William Alfred Sutton
THE LAST LETTER 4th May 1918
By
JOHN G. SUTTON
He was just eighteen years of age
Serving country and crown, so he thought
From the trenches of war on Flanders Fields
He wrote home to his mother this note
‘I was blown up in the air by a shell
Six was killed and a lot wounded’
But he had survived that terrible blast
Whilst comrades lay bleeding or dead
‘We have been in the trenches for 23 days’
Can we today imagine that hell?
‘The lads seem to think the war will finish this summer’
But he wouldn’t live to tell
‘Do you think you could manage to send me a parcel?’
He wrote, but he didn’t want glory or fame
‘ Some cakes and toffee, something to chew’
His last letter from those fields of pain
‘With best love to all from your son’
And then nothing more, nothing ever again
They never found his young body
For he was blown to the wind and the rain
The war did not end that summer
The war is still being fought
And the death of all our soldiers and sons
Has measured up to naught
They say war will end in the future
And our heroes do not die in vain
But some son is writing his last letter home
And no one will see him again
In the heat of Iraq they are writing
Serving country and crown they are told
Some mother’s boy sending his love
Some son that will never grow old.
The above poem is based on the last letter of William Alfred Sutton written by him to his parents from the trenches of Flanders Fields during World War I. The parents of William Alfred Sutton received another letter some few days later from the War Department telling them that their son was 'Missing in Action, presumed to be dead'. Despite countless letters to their son's regiment and even advertising in the press nothing was ever found of the soldier's mortal remains. The quotes in this poem are taken directly from his last letter and illustrate that all this young 18 year old boy wanted was 'some cakes and toffee' to give him comfort in the cold trenches. It is right and good to die for ones country, they say, but it is an old lie and yet we still hear it spoken today. Only the liars have changed, the lie remains the same.
William Alfred Sutton
1900-1918