Sherriff, still in the line, wrote a quick note to his mother: ‘I have had a pretty busy day wandering round the trenches on various jobs and I have just snatched a moment or two to write your usual letter.’

As he had the day before, he promised her a longer letter when they were finally relieved: ‘If all goes well we shall soon be out having a rest and then I will write you a longer letter – but I expect you think I am always promising a long letter which never comes.’

Before finishing he thought to ask her how things were at home, and at the hospital: ‘I expect things are fairly monotonous – and you have that same longing for the end of the war as everyone else has out here and probably everyone in the world except those who are making something out of it or those who don’t know that it’s on.’

[Next letters: 19 January]