poor Pryor is badly wounded. I'm afraid in the head & leg, he was just behind me about two paces - we have been together ever since I joined the C.M.B its strange is it not that we should be wounded together? I will give you fuller details soon, its kind of painful writing this as I can't move much. They operated as soon as I got into hospital for the pieces of shell (about 7 hours after I was hit, & I was wounded about 1 am July 18 when we were coming back to the reserves after spending 8 days in the front line. My I shall never forget the experience of that night - pitch dark & raining hard & Fritz shelling for all he was worth. Pryor is not with me now - the last I saw of his was at the 2nd Dressing Station. I guess he was too bad to travel any further. The carried us to a near-by trench & laid us in the bottom until they sent for stretchers, & I tried my best to cheer him up. I am going down to the Base Hospital tomorrow, & will write from there. Don't worry sweetheart, I'm quite allright.
dearest love to my little darlings & yourself
XXXXXXX
Daddy "Will"