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Lytham Times December 1916
MISSING, BELIEVED KILLED.
A letter was received
on Christmas morning, by Mrs.
Cropper, of Wellington Street,
Lytham, informing her that her
husband, Pte. J. Cropper, of the
King's Liverpool Regt., was missing,
believed killed. Private Cropper,
before enlisting, was employed as a
joiner, by Messrs. Sutcliffe and
Sons, of St.Annes.
The Chaplain of the
regiment, in the letter, says:
"I am afraid I
have to send you very bad news that
your husband is wounded and missing
in the German lines, and I am afraid
it is practically certain that he is
dead. He was one of the daring party
that raided the German trenches; he
did splendidly, but was badly hit
getting out of their trenches to
come back after the raid. An
officer, himself badly wounded, saw
him, and is practically certain he
was dead. It was quite impossible to
get him back, so he had to be left
where he was, in German hands.
Of course, it is
just possible he may be wounded and
a prisoner, but I am afraid you must
try and accept the fact that he is
dead. Without doubt, his body will
have been decently and reverently
buried behind the German lines, and
they will put up a little cross to
mark his grave. I am very sorry for
you, and I want you to understand
how deeply I sympathise with you in
your great sorrow.
Will you try to
remember two things; the first, that
he died the finest death a man can
die, fighting for his country and
the Right; and secondly, that it is
only his poor body that lies here in
France, while his soul, the real
self that you know and love, has
gone back to his God, who loves him,
too."
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