Raymond, or Life and death : with examples of the evidence for survival of memory and affection after death / by Sir Oliver J. Lodge.

  • Oliver Lodge
Date:
1916
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Raymond, or Life and death : with examples of the evidence for survival of memory and affection after death / by Sir Oliver J. Lodge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    35/480 (page 15)
    LETTERS FROM THE FRONT I SHALL now, for reasons explained in the Preface, quote extracts from letters which Raymond wrote to members of his family during the time he was serving in Flanders. A short note made by me the day after he first started for the Front may serve as a preliminary statement of fact :•— Mariemont, Edgbaston, 16 March 1915 Raymond was recently transferred back from Edinburgh to Great Crosby near Liverpool; and once more began life in tents or temporary sheds. Yesterday morning, Monday the 15th March, one of the subalterns was ordered to the Front; he went to a doctor, who refused to pass him, owing to some temporary indisposition. Raymond was then asked if he was fit: he replied, Perfectly. So at 10 a.m. he was told to start for France that night. Accord¬ ingly he packed up ; and at 3.0 we at Mariemont received a telegram from him asking to be met at 5 p.m., and saying he could spend six hours at home. His mother unfortunately was in London, and for many hours was inaccessible. At last some of the telegrams reached her, at 7 p.m., and she came by the first available (slow) train from Paddington, getting here at 11. Raymond took the midnight train to Euston ; Alec, Lionel, and Noel accompanying him. They would reach Euston at 3.50 a.m. and have two hours to wait, when he was to meet a Captain [Capt. Taylor], and start from Waterloo for Southampton. The boys intended to see him off at Waterloo, and then return home to their war-business as quickly as they could. He seems quite well; but naturally it has been rather a strain for the family : as the same sort of thing has been for so many other families. O. J. L. First comes a letter written on his way to the Front after leaving Southampton.