James J Playford

Rank: Private

Regiment: ‘B’ Company Royal East Kent Regiment (The Buffs)

Brother: Harry Playford

Sister: Mrs C Paine

Address: Hastings

Other Info: At the Front. Son of the Corporation employee whose funeral took place recently in Hastings. Additional name information from the Lives of the First World War website.

James Playford wrote to the Hastings & St Leonards Observer and his letter was published on 16th January 1915. It reads: “Just a few lines to let you know that I and the other Hastings boys in this Regiment are all A1 at present. We have just come out of the trenches for a few day’s rest. In the trenches there are three of four feet of mud, and you can be sure what it is like when trudging about in that. It reminds me, when I see the boys with their banjos (shovels) making the trenches clear, of the children sand castle building at Hastings.

We have done 11 weeks out of the four months in the trenches besides tracking, so you see we have had our share, and expect to go again in a week. We have had plenty of bad weather – about eleven inches of rain – but what does Tommy care? All we say is that the others have got the same to put up with, just like us.

We spent Christmas in the trenches, and enjoyed ourselves the best we could. Our bill of fare consisted of a Belgian stew, made of bully beef and potatoes and biscuits all put together, and then we had the Christmas pudding, which was sent by the ‘Daily News’ as well as a few extras by our friends, so we made the best of it.

We are expecting Kitchener’s Army to come out in the spring, and then I daresay we shall get in the final for the ‘Berlin Cup’ as we keep getting through different rounds. I see by the ‘Pictorial Advertiser’ that you are publishing the photos of men  serving their country. Beside myself there are two of my brothers serving.”

Published: January 1915, March 1915, October 1915 & February 1917

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