‘A Short Life in the Sky’: the story of a WWI pilot
Hearing the news, 14 December, 1916 
(NRS reference: GD486/150)

Transcript:

14 Dec[ember] 1916

57, Netherhall Gardens
N.W.

My Dearest

I am writing to you with our dear boy’s own fountain pen. I received one little parcel of what was in some of his pockets from the Naval Authorities after the funeral & another parcel from the Dock Police from others of his garments. I have dried all these melancholy memorials & shall bring them home with
me.

Douglas is buried in Eastminster Cemetery in the part belonging to the Navy alongside of other Lieutenants & officers who have lost their lives quite recently. All the time whilst the procession was making its way from Sheerness Dockyard, through the town & out a mile and three quarters to the Cemetery there was a continuous booming of big guns from across the River & the short sharp bark of anti-aircraft guns practising near at hand. I thought you would be sure to be with us in spirit – as your letter card and letter, arriving tonight, have proved.

When I arrived at Chatham on Tuesday to interview the Divisional Commander, or rather his secretary as he himself was ill, I found that all arrangements were made. I was about an hour there & had read to me, as a favour, extracts from the Admiralty Court of Inquiry which deals with all accidents. It was then that I first learned that Douglas was accidentally killed. Gradually facts trickled out & I began to understand but it was not till I met at the funeral some of his brother officers from Westgate that I could piece most of the story together. Even yet there are many things I want to know & I am going to stay on for a few days & on one of them, probably Friday or Saturday, I shall go to Westgate & see the men who knew him & welcomed the very idea of my coming to see the place that Douglas lived in. He was admired by them all.

On Tuesday after the Chatham interview with the R.N.A.S. [Royal Naval Air Station} Commander I was motored 26 miles in an R.N.A.S. car, with special permits, into the carefully guarded territory of Sheerness on Sheppey.
 I arrived there about 3pm & was taken to the Commander of the Dockyard, Commander Vaughan, a grim looking man, who yet was kind and courteous to the extent of shortcutting the regulations to their utmost. I was with him for an hour and a half during which he most considerately gave me a late lunch which I was much the better of.

All arrangements had been made [for] the Procession of C.O. & Lt [Commanding Officer & Lieutenant] & two Second Lts with 20 men from Westgate – 5 Lts & 2nd Lts with 40 men from East Church near Sheerness & more Lts & men from another station whose name I didn’t catch – all to start at 2pm, the Dockyard Naval Band marching in front. I said it would be impossible for me to get down to Sheerness by two pm as the train left Holburn Viaduct at 12:20 & arrived 2:24. I pleaded for 2.30 but nothing could be done unless the Admiral Callaghan of the Nore* agreed to the alteration. The Commander offered me his private car which would take me at high speed after the 2pm procession if the Admiral did not agree. This was all I knew on Tuesday. I had to come away unable to give any direct & definite information to our friends who wanted to be present. In any case I could give you 2.30 as the hour when the funeral began or would be half completed. My wire to you was a very short summary of a long and trying day. Navy Rules are like Cast Iron.

Ultimately on Wednesday after much telephoning – Willie & Lena, Howard and Cathie – Lucy – Lilian (Stephie being in bed) John & Jack Potter with me at Holburn Viaduct before 12:20 & we travelled together arriving about quarter of an hour late. The Commander Vaughan came to meet & personally conduct us out of the station (otherwise we should each have required a special permit) & the four ladies & I crowded into the Motor & the 4 gentlemen got into a taxi the Commander had brought. We caught up the procession which had left the Dockyard at 2:30. I got out & marched with Lt Douglas & 2nd Lt Barr of Westgate immediately behind our dear Boys Coffin – wrapped as it was in a great Union Jack & drawn upon a gun carriage, the ropes and shafts of which were pulled by ten men. Behind me the Westgate men marched. The leading five were part of Douglas’ twelve men in Mesopotamia. As we came near the Cemetery the Band played the Funeral March. The Presbyterian Minister from Chatham had been summoned to attend & he (Scammell) conducted the Service in the Chapel at the gate of the Cemetery. Then Douglas’ five men carried his Coffin & we followed to the grave where were [  ] & all the others – a few words of prayer & our own dear boy’s coffin was lowered into the grave. The Bugler blew the last Post & all was over. I spoke to a Stranger lady who appeared on the scene. She turned out to be a Mrs Morgan – wife of the first Lt at Westgate - & of whom Douglas had written to Lena. Douglas & the others were at her home every Sunday night & as Lt Douglas said, she mothered them all. I took her by the hand ere we left & led her to the grave saying to her ‘You knew our boy’, & she burst into tears & said ‘I knew him & loved him, he was the best boy I ever met’. 

You should have heard the Westgate Lts speaking about our laddie. I’ll tell you a lot about Westgate when I have been there.

This evening I sent you a wire from the Priory. Poor mother, when she got my telephone message in bed this morning, was sure that I would be bringing Douglas to see her. When she learned that she would never see him on Earth again she and I cried in each others’ arms. Oh my darling I have shed more tears since 7 o/c [o’clock] on Sunday than ever I did all my life. It is all so terribly sad & everyone is grieved & shocked.

Stephie cabled out to Annie, Lilian told me. I got our Maggie to write to Andrew. I shall go down to Luton & see Jeanie and Mabel, likely on Saturday; go to Northwood on Sunday afternoon & to Curzon Rd on Sunday evening. Possibly back to Mother on Monday & down to Edinburgh on Monday night or Tuesday night, go hence to Colinton Road & tell them about all that has happened & come home. I feel that now is the time to learn all that can be known from Douglas’ companions. Your loving David.

* The Commander-in-Chief, The Nore, was an operational commander of the Royal Navy. His subordinate units, establishments, and staff were sometimes informally known as the Nore Command.