Letters to Gwendoline – WWI Bragg family correspondence

‘We are all very thrilled at the prospect of going out of course, but it is jolly rotten for Mother.’

The First World War is falling out of living memory. We have the stories of the terrible conditions in the trenches, the battles fought and the huge loss of life but somehow the very scale of it makes it hard to comprehend. It helps to remember that history isn't just about the broader picture but is made up of the actions of individual people, and often their stories are the most immediate and interesting to tell.

I've been looking at the family correspondence of the Bragg family for the First World War period in the archives of the Royal Institution, it includes poignant letters from Robert Charles (‘Bob’) written to his family and particularly to his mother, Gwendoline, to whom he was very close. Robert was one of the thousands of young men who lost their lives at Gallipoli; he lasted less than a month on the peninsula, killed by a direct hit on his battery dugout about ten weeks before his 23rd birthday. This was 1915 — the same year William and Lawrence Bragg, Robert’s father and brother, were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics, altering the fortunes of the family and ultimately the reason why some of their letters are in the Ri archives to be read.

Reading someone’s letters, no matter if the writer is long dead, is a strangely intimate experience. You feel as though you’re getting to know them, seeing a face they showed to only a few people in their lifetime, which makes it all the more jarring when little details stand out which remind you that they were written almost exactly a century ago.

We have no letters written by Gwendoline but through the letters sent to her a picture forms not just of the conditions of the war, but of family dynamics in a time of turmoil. While Robert often glosses over the horrors and hardships of the front, his character comes through strongly in the letters, optimistic and interested in the places he finds himself. Through his descriptions and the few sketches he made we can see Gallipoli through his eyes.

It would be best to let his letters tell their own story but when I transcribed the letters in the collection I found it was more of a book than an article. I’ve instead tried to tell the story with a handful of quotes and a few longer extracts.

‘It is simply ripping having all the riding lessons instead of parades in the morning.’

In November 1914 Robert, previously training with the King Edward’s Horse Special Reservists, applied for a commission to the Royal Field Artillery. After about seven months training he was finally sent out on active service as part of the 58th Brigade R.F.A. His initial letters are written with boyish enthusiasm, detailing the minutiae of every-day life and the relative tranquility of the early stage of training. He is concerned with getting kit together, and enlists his parents help to find everything from underpants to a service revolver.

‘I am censoring this myself under new regulations which have come out since I wrote it’

Once he ships out the tone begins to change: he’s travelling into the unknown and constantly encountering new situations, but has also been put in charge of censoring letters and is very aware of not sharing sensitive information, even with his mother. His first letter on ship shows evidence of this. He has to scribble out several words to meet regulations, after this he starts to self-censor as he writes: ‘We pass all kinds of interesting things I wish I could give you details of them all. I will some day’ It must have been frustrating and somewhat isolating not being able to describe all the new places and things he experiences in proper detail to his family and close friends.

The ultimate destination of the Brigade was Gallipoli, but they were held first in Alexandria and then Lemnos as troops gathered for the next wave of the campaign. Through the journey heat was a huge problem, but once on land Robert is typically optimistic. ‘This climate is going to rather suit me I think.’

His letters are still generally enthusiastic but where a letter took a day or so to arrive when he was training in England, there is now a delay — in both directions — of some weeks and this has an effect on his mood. If this is something I can pick up I wonder what Gwendoline would have thought, reading between the lines. It is clear that what he really wants is to know what’s happening to the rest of his family: today it’s hard to imagine having to wait so long for news, especially during war time.

Reading through the letters you see Robert’s experiences through Gwendoline’s eyes. It must have been terribly worrying, especially as things went very quiet after this letter: Robert was sent on to Gallipoli a few days later as part of the August Offensive, the last major attempt to take the peninsular. The landings began on the 6 August, Robert landed on the 9th but didn’t have time to write anything until the 18th.

But before those letters even arrived, Gwendoline received a telegram from the War Office on 1 September stating that Robert has been severely wounded. More news to follow. Two days later an official telegram to confirm that he had died aboard the hospital ship Nevasa.

The overseas letters all still have their envelopes, their journey home recorded in a series of stamps. It wasn’t until I was reading back through the letters that I noticed that Robert’s first letter from Gallipoli is post marked the same day as the second telegram. It seems terribly cruel that letters from Robert continued to arrive throughout September, echoes of a life already lost.

In his first letter after landing, Robert summarises the chaotic events so far. He skims details, either so as not to worry his mother or lack of time. Despite his brevity, it is clear that it’s been a frustrating and tiring experience.

There are a further three letters from Gallipoli, all generally cheerful in tone. Reading these letters I’m aware that when they were read is just as important as when and where they were written; it must have been dreadful for Gwendoline to receive them.

While it’s clear that Robert was having an easy time of it compared to the infantry divisions he does spend quite a bit of time downplaying the danger, especially in the letters to Gwendoline, describing the bad ammunition and the lack of range of the enemy artillery. The telegram notifications had very little information about the circumstances of Robert’s death, it is not until several days later that they received details from a friend of his in the Battery and the sad irony of the situation is made clear.

‘…mere words are utterly too feeble to express my feelings of sympathy at your great loss.’

This article was written in 2015 by Jane Harrison, who was Documentation Manager at the Ri

Further reading

•  The Bragg film archive provides historical, scientific and personal insights into the work of father and son William and Lawrence Bragg. Many videos are available on our Archive YouTube Channel
• Find it in our museum: William Bragg's spectrometer
• History of William Lawrence Bragg and William Henry Bragg at the Royal Institution