Harry and Sadie, The Photographs: A Resource Page for Students

" Oh yes, Sadie I got the photos… I must say I am disappointed with the one with the cap on, it looks like my left eye is bad… "

Harry, 10 Jan 1916

" I want to thank you for the photos and I think I like the one without the hat. The other one, oh you look so sad, as though every friend had deserted you. But you really didn’t feel that way, did you? "

Sadie, “Tuesday Eve” [11 Jan 1916]

" I am glad you like the photo, I don’t like the one with the cap either, do you know that when that one was taken I remember now about thinking of something else because after he had finished he called my attention and I was surprised that it “was all over” usually they go through the formality of saying “look pleasant.” "

Harry, 13 Jan 1916

" I have your picture in the frame, the one with the cap on – it is looking straight at me now with rather a lonely expression, but the more you look at it the more cheerful it becomes – seems to be a smile somewhere. "

Sadie, 26 Apr 1916

" Your pictures arrived last night & they are funny aren’t they – you look like one of these diving men. And the one with the hood and goggles on looks like a big bull frog. Now that is complimentary, but really other people wouldn’t know who it was (Only me) I could pick you out of thousands... "

Sadie, 22 Mar 1917

" I always carry… your pictures in a case in my tunic, if they shoot me in the left breast they will have to go through them. "

Harry, 13 Jul 1916

" [I]t was good to hear from you and the snaps too were lovely and they too shall be carried with the others right through everything. "

Harry, 23 Aug 1916

" [D]o you know that I wouldn’t even think of going to the trenches without your pictures in my pocket... to me they are the charm which saves me from all danger... if such a thing should happen that I am wounded I have engraved on the back of my identity disk to advise you also Dad who will receive word by cable and will wire you... "

Harry, 8 Sep 1916

" [H]e flew over our dug out one afternoon and dropped me a message… there were several machines up, & while looking I saw one get hit… I went up a trench & eventually reached it, but pilot & observor [sic] were dead, the pilot had lost his head one shoulder & a leg, so the shell had exploded by his side, the observor [sic]in the front seat, had a large jagged wound in the breast & was not recognizable… "

Harry Towson, 8 Aug 1917