# Singer Chris DeBurgh Buys Letter Home From "The Great Christmas Truce"



## Bruce Monkhouse (8 Nov 2006)

http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=2006-11-07T201914Z_01_L07825132_RTRIDST_0_ENTERTAINMENT-BRITAIN-DEBURGH-COL.XML&archived=False

Chris de Burgh buys rare WW1 letter for $27,000

By Mike Collett-White

LONDON (Reuters) - A rare letter home by an unnamed British soldier describing the Christmas Day truce with German forces in 1914 sold on Tuesday for around 40 times its estimate, and was bought by Irish singer Chris de Burgh.
De Burgh contacted the press office at Bonhams auctioneers after paying 14,400 pounds ($27,000) for the manuscript against a presale estimate of between 300 and 400 pounds, explaining why he was so passionate about the subject.

"He found the content extremely moving as it documented a very personal account of World War One and he believes it to be a great historical manuscript, charting the surreal events of December 25, 1914," Bonhams said after the sale.
The star also said his great uncle, Thomas de Burgh, was an officer killed in the Great War and his grandfather General Sir Eric de Burgh served in the trenches.

The five penciled pages of an army-issue notebook addressed to "My dear Mater" and signed simply "Boy" are one of the few uncensored accounts of life in the trenches.
Felix Pryor, a manuscript expert who acted as consultant on the sale, said it was one of the most moving documents he had come across.
"Letters aren't rare in themselves. But I've been doing this since 1975 and I've never come across a letter like that describing the Christmas truce," he told Reuters. The fate of the author is unknown.

In his account of one of the war's most poignant and surreal moments, the author describes how German forces placed lights along their trenches before approaching the British lines to wish them Happy Christmas.
"This will be the most memorable Christmas I've ever spent or likely to spend: since about tea time yesterday I don't think there's been a shot fired on either side up to now," he said in the pencil-written letter dated December 25, 1914.

"Some of our chaps went over to their lines. I think they've all come back bar one from 'E' Co. They no doubt kept him as a souvenir."
During the lull in fighting, soldiers played football, helped each other bury the dead, enjoyed a traditional Christmas meal and chatted and smoked together.

"We can hardly believe that we've been firing at them for the last week or two - it all seems so strange," the letter reads.


_I always love seeing the Collin Raye video with the read-in by the great Johnny Cash._


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## Kat Stevens (8 Nov 2006)

Ever hear his song "Paschendael"(sp?)?  It's along the lines of a letter home on the eve of the battle.  Very cool tune.


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