Messages from Germany ….. to Didsbury and Gateshead …… December 1918

We were lucky, of the six members of our family who went off to the Great War, all but one survived.

Crossing the Rhine, December 12th, 1918

And amongst the letters of those that came back is a Christmas card sent to father by his brother in December 1918. 

It is a short letter, reflecting on that first month of peace, and describing the city of Cologne which his regiment was occupying.

 He wrote that “Cologne is a lovely city with some fine cinemas” but they were prohibited from fraternizing with the civilians which for a young man of just 21 was a bit of a bore given the attractive young women he came across.

But duty was never far away and preparations were a foot because “we are crossing the Rhine tomorrow” and there was a determination “to show the rest of the division the way as we proved to be the finest marchers during the trek to Germany.”

Even now that simple message that “we are crossing the Rhine tomorrow” has a powerful effect on me. 

Father's Christmas Card, 1918

Partly I guess, because after four years of fighting he was about to march into the heart of Germany. 

And because my grandmother was also there. 

She was German, had been born in Cologne, and just two years later would marry my grandfather who like Uncle Fergus was a member of the British army of occupation

I doubt I will ever know if the three of then were all in the city on the day my Uncle marched east, but the romantic in me would like to think so.

And in the same way I was moved by reading another message from another British soldier who was part of that occupying force. 

I only know his surname and have as yet no idea of his rank or regiment.  But on December 19th he sent a postcard to his son with the message “Happy Xmas my Little Man with love from Daddy”

Happy Xmas, Lucuen, December 1918

It was addressed to Master Lucien Read, 6 Elesmere Road Fog Lane, Didsbury.

And there for now, the trail ends.

There are a number of possible Mr. Reid’s in Didsbury in 1911, but as yet none that I can identify as the father of Lucien. 

Their home on Elsemere Road was yet to be built, and with out a first name, it has proved impossible to track him amongst the British army records for the Great War.

But, I am confident that one day he will come out of the shadows.

Lucien's German Christmas card

Which just leave me with his card, and the knowledge that he too was a survivor. 

In his case occupying the town of Solingen, which was also on the eastern bank of the Rhine, to the south and east of Dusseldorf, and north of Cologne.

His card is dated just seven days after my Uncle’s letter, so I guess they may have both crossed the river at the same time.

A trawl of the military records for December 1918, will reveal when they crossed and may offer up the regiment Mr. Read was in.

We shall see

Location; Germany, Gateshead and Didsbury

Pictures; letter and card from Fergus Simpson, December 12th, 1918, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and postacard to Master Lucien Read, December 19th, 1918, courtesy of David Harrop